er 1880, to raze the cross, saw off the arms, and
detach from it the image of Christ. He was then, observe, not really
mayor of Amiens, but only mayor by reason of the refusal of his senior
to serve in the office.

'The work was done at night. The cross was destroyed. The image of the
Saviour was thrown into a shed.

'Two days afterwards, the Bishop of Amiens wrote this letter to the
Prefect of the Somme, Spuller, the same person who is now--heaven save
the mark!--Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic!

'"Amiens: Nov. 12, 1880.

'"Mr. Prefect,--A most deplorable incident--indeed a grave
scandal--has just taken place at the cemetery of the Madeleine, and
is exciting, with too much reason, the strongest and most painful
feelings among the people of Amiens.

'"The figure of our Saviour Christ, set up there in very special
circumstances, and with a solemn ceremony in which more than 30,000
spectators took part, was clandestinely thrown down and taken away
the night before last. It is impossible for me to imagine that the
authorities can have ordered such a thing to be done.

'"I must request you, Mr. Prefect, to order an inquiry to be made
into this inexplicable affair, and to cause the authors of the act
to be prosecuted according to law. Please accept the assurance of
my respectful regard.

'"[Illustration] AIME VICTOR-FRANCIS,
'"Bishop of Amiens."

'To this letter, written by the highest ecclesiastical authority of the
chief city of his prefecture--will you believe it?--M. Spuller, who is
after all not a perfectly illiterate person like Petit, actually made no
reply!

'But the cotton-velvet bagman of blasphemy three days afterwards,
reading in the papers the letter of Bishop Guilbert, burst into print
with this incredible but most instructive effusion, addressed to his
friend the Prefect:

'"Amiens: Nov. 15, 1880.

'"Mr. Prefect,--I find this morning in the journals of the
bishopric the text of a letter addressed to you by the Bishop of
Amiens in regard to the suppression of the Catholic emblem placed
at the entrance of the general cemetery of the Madeleine.

'"It was by my order, and my written order, that the Christ of the
Madeleine was removed. The only failure to comply with my orders
was that the operation was performed in the evening after the
cemetery w