nt.

The day following was the feast of St. John the Baptist. Mass was said
in the church, all the parish attending; and Valmond was present, with
Lagroin in full regimentals.

Plates of blessed bread were passed round at the close of mass, as was
the custom on this feast-day; and with a curious feeling that came to
him often afterwards, Valmond listened to his General saying solemnly:

"Holy bread, I take thee;
If I die suddenly,
Serve me as a sacrament."

With many eyes watching him curiously, he also ate the bread, repeating
the holy words.

All day there were sports and processions, the habitants gay in rosettes
and ribbons, flowers and maple leaves, as they idled or filed along the
streets, under arches of evergreens, where the Tricolor and Union Jack
mingled and fluttered amiably together. Anvils, with powder placed
between, were touched off with a bar of red-hot iron, making a vast
noise and drawing applausive crowds to the smithy. On the hill beside
the Cure's house was a little old cannon brought from the battle-field
of Ticonderoga, and its boisterous salutations were replied to from the
Seigneury, by a still more ancient piece of ordnance. Sixty of Valmond's
recruits, under Lajeunesse the blacksmith, marched up and down the
streets, firing salutes with a happy, casual intrepidity, and setting
themselves off before the crowds with a good many airs and nods and
simple vanities.

In the early evening the good Cure blessed and lighted the great bonfire
before the church; and immediately, at this signal, an answering fire
sprang up on a hill at the other side of the village. Then fire on fire
glittered and multiplied, till all the village was in a glow. This was
a custom set in memory of the old days when fires flashed intelligence,
after a fixed code, across the great rivers and lakes, and from hill to
hill.

Far up against Dalgrothe Mountain appeared a sumptuous star, mystical
and red. Valmond saw it from his window, and knew it to be Parpon's
watchfire, by the grave of his brother Gabriel. The chief procession
started with the lighting of the bonfires: Singing softly, choristers
and acolytes in robes preceded the devout Cure, and pious believers and
youths on horseback, with ribbons flying, carried banners and shrines.
Marshals kept the lines steady, and four were in constant attendance on
a gorgeous carriage, all gilt and carving (the heirloom of the parish),
in which re