the Archbishop of Rheims and his canons, who were
to bear the King's demand for the oil. When the five great lords were
ready to start, they knelt in a row and put up their mailed hands before
their faces, palm joined to palm, and swore upon their lives to conduct
the sacred vessel safely, and safely restore it again to the Church
of St. Remi after the anointing of the King. The Archbishop and his
subordinates, thus nobly escorted, took their way to St. Remi. The
Archbishop was in grand costume, with his miter on his head and his
cross in his hand. At the door of St. Remi they halted and formed, to
receive the holy vial. Soon one heard the deep tones of the organ and of
chanting men; then one saw a long file of lights approaching through the
dim church. And so came the Abbot, in his sacerdotal panoply, bearing
the vial, with his people following after. He delivered it, with solemn
ceremonies, to the Archbishop; then the march back began, and it was
most impressive; for it moved, the whole way, between two multitudes of
men and women who lay flat upon their faces and prayed in dumb silence
and in dread while that awful thing went by that had been in heaven.

This August company arrived at the great west door of the cathedral;
and as the Archbishop entered a noble anthem rose and filled the vast
building. The cathedral was packed with people--people in thousands.
Only a wide space down the center had been kept free. Down this space
walked the Archbishop and his canons, and after them followed those five
stately figures in splendid harness, each bearing his feudal banner--and
riding!

Oh, that was a magnificent thing to see. Riding down the cavernous
vastness of the building through the rich lights streaming in long rays
from the pictured windows--oh, there was never anything so grand!

They rode clear to the choir--as much as four hundred feet from the
door, it was said. Then the Archbishop dismissed them, and they made
deep obeisance till their plumes touched their horses' necks, then made
those proud prancing and mincing and dancing creatures go backward all
the way to the door--which was pretty to see, and graceful; then they
stood them on their hind-feet and spun them around and plunged away and
disappeared.

For some minutes there was a deep hush, a waiting pause; a silence so
profound that it was as if all those packed thousands there were steeped
in dreamless slumber--why, you could even notice the faintest sou