Thursday's Serial: “Journal Spirituel” by Sœur Marie de Saint-Pierre (in French) - VII.

 

11

LA FRANCE NOMMÉE...[1]

    LETTRE DU 7 DÉCEMBRE 1843

Jésus irrité contre la France

— « Mon âme est dans un grand effroi de ce que Notre-Seigneur vient de me faire entendre à l’oraison et Il m’a chargé de le transmettre à mes Supérieures sans crainte de me tromper. Je vais le faire en toute simplicité.

Notre-Seigneur ayant recueilli les puissances de mon âme dans son divin Cœur, m’a fait voir combien Il était irrité contre la France, et qu’Il avait juré de s’en venger dans sa colère si on ne faisait pas réparation d’honneur à son divin Père pour tous les blasphèmes dont elle était coupable, me faisant entendre qu’Il ne pouvait plus demeurer dans cette France qui, comme une vipère, déchirait les entrailles de sa miséricorde, et qu’Il souffrait encore patiemment les mépris qu’on Lui faisait à Lui-même, mais que les outrages faits à son divin Père provoquaient son courroux; que la France avait sucé les mamelles de sa miséricorde jusqu’au sang; c’est pourquoi sa miséricorde fera place à sa justice qui débordera avec autant de fureur qu’elle aura plus attendu. Alors toute saisie, j’ai dit :

— Mon Seigneur, permettez-moi de vous demander: si on vous fait cette réparation que vous désirez, pardonnerez-vous encore à la France ?

Il m’a répondu :

— Je lui pardonnerai encore une fois; mais remarquez bien: une fois. Et encore ce péché de blasphème s’étend par toute la France et est public, il faut aussi que cette réparation s’étende par toutes les villes de France et soit publique. Malheur à celles qui ne feront pas cette réparation !

J’abandonne toutes ces choses à votre sagesse, ma Révérende Mère. Je ne suis qu’une enfant qui ne peut rien et n’a d’autre consolation que de s’en remettre à ses supérieurs.» [2]

 

L’ASSOCIATION ROMAINE

« A cette époque, Notre-Seigneur voulut soulager mon âme par une grande consolation: j’appris qu’il y avait à Rome une association pour l’extirpation du blasphème. Et quelles furent mon admiration et ma reconnaissance lorsque je lus sur la feuille imprimée à cet effet que le souverain Pontife avait donné, en date du 8 août 1843, une bref par lequel il permettait d’instituer de pieuses confréries! Oh! alors je ne doutai plus que l’œuvre dont j’étais chargée ne fût l’œuvre de Dieu. Ce qui me touchait davantage, ce que j’admirais dans cette divine Providence, était ce rapport frappant: le 8 du mois d’août 1843, le souverain Pontife donnait son bref à Rome, et le 26 du même mois et de la même année, Notre-Seigneur, en France, le lendemain de la fête de saint Louis, découvrait à une pauvre petite novice carmélite, bien pauvre et bien misérable, cette grande œuvre de la réparation des blasphèmes dont il voulait enrichir la France comme d’un moyen de salut pour la dérober à sa justice irritée.

Plusieurs âmes pieuses commencèrent alors à réciter les prières réparatrices; on répandit des feuilles d’association et on tenta même de l’établir en France. » [3]

« J’avais ressenti un redoublement de dévotion envers le saint Enfant-Jésus, et m’étant unie avec une de mes sœurs qui avait aussi le même attrait, nous avions, pour l’honorer, formé le dessein de nous consacrer spécialement à ce divin Enfant en ce jour de son Incarnation. Je fus chargée de composer l’acte projeté, et je le fis aussi conforme que possible à l’acte de parfaite donation que Notre-Seigneur semblait exiger. Je n’aurais pas voulu le faire sans permission, mais, dans la crainte d’essuyer un refus, je ne la demandai point moi-même; je priai cette sœur de demander à notre Révérende Mère, pour nous deux, la permission de faire à Jésus la consécration désirée; notre bonne Mère nous le permit. Alors je fus enchantée, croyant être parvenue à ma fin. Mais le saint Enfant-Jésus n’aime point la fraude, et il ne reçut cet acte que selon l’intention de ma supérieure, comme simple consécration. C’est pourquoi il me dit qu’il me fallait de nouveau solliciter l’autorisation afin d’avoir un très parfait consentement. J’allai donc faire la confession de ma faute à notre Révérende Mère, et je lui dis ce que Notre-Seigneur m’avait fait entendre; elle en parla à notre digne supérieur, et j’eus la grâce d’avoir leur assentiment.

Il y a quelque chose de remarquable dans cette volonté expresse de Notre-Seigneur que je lui fisse un parfait abandon de moi-même pour l’accomplissement de ses desseins; car n’est-il pas le maître souverain de ses créatures ? N’est-il pas libre de faire en elles et de leur personne tout ce qu’il veut ? Ensuite il a exigé un parfait consentement de mes supérieurs avant de prendre cette parfaite possession de mon âme. Ah! c’est qu’ils devaient eux-mêmes avoir une grande part dans l’œuvre que ce divin Sauveur voulait édifier sur un si pauvre terrain; je ne devais leur servir que d’un chétif instrument pour travailler à l’œuvre de Dieu ; et, comme ils devaient éprouver bien des contradictions, Notre-Seigneur respectait en quelque façon leur libre arbitre.

Je fis cet acte le 25 décembre 1843, jour de la naissance du saint Enfant; je le remis entre les mains de la très sainte Vierge, avant de commencer les matines de Noël, la priant de l’offrir à Jésus naissant à minuit dans l’étable de Béthléem.

 

ACTE D’UNE PARFAITE DONATION AU TRÈS SAINT ENFANT-JÉSUS, SELON L’ÉTENDUE DE SA VOLONTÉ SUR MOI, POUR L’ACCOMPLISSEMENT DE SES DESSEINS À LA GLOIRE DU SAINT NOM DE DIEU

« O très Saint et très aimable Enfant-Jésus, le voilà donc arrivé ce jour que j’ai tant désiré, où, sans crainte de manquer à l’obéissance, je peux en toute liberté m’offrir toute à vous, selon l’étendue de votre puissance et de votre volonté sur mon âme, pour l’accomplissement de vos desseins. Je suis bien indigne, il est vrai, de vous faire cette offrande; mais, ô divin Enfant, puisqu’il me semble que vous le désirez, veuillez purifier votre victime par les larmes de votre sainte enfance et par votre précieux sang. Prosternée à vos pieds devant la chèche, en cette nuit à jamais mémorable de votre auguste naissance, oui, mon divin Époux, avec une pleine liberté je m’offre toute à vous, par les mains bénies de Marie et de Joseph, sur l’autel enflammé de votre Cœur plein d’amour, sous la protection des anges et des saints. Là je vous fais l’entier abandon de moi-même pour l’accomplissement de vos desseins à la gloire du Saint Nom de Dieu.

O divin Enfant, qui avez dit à votre sainte Mère, lorsqu’elle vous retrouva dans le temple de Jérusalem: “Pourquoi me cherchiez-vous ? Ne savez-vous pas qu’il faut que je sois occupé à ce qui regarde le service de mon Père ?” Ah ! veuillez en ce jour me recevoir pour votre disciple; faites que désormais je sois occupée en union avec vous aux choses qui regardent le service de votre divin Père, pour la gloire de son Nom.

O très saint Enfant-Jésus, Dieu et homme, je renonce à tout ce que je suis, et je me donne à tout ce que vous êtes. Faites de moi et en moi tout ce qu’il vous plaira, pour l’accomplissement de vos desseins, possédez-moi souverainement. Oui, divin Enfant, de bon cœur, pour l’amour de vous, je me dépouille de tout pour toujours. Daignez donc, dans votre grande miséricorde, me revêtir de la robe de vos sacrés mérites, qui est parfumée de la bonne odeur des vos vertus, afin qu’au jour de mon jugement je puisse recevoir la bénédiction de votre Père céleste. — Amen.

Sœur Marie de Saint-Pierre de la Sainte Famille,

Carmélite indigne.» [4]

 

« Cet acte étant passé avec Notre-Seigneur, malgré mon indignité, il me regarda comme toute à lui et continua de construire dans mon âme son édifice à la gloire du saint Nom de Dieu. En même temps il me pressait de demander à mes supérieurs qu’ils fissent imprimer les prières de la réparation, afin qu’elles fussent propagées. Mais quand j’adressais cté supplique à notre très Révérende Mère, elle me grondait fort de ma présomption, disant qu’il valait bien mieux réciter les belles formules que les saints Pères avaient écrites, et que j’étais une entêtée de penser toujours à cette œuvre de réparation. J’eus alors l’idée d’offrir à la sainte Vierge toutes mes déceptions comme un argent spirituel, afin qu’elle payât l’impression des prières que son divin Fils voulait répandre dans le monde. Cependant Notre-Seigneur accordait de grandes grâces aux sœurs de notre communauté qui faisaient ces prières pour elles ou pour leurs parents. Comme elles ignoraient complètement qui en était l’auteur, elles en parlaient librement devant moi et disaient :

— Vraiment, on obtient tout ce qu’on veut de Notre-Seigneur quand on fait la neuvaine de réparation.

Il y avait alors une sœur qui était malade; elle se sentit pressée de promettre à Notre-Seigneur qu’elle ferait cette neuvaine. Le troisième jour elle se trouva tout à coup guérie. Elle vint m’en faire la confidence: ce qui me fit grand plaisir; car, voyant que le Sauveur accordait ainsi plusieurs faveurs très remarquables, je me confirmai dans la pensée que je ne me trompais pas, et que, par la grâce de Dieu, les lumières qui me venaient de sa miséricorde, par rapport à cette œuvre, n’étaient pas illusoires. Un jour, après la sainte Communion, le bon Maître voulut lui-même, malgré mon indignité, me consoler par ces paroles qui se sont vérifiées :

 Ma fille, ces prières de réparation seront imprimées, et elles seront répandues.

Nos dignes et charitables supérieurs, qui examinaient sérieusement la conduite de Dieu en mon âme afin de se bien assurer si véritablement c’était son esprit qui me conduisait, m’ordonnèrent de leur rendre compte par écrit de mon intérieur. Voici ce que je leur écrivis alors :

Ma Révérende et très honorée Mère, avec le secours du saint Enfant-Jésus et de mon bon ange, je vais tâcher d’accomplir l’ordre que vous m’avez donné de vous écrire de quelle manière je fais mon oraison. Cela m’est un peu difficile, mais l’obéissance me donnera grâce. D’ailleurs, ma très Révérende Mère, vous êtes habituée à mon pauvre langage ; vous verrez bien, par ce que je vais vous dire, les dispositions de mon âme ; c’est là l’essentiel.

 

LA MÉTHODE D’ORAISON

Premièrement, je n’ai aucun mérite dans l’oraison, car elle m’est toute naturelle: j’ai reçu ce don de Dieu dès mon enfance, malgré mon indignité. D’abord je tâche, pour ma préparation éloignée, de ne point perdre de vue Notre-Seigneur. Ainsi, le long du jour, je lui tiens compagnie dans l’intérieur de mon âme. Ayant laissé à ce divin Sauveur le soin de mes parents et de tout ce qui me concerne, je ne suis appliquée qu’à lui, me regardant toujours comme la petite servante de la sainte Famille. Par suite, tout ce que je fais dans mon office de portière, je le regarde fait en la maison de Nazareth. Je pense qu’une domestique a trois devoirs à remplir: accompagner son maître, faire ses commissions et garder ses brebis sur ses propriétés, et enfin accomplir toutes les actions pour le service de son maître et selon sa volonté. Eh bien ! voilà ce que je tâche d’exécuter avec la grâce de Dieu. Mon exercice intérieur est d’accompagner Notre-Seigneur en ses mystères pour m’unir à lui et lui rendre mes hommages; ensuite je fais ses commissions en pensant à ces paroles du saint Évangile : “Et il leur était soumis”. A chaque fois que la cloche du tour m’appelle, je m’offre en sacrifice au Père éternel sur l’autel du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus, le priant de m’unir à son divin Fils, afin que ce soit Jésus qui agisse en moi. Quand je n’ai pas d’occupations distrayantes, je m’entretiens avec lui ; je fais paître ses brebis sur ses propriétés, je veux dire dans ses mystères dont la considération et les mérites servent d’aliment à nos âmes ; je prie pour les pasteurs de l’Église et pour la conversion des pécheurs, et je tâche de ne point laisser mon esprit se distraire; j’unis toutes mes actions à celles du divin Sauveur. De cette manière, les occupations extérieures dissipent rarement mon âme, et lui font désirer avec plus d’ardeur le repos de l’oraison ; mais, quand l’heure destinée à cet exercice est arrivée, alors Notre-Seigneur me dédommage de tous mes petits sacrifices de la journée.

Je commence mon oraison par faire mon examen de conscience, après lequel, m’humiliant aux pieds de Jésus de toutes mes infidélités, je le prie de vouloir bien purifier mon âme par sa miséricorde. Ensuite je m’entretiens tout simplement avec cet aimable Sauveur, comme le ferait un enfant avec son père.

Voici une méthode d’oraison que Notre-Seigneur me donna un jour; je ne sais si ce fut par la parole intérieur ou par une lumière :

— Videz votre âme par le recueillement;

Purifiez-la par un acte de contrition;

Ensuite remplissez-la de Dieu.

Mais comme il est tout à fait inutile de continuer à verser dans un vase une fois qu’il est plein, de même aussi il est inutile de vouloir charger l’âme par de nouveaux actes et de nouvelles pensées, quand une seule la remplit et l’occupe.

Quelquefois je me sens intérieurement portée à faire l’oraison en union avec Notre-Seigneur s’offrant à son Père pour sa gloire et le salut des âmes; alors je me trouve recueillie dans le Sacré-Cœur de Jésus; je trouve dans ce grand sacrifice ample matière d’oraison, et, me trouvant alors revêtue de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ, je m’approche plus facilement de son divin Père, et, me voyant riche de ses mérites, je ne crains pas de demander à Dieu de grandes grâces pour la sainte Église et le salut de beaucoup d’âmes. Je suis souvent appliquée à ce genre d’oraison, qui n’est pas tout à fait surnaturel; seulement je sens que les puissances de mon âme sont recueillies dans le Cœur de Jésus: alors le Sauveur agit en moi et moi en lui: les distractions sont rares, parce que l’imagination est là, captive. Mais, quand je suis ainsi près de Notre-Seigneur et qu’il veut me communiquer quelque chose au sujet de son œuvre de la Réparation, il se fait en mon âme une seconde opération: je sens que je ne peux plus agir; il me semble que mon propre esprit s’anéantit pour faire place à celui de Jésus. Alors mon âme entend sa parole intérieure. Plus cet anéantissement est grand, plus l’âme est heureuse: elle se trouve comme fondue en Dieu. L’âme dans cet état se trouve en Lui sans savoir comment elle y est entrée: un attrait dominant de grâce la saisit, l’élève au-dessus d’elle-même et l’abîme toute en Dieu. Oh! quels délicieux moments !

C’est là une faveur toute gratuite; mais j’éprouve rarement cette parfaite contemplation; je suis bien indigne d’une si grande grâce. Mon oraison habituelle se fait dans le Sacré-Cœur de Jésus: là il m’apprend sa volonté, me communique ses désirs de travailler à la gloire de son Père et au salut des âmes: c’est mon occupation la plus délicieuse. Il m’est impossible de méditer longtemps: d’abord, parce que je n’en ai plus l’esprit, et qu’ensuite cet attrait qui sort du Cœur de Jésus porte mon âme vers lui; et je me trouve dans ce divin sanctuaire renfermée, comme un petit enfant l’est dans le sein de sa mère: alors la volonté et les affections de mon cœur font tout, et mon esprit se trouve déchargé de son travail. C’est Notre-Seigneur qui m’a appelée à ce genre d’oraison. Au commencement je n’osais suivre cet attrait, dans la crainte de mal faire en ne suivant pas ma méthode; mais lui, qui voulait que je suivisse la sienne, me mit un jour dans l’esprit cette comparaison: que, si le roi m’invitait à sa table, il serait bien ridicule que je voulusse porter avec moi mon dîner, au lieu de me nourrir des mets de la table du prince à laquelle je serais invitée. Ayant consulté sur ce que j’éprouvais, on me dit de ne point craindre et de marcher dans la voie que le Saint-Esprit m’ouvrait, que c’était la meilleure méthode ; et j’en ai fait l’heureuse expérience: je trouve les mets du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus bien meilleurs que ceux que je pourrais apporter avec tout mon petit esprit, et la fin de ce délicieux repas sonne quelquefois avant que j’aie eu le temps de rendre grâces à mon bienfaiteur. Alors je le fais brièvement, et je prends la résolution de ne point perdre de vue celui qui a eu la charité de si bien me traiter malgré mon indignité, et de le servir fidèlement.

Je ne suis pas sans éprouver de temps en temps la disette; car les sécheresses et les peines intérieures sont quelquefois très nécessaires à l’âme; alors je prends ma nourriture comme Notre-Seigneur juge à propos de ma la donner.» [5]

«Notre-Seigneur me donna une peine intérieure si grande, par le désir que j’avais de voir son œuvre s’établir, que je n’étais pas en état de prendre aucune nourriture; je ne pouvais plus porter un si pesant fardeau sans succomber sous le poids; c’est pourquoi je me sentis pressée fortement de le déposer aux pieds de Monseigneur l’Archevêque.» [6]

«Nous eûmes l’honneur d’écrire à Monseigneur. Déjà nos dignes supérieurs l’avaient instruit de tout ce que divin Maître m’avait fait connaître sur l’œuvre de la réparation. Alors ce pieux prélat fit imprimer des feuilles qui, précédemment, l’avaient été à Nantes. Il y joignit son approbation personnelle, le 15 mars 1844, en recommandant l’association à Messieurs les curés et autres ecclésiastiques de son diocèse, “dans l’espérance qu’elle intéresserait vivement les fidèles, et qu’elle contribuerait à mettre un terme aux outrages contre la souveraine Majesté”. On répandit un grand nombre de ces feuilles; mais on n’établit point d’association comme Notre-Seigneur le demandait: il paraît que l’heure n’était pas encore venue. Adorons en silence les desseins de Dieu. »

 

DÉMÉNAGEMENT

«Vers la fin de l’année 1843, on conclut la vente de notre ancien monastère, les acquéreurs ayant accepté des conditions raisonnables, avec la clause expresse que pendant vingt ans l’église, dont nous ne laissions que les murs, ne servirait à aucun usage contraire à sa destination primitive.

Après toutes ces négociations, le moment arriva de mettre la main à l’œuvre; dans le nouvel emplacement, il fallait tout créer; le plan d’un monastère fut tracé; on se conforma, autant que le permettaient le terrain et les moyens, au cérémonial et aux usages de l’ordre; on ménagea surtout la distribution des lieux réguliers, et tout ce qui peut faciliter la pratique de nos saintes observances. Notre Révérende Mère Marie de l’Incarnation, alors en charge, déploya, ainsi que notre vénéré supérieur, Monsieur Alleron, un zèle et un dévouement dignes de toute notre reconnaissance, et Dieu fit bien voir qu’il les avait choisis pour cette œuvre, en donnant d’abondantes bénédictions à leurs travaux.» [7]

 

LA PORTIÈRE DE LA NOUVELLE MAISON…

«Le temps était arrivé où Notre-Seigneur me ménageait une grande épreuve. Ayant été obligée de quitter le cher couvent où il avait reçu mes vœux, et où j’avais été comblée de grâces par sa divine et miséricordieuse libéralité, je me trouvais dans une maison séculière, [8] qui, par conséquent, n’avait point de grilles, et j’avais toujours l’office de portière, qui me mettait en grand rapport avec le dehors. Condamnée à demeurer près de deux ans dans ce parloir, et voyant qu’il venait un grand nombre de personnes, les unes pour recommander des malades, les autres afin de solliciter des prières pour la conversion des pécheurs qui les intéressaient, ceux-ci pour se consoler dans leurs peines, d’autres enfin par pure curiosité, cette nouvelle position me jeta dans une affliction extrême. Craignant de perdre l’esprit de retraite et de recueillement pour lequel j’avais beaucoup d’attrait, je disais: Hélas! pourrai-je entendre ici la voix de mon Sauveur ? J’allai trouver notre Révérende Mère et lui découvris les répugnances que j’éprouvais dans mon emploi. J’aurais été bien aise qu’elle m’en déchargeât, ou au moins qu’elle eût la bonté de me donner une compagne pour en partager avec moi les occupations; mais, malgré sa très grande charité, elle jugea à propos de me laisser toute seule.

Pour éviter ces fréquentes visites, j’avais beau dire à ceux qui se présentaient qu’une carmélite a pour mission de parler à Dieu dans le silence et peu aux hommes; qu’ils devaient aller exposer leurs peines et se consoler chez d’autres religieuses non obligées comme nous à la retraite, et que nous prierions pour leurs intentions: toutes mes raisons étaient inutiles. Je ne peux pas m’empêcher de rire encore, quand je me rappelle une bonne femme qui voulait absolument m’amener sa fille, afin, disait-elle, que je lui donnasse des conseils pour se marier; sur ma réponse négative, elle fut obligée sans doute d’aller consulter quelqu’un de plus instruit que moi pour cette affaire.

Notre bon Sauveur me laissa quelque temps sentir ma faiblesse et les extrêmes répugnances que j’éprouvais pour ma nouvelle position, mais un jour il eut la bonté de venir me consoler dans l’intime de mon âme. Il me fit entendre qu’il ne fallait point me faire de la peine d’avoir un office qui me mettait en rapport avec mon prochain, et que je devais recevoir ces personnes dans le même esprit de charité avec lequel il recevais ceux qui s’approchaient de lui lorsqu’il parcourait les villes de la Judée, me promettant que cet office et ces occupations ne nuiraient point à mon âme, et qu’il en tirait gloire. »

 

[1] Lettre du 7 décembre 1943.

[2] Abbé Janvier. “Vie de la Sœur Saint-Pierre”; pages 151-152. Carmel de Tours. 1884.

Après cette communication, d’après le témoignage de l’une des carmélites, Sœur Saint-Pierre “sortit du chœur dans un état difficile à décrire. Elle était pâle comme la mort, inondée de larmes, portant une expression, une empreinte de douleur qui lui resta longtemps, et qui se renouvelait lorsqu’elle recevait des révélations de ce genre, expression de visage bien opposé à sa gaieté ordinaire. Elle semblait alors comme anéantie sous le poids de la colère divine”.

[3] Document B, page 25.

[4] Document A, page 75.

[5] Document A, pages 76 à 80.

[6] Document A, page 83.

[7] Annales du Carmel de Tours.

[8] Cette maison, située sur la place Grégoire, derrière la cathédrale, en face du grand Séminaire, est actuellement (en 1879) possédée par Monsieur le Chanoine Allégret, qui, plein de respect pour la mémoire de la sœur Saint-Pierre et le séjour du Carmel, a dressé dans l’endroit où se trouvait la chapelle un petit oratoire décoré d’une Sainte-Face.

Wednesday's Good Reading: The Man Who Could Work Miracles (A Pantoum in Prose) by H.G. Wells (in English)

 

It is doubtful whether the gift was innate. For my own part, I think it came to him suddenly. Indeed, until he was thirty he was a sceptic, and did not believe in miraculous powers. And here, since it is the most convenient place, I must mention that he was a little man, and had eyes of a hot brown, very erect red hair, a moustache with ends that he twisted up, and freckles. His name was George McWhirter Fotheringay—not the sort of name by any means to lead to any expectation of miracles—and he was clerk at Gomshott's. He was greatly addicted to assertive argument. It was while he was asserting the impossibility of miracles that he had his first intimation of his extraordinary powers. This particular argument was being held in the bar of the Long Dragon, and Toddy Beamish was conducting the opposition by a monotonous but effective "So you say," that drove Mr. Fotheringay to the very limit of his patience.

There were present, besides these two, a very dusty cyclist, landlord Cox, and Miss Maybridge, the perfectly respectable and rather portly barmaid of the Dragon. Miss Maybridge was standing with her back to Mr. Fotheringay, washing glasses; the others were watching him, more or less amused by the present ineffectiveness of the assertive method. Goaded by the Torres Vedras tactics of Mr. Beamish, Mr. Fotheringay determined to make an unusual rhetorical effort. "Looky here, Mr. Beamish," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It's something contrariwise to the course of nature done by power of Will, something what couldn't happen without being specially willed."

"So you say," said Mr. Beamish, repulsing him.

Mr. Fotheringay appealed to the cyclist, who had hitherto been a silent auditor, and received his assent—given with a hesitating cough and a glance at Mr. Beamish. The landlord would express no opinion, and Mr. Fotheringay, returning to Mr. Beamish, received the unexpected concession of a qualified assent to his definition of a miracle.

"For instance," said Mr. Fotheringay, greatly encouraged. "Here would be a miracle. That lamp, in the natural course of nature, couldn't burn like that upsy-down, could it, Beamish?"

"You say it couldn't," said Beamish.

"And you?" said Fotheringay. "You don't mean to say—eh?"

"No," said Beamish reluctantly. "No, it couldn't."

"Very well," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Then here comes someone, as it might be me, along here, and stands as it might be here, and says to that lamp, as I might do, collecting all my will—Turn upsy-down without breaking, and go on burning steady, and—Hullo!"

It was enough to make anyone say "Hullo!" The impossible, the incredible, was visible to them all. The lamp hung inverted in the air, burning quietly with its flame pointing down. It was as solid, as indisputable as ever a lamp was, the prosaic common lamp of the Long Dragon bar.

Mr. Fotheringay stood with an extended forefinger and the knitted brows of one anticipating a catastrophic smash. The cyclist, who was sitting next the lamp, ducked and jumped across the bar. Everybody jumped, more or less. Miss Maybridge turned and screamed. For nearly three seconds the lamp remained still. A faint cry of mental distress came from Mr. Fotheringay. "I can't keep it up," he said, "any longer." He staggered back, and the inverted lamp suddenly flared, fell against the corner of the bar, bounced aside, smashed upon the floor, and went out.

It was lucky it had a metal receiver, or the whole place would have been in a blaze. Mr. Cox was the first to speak, and his remark, shorn of needless excrescences, was to the effect that Fotheringay was a fool. Fotheringay was beyond disputing even so fundamental a proposition as that! He was astonished beyond measure at the thing that had occurred. The subsequent conversation threw absolutely no light on the matter so far as Fotheringay was concerned; the general opinion not only followed Mr. Cox very closely but very vehemently. Everyone accused Fotheringay of a silly trick, and presented him to himself as a foolish destroyer of comfort and security. His mind was in a tornado of perplexity, he was himself inclined to agree with them, and he made a remarkably ineffectual opposition to the proposal of his departure.

He went home flushed and heated, coat-collar crumpled, eyes smarting and ears red. He watched each of the ten street lamps nervously as he passed it. It was only when he found himself alone in his little bed-room in Church Row that he was able to grapple seriously with his memories of the occurrence, and ask, "What on earth happened?"

He had removed his coat and boots, and was sitting on the bed with his hands in his pockets repeating the text of his defence for the seventeenth time, "I didn't want the confounded thing to upset," when it occurred to him that at the precise moment he had said the commanding words he had inadvertently willed the thing he said, and that when he had seen the lamp in the air he had felt that it depended on him to maintain it there without being clear how this was to be done. He had not a particularly complex mind, or he might have stuck for a time at that "inadvertently willed," embracing, as it does, the abstrusest problems of voluntary action; but as it was, the idea came to him with a quite acceptable haziness. And from that, following, as I must admit, no clear logical path, he came to the test of experiment.

He pointed resolutely to his candle and collected his mind, though he felt he did a foolish thing. "Be raised up," he said. But in a second that reeling vanished. The candle was raised, hung in the air one giddy moment, and as Mr. Fotheringay gasped, fell with a smash on his toilet-table, leaving him in darkness save for the expiring glow of its wick.

For a time Mr. Fotheringay sat in the darkness, perfectly still. "It did happen, after all," he said. "And 'ow I'm to explain it I don't know." He sighed heavily, and began feeling in his pockets for a match. He could find none, and he rose and groped about the toilet-table. "I wish I had a match," he said. He resorted to his coat, and there was none there, and then it dawned upon him that miracles were possible even with matches. He extended a hand and scowled at it in the dark. "Let there be a match in that hand," he said. He felt some light object fall across his palm, and his fingers closed upon a match.

After several ineffectual attempts to light this, he discovered it was a safety-match. He threw it down, and then it occurred to him that he might have willed it lit. He did, and perceived it burning in the midst of his toilet-table mat. He caught it up hastily, and it went out. His perception of possibilities enlarged, and he felt for and replaced the candle in its candlestick. "Here! you be lit," said Mr. Fotheringay, and forthwith the candle was flaring, and he saw a little black hole in the toilet-cover, with a wisp of smoke rising from it. For a time he stared from this to the little flame and back, and then looked up and met his own gaze in the looking glass. By this help he communed with himself in silence for a time.

"How about miracles now?" said Mr. Fotheringay at last, addressing his reflection.

The subsequent meditations of Mr. Fotheringay were of a severe but confused description. So far, he could see it was a case of pure willing with him. The nature of his experiences so far disinclined him for any further experiments, at least until he had reconsidered them. But he lifted a sheet of paper, and turned a glass of water pink and then green, and he created a snail, which he miraculously annihilated, and got himself a miraculous new tooth-brush. Somewhen in the small hours he had reached the fact that his will-power must be of a particularly rare and pungent quality, a fact of which he had certainly had inklings before, but no certain assurance. The scare and perplexity of his first discovery was now qualified by pride in this evidence of singularity and by vague intimations of advantage. He became aware that the church clock was striking one, and as it did not occur to him that his daily duties at Gomshott's might be miraculously dispensed with, he resumed undressing, in order to get to bed without further delay. As he struggled to get his shirt over his head, he was struck with a brilliant idea. "Let me be in bed," he said, and found himself so. "Undressed," he stipulated; and, finding the sheets cold, added hastily, "and in my nightshirt—no, in a nice soft woollen nightshirt. Ah!" he said with immense enjoyment. "And now let me be comfortably asleep. . . ."

He awoke at his usual hour and was pensive all through breakfast-time, wondering whether his overnight experience might not be a particularly vivid dream. At length his mind turned again to cautious experiments. For instance, he had three eggs for breakfast; two his landlady had supplied, good, but shoppy, and one was a delicious fresh goose-egg, laid, cooked, and served by his extraordinary will. He hurried off to Gomshott's in a state of profound but carefully concealed excitement, and only remembered the shell of the third egg when his landlady spoke of it that night. All day he could do no work because of this astonishingly new self-knowledge, but this caused him no inconvenience, because he made up for it miraculously in his last ten minutes.

As the day wore on his state of mind passed from wonder to elation, albeit the circumstances of his dismissal from the Long Dragon were still disagreeable to recall, and a garbled account of the matter that had reached his colleagues led to some badinage. It was evident he must be careful how he lifted frangible articles, but in other ways his gift promised more and more as he turned it over in his mind. He intended among other things to increase his personal property by unostentatious acts of creation. He called into existence a pair of very splendid diamond studs, and hastily annihilated them again as young Gomshott came across the counting-house to his desk. He was afraid young Gomshott might wonder how he had come by them. He saw quite clearly the gift required caution and watchfulness in its exercise, but so far as he could judge the difficulties attending its mastery would be no greater than those he had already faced in the study of cycling. It was that analogy, perhaps, quite as much as the feeling that he would be unwelcome in the Long Dragon, that drove him out after supper into the lane beyond the gas-works, to rehearse a few miracles in private.

There was possibly a certain want of originality in his attempts, for apart from his willpower Mr. Fotheringay was not a very exceptional man. The miracle of Moses' rod came to his mind, but the night was dark and unfavourable to the proper control of large miraculous snakes. Then he recollected the story of "Tannhäuser" that he had read on the back of the Philharmonic programme. That seemed to him singularly attractive and harmless. He stuck his walking-stick—a very nice Poona-Penang lawyer—into the turf that edged the footpath, and commanded the dry wood to blossom. The air was immediately full of the scent of roses, and by means of a match he saw for himself that this beautiful miracle was indeed accomplished. His satisfaction was ended by advancing footsteps. Afraid of a premature discovery of his powers, he addressed the blossoming stick hastily: "Go back." What he meant was "Change back;" but of course he was confused. The stick receded at a considerable velocity, and incontinently came a cry of anger and a bad word from the approaching person. "Who are you throwing brambles at, you fool?" cried a voice. "That got me on the shin."

"I'm sorry, old chap," said Mr. Fotheringay, and then realising the awkward nature of the explanation, caught nervously at his moustache. He saw Winch, one of the three Immering constables, advancing.

"What d'yer mean by it?" asked the constable. Hullo! It's you, is it? The gent that broke the lamp at the Long Dragon!"

"I don't mean anything by it," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Nothing at all."

"What d'yer do it for then?"

"Oh, bother!" said Mr. Fotheringay.

"Bother indeed! D'yer know that stick hurt? What d'yer do it for, eh?"

For the moment Mr. Fotheringay could not think what he had done it for. His silence seemed to irritate Mr. Winch. "You've been assaulting the police, young man, this time. That's what you done."

"Look here, Mr. Winch," said Mr. Fotheringay, annoyed and confused, "I'm very sorry. The fact is——"

"Well?"

He could think of no way but the truth. "I was working a miracle." He tried to speak in an off-hand way, but try as he would he couldn't.

"Working a ——! 'Ere, don't you talk rot. Working a miracle, indeed! Miracle! Well, that's downright funny! Why, you's the chap that don't believe in miracles. . . . . Fact is, this is another of your silly conjuring tricks—that's what this is. Now, I tell you——"

But Mr. Fotheringay never heard what Mr. Winch was going to tell him. He realised he had given himself away, flung his valuable secret to all the winds of heaven. A violent gust of irritation swept him to action. He turned on the constable swiftly and fiercely. "Here," he said, "I've had enough of this, I have! I'll show you a silly conjuring trick, I will! Go to Hades! Go, now!"

He was alone!

Mr. Fotheringay performed no more miracles that night, nor did he trouble to see what had become of his flowering stick. He returned to the town, scared and very quiet, and went to his bed-room. "Lord!" he said, "it's a powerful gift—an extremely powerful gift. I didn't hardly mean as much as that. Not really. . . . I wonder what Hades is like!"

He sat on the bed taking off his boots. Struck by a happy thought he transferred the constable to San Francisco, and without any more interference with normal causation went soberly to bed. In the night he dreamt of the anger of Winch.

The next day Mr. Fotheringay heard two interesting items of news. Someone had planted a most beautiful climbing rose against the elder Mr. Gomshott's private house in the Lullaborough Road, and the river as far as Rawling's Mill was to be dragged for Constable Winch.

Mr. Fotheringay was abstracted and thoughtful all that day, and performed no miracles except certain provisions for Winch, and the miracle of completing his day's work with punctual perfection in spite of all the bee-swarm of thoughts that hummed through his mind. And the extraordinary abstraction and meekness of his manner was remarked by several people, and made a matter for jesting. For the most part he was thinking of Winch.

On Sunday evening he went to chapel, and oddly enough, Mr. Maydig, who took a certain interest in occult matters, preached about "things that are not lawful." Mr. Fotheringay was not a regular chapel goer, but the system of assertive scepticism, to which I have already alluded, was now very much shaken. The tenor of the sermon threw an entirely new light on these novel gifts, and he suddenly decided to consult Mr. Maydig immediately after the service. So soon as that was determined, he found himself wondering why he had not done so before.

Mr. Maydig, a lean, excitable man with quite remarkably long wrists and neck, was gratified at a request for a private conversation from a young man whose carelessness in religious matters was a subject for general remark in the town. After a few necessary delays, he conducted him to the study of the Manse, which was contiguous to the chapel, seated him comfortably, and, standing in front of a cheerful fire—his legs threw a Rhodian arch of shadow on the opposite wall—requested Mr. Fotheringay to state his business.

At first Mr. Fotheringay was a little abashed, and found some difficulty in opening the matter. "You will scarcely believe me, Mr. Maydig, I am afraid"—and so forth for some time. He tried a question at last, and asked Mr. Maydig his opinion of miracles.

Mr. Maydig was still saying "Well" in an extremely judicial tone, when Mr. Fotheringay interrupted again: "You don't believe, I suppose, that some common sort of person—like myself, for instance—as it might be sitting here now, might have some sort of twist inside him that made him able to do things by his will."

"It's possible," said Mr. Maydig. "Something of the sort, perhaps, is possible."

"If I might make free with something here, I think I might show you by a sort of experiment," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Now, take that tobacco-jar on the table, for instance. What I want to know is whether what I am going to do with it is a miracle or not. Just half a minute, Mr. Maydig, please."

He knitted his brows, pointed to the tobacco-jar and said: "Be a bowl of vi'lets."

The tobacco-jar did as it was ordered.

Mr. Maydig started violently at the change, and stood looking from the thaumaturgist to the bowl of flowers. He said nothing. Presently he ventured to lean over the table and smell the violets; they were fresh-picked and very fine ones. Then he stared at Mr. Fotheringay again.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

Mr. Fotheringay pulled his moustache. "Just told it—and there you are. Is that a miracle, or is it black art, or what is it? And what do you think's the matter with me? That's what I want to ask."

"It's a most extraordinary occurrence."

"And this day last week I knew no more that I could do things like that than you did. It came quite sudden. It's something odd about my will, I suppose, and that's as far as I can see."

"Is that—the only thing. Could you do other things besides that?"

"Lord, yes! said Mr. Fotheringay. "Just anything." He thought, and suddenly recalled a conjuring entertainment he had seen. "Here!" He pointed. "Change into a bowl of fish—no, not that—change into a glass bowl full of water with goldfish swimming in it. That's better! You see that, Mr. Maydig?"

"It's astonishing. It's incredible. You are either a most extraordinary. . . But no——"

"I could change it into anything," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Just anything. Here! be a pigeon, will you?"

In another moment a blue pigeon was fluttering round the room and making Mr. Maydig duck every time it came near him. "Stop there, will you," said Mr. Fotheringay; and the pigeon hung motionless in the air. "I could change it back to a bowl of flowers," he said, and after replacing the pigeon on the table worked that miracle. "I expect you will want your pipe in a bit," he said, and restored the tobacco-jar.

Mr. Maydig had followed all these later changes in a sort of ejaculatory silence. He stared at Mr. Fotheringay and, in a very gingerly manner, picked up the tobacco-jar, examined it, replaced it on the table. "Well!" was the only expression of his feelings.

"Now, after that it's easier to explain what I came about," said Mr. Fotheringay; and proceeded to a lengthy and involved narrative of his strange experiences, beginning with the affair of the lamp in the Long Dragon and complicated by persistent allusions to Winch. As he went on, the transient pride Mr. Maydig's consternation had caused passed away; he became the very ordinary Mr. Fotheringay of everyday intercourse again. Mr. Maydig listened intently, the tobacco-jar in his hand, and his bearing changed also with the course of the narrative. Presently, while Mr. Fotheringay was dealing with the miracle of the third egg, the minister interrupted with a fluttering extended hand—

"It is possible," he said. "It is credible. It is amazing, of course, but it reconciles a number of amazing difficulties. The power to work miracles is a gift—a peculiar quality like genius or second sight—hitherto it has come very rarely and to exceptional people. But in this case. . . I have always wondered at the miracles of Mahomet, and at Yogi's miracles, and the miracles of Madame Blavatsky. But, of course! Yes, it is simply a gift! It carries out so beautifully the arguments of that great thinker"—Mr. Maydig's voice sank—"his Grace the Duke of Argyll. Here we plumb some profounder law—deeper than the ordinary laws of nature. Yes—yes. Go on. Go on!"

Mr. Fotheringay proceeded to tell of his misadventure with Winch, and Mr. Maydig, no longer overawed or scared, began to jerk his limbs about and interject astonishment. "It's this what troubled me most," proceeded Mr. Fotheringay; "it's this I'm most mijitly in want of advice for; of course he's at San Francisco—wherever San Francisco may be—but of course it's awkward for both of us, as you'll see, Mr. Maydig. I don't see how he can understand what has happened, and I daresay he's scared and exasperated something tremendous, and trying to get at me. I daresay he keeps on starting off to come here. I send him back, by a miracle, every few hours, when I think of it. And of course, that's a thing he won't be able to understand, and it's bound to annoy him; and, of course, if he takes a ticket every time it will cost him a lot of money. I done the best I could for him, but of course it's difficult for him to put himself in my place. I thought afterwards that his clothes might have got scorched, you know—if Hades is all it's supposed to be—before I shifted him. In that case I suppose they'd have locked him up in San Francisco. Of course I willed him a new suit of clothes on him directly I thought of it. But, you see, I'm already in a deuce of a tangle——"

Mr. Maydig looked serious. "I see you are in a tangle. Yes, it's a difficult position. How you are to end it. . ." He became diffuse and inconclusive.

"However, we'll leave Winch for a little and discuss the larger question. I don't think this is a case of the black art or anything of the sort. I don't think there is any taint of criminality about it at all, Mr. Fotheringay—none whatever, unless you are suppressing material facts. No, it's miracles—pure miracles—miracles, if I may say so, of the very highest class."

He began to pace the hearthrug and gesticulate, while Mr. Fotheringay sat with his arm on the table and his head on his arm, looking worried. "I don't see how I'm to manage about Winch," he said.

"A gift of working miracles—apparently a very powerful gift," said Mr. Maydig, "will find a way about Winch—never fear. My dear Sir, you are a most important man—a man of the most astonishing possibilities. As evidence, for example! And in other ways, the things you may do. . ."

"Yes, I've thought of a thing or two," said Mr. Fotheringay. "But—some of the things came a bit twisty. You saw that fish at first? Wrong sort of bowl and wrong sort of fish. And I thought I'd ask someone."

"A proper course," said Mr. Maydig, "a very proper course—altogether the proper course." He stopped and looked at Mr. Fotheringay. "It's practically an unlimited gift. Let us test your powers, for instance. If they really are. . . If they really are all they seem to be."

And so, incredible as it may seem, in the study of the little house behind the Congregational Chapel, on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 10, 1896, Mr. Fotheringay, egged on and inspired by Mr. Maydig, began to work miracles. The reader's attention is specially and definitely called to the date. He will object, probably has already objected, that certain points in this story are improbable, that if any things of the sort already described had indeed occurred. they would have been in all the papers a year ago. The details immediately following he will find particularly hard to accept, because among other things they involve the conclusion that he or she, the reader in question, must have been killed in a violent and unprecedented manner more than a year ago. Now a miracle is nothing if not improbable, and as a matter of fact the reader was killed in a violent and unprecedented manner a year ago. In the subsequent course of this story that will become perfectly clear and credible, as every right-minded and reasonable reader will admit. But this is not the place for the end of the story, being but little beyond the hither side of the middle. And at first the miracles worked by Mr. Fotheringay were timid little miracles—little things with the cups and parlour fitments, as feeble as the miracles of Theosophists, and, feeble as they were, they were received with awe by his collaborator. He would have preferred to settle the Winch business out of hand, but Mr. Maydig would not let him. But after they had worked a dozen of these domestic trivialities, their sense of power grew, their imagination began to show signs of stimulation, and their ambition enlarged. Their first larger enterprise was due to hunger and the negligence of Mrs. Minchin, Mr. Maydig's housekeeper. The meal to which the minister conducted Mr. Fotheringay was certainly ill-laid and uninviting as refreshment for two industrious miracle-workers; but they were seated, and Mr. Maydig was descanting in sorrow rather than in anger upon his housekeeper's shortcomings, before it occurred to Mr. Fotheringnay that an opportunity lay before him. "Don't you think, Mr. Maydig," he said, "if it isn't a liberty, I——"

"My dear Mr. Fotheringay! Of course! No—I didn't think."

Mr. Fotheringay waved his hand. "What shall we have?" he said, in a large, inclusive spirit, and, at Mr. Maydig's order, revised the supper very thoroughly. "As for me," he said, eyeing Mr. Maydig's selection, "I am always particularly fond of a tankard of stout and a nice Welsh rarebit, and I'll order that. I ain't much given to Burgundy," and forthwith stout and Welsh rarebit promptly appeared at his command. They sat long at their supper, talking like equals, as Mr. Fotheringay presently perceived, with a glow of surprise and gratification, of all the miracles they would presently do. "And, by the bye, Mr. Maydig," said Mr. Fotheringay, "I might perhaps be able to help you—in a domestic way."

"Don't quite follow," said Mr. Maydig pouring out a glass of miraculous old Burgundy.

Mr. Fotheringay helped himself to a second Welsh rarebit out of vacancy, and took a mouthful. "I was thinking," he said, "I might be able (chum, chum) to work (chum, chum) a miracle with Mrs. Minchin (chum, chum)—make her a better woman."

Mr. Maydig put down the glass and looked doubtful. "She's —— She strongly objects to interference, you know, Mr. Fotheringay. And—as a matter of fact—it's well past eleven and she's probably in bed and asleep. Do you think, on the whole——"

Mr. Fotheringay considered these objections. "I don't see that it shouldn't be done in her sleep."

For a time Mr. Maydig opposed the idea, and then he yielded. Mr. Fotheringay issued his orders, and a little less at their ease, perhaps, the two gentlemen proceeded with their repast. Mr. Maydig was enlarging on the changes he might expect in his housekeeper next day, with an optimism that seemed even to Mr. Fotheringay's supper senses a little forced and hectic, when a series of confused noises from upstairs began. Their eyes exchanged interrogations, and Mr. Maydig left the room hastily. Mr. Fotheringay heard him calling up to his housekeeper and then his footsteps going softly up to her.

In a minute or so the minister returned, his step light, his face radiant. "Wonderful!" he said, "and touching! Most touching!"

He began pacing the hearthrug. "A repentance—a most touching repentance—through the crack of the door. Poor woman! A most wonderful change! She had got up. She must have got up at once. She had got up out of her sleep to smash a private bottle of brandy in her box. And to confess it too!. . . But this gives us—it opens—a most amazing vista of possibilities. If we can work this miraculous change in her. . . ."

"The thing's unlimited seemingly," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And about Mr. Winch—"

"Altogether unlimited." And from the hearthrug Mr. Maydig, waving the Winch difficulty aside, unfolded a series of wonderful proposals—proposals he invented as he went along.

Now what those proposals were does not concern the essentials of this story. Suffice it that they were designed in a spirit of infinite benevolence, the sort of benevolence that used to be called post-prandial. Suffice it, too, that the problem of Winch remained unsolved. Nor is it necessary to describe how far that series got to its fulfilment. There were astonishing changes. The small hours found Mr. Maydig and Mr. Fotheringay careering across the chilly market-square under the still moon, in a sort of ecstasy of thaumaturgy, Mr. Maydig all flap and gesture, Mr. Fotheringay short and bristling, and no longer abashed at his greatness. They had reformed every drunkard in the Parliamentary division, changed all the beer and alcohol to water (Mr. Maydig had overruled Mr. Fotheringay on this point); they had, further, greatly improved the railway communication of the place, drained Flinder's swamp, improved the soil of One Tree Hill, and cured the Vicar's wart. And they were going to see what could be done with the injured pier at South Bridge. "The place," gasped Mr. Maydig, "won't be the same place to-morrow. How surprised and thankful everyone will be!" And just at that moment the church clock struck three.

"I say," said Mr. Fotheringay, "that's three o'clock! I must be getting back. I've got to be at business by eight. And besides, Mrs. Wimms—"

"We're only beginning," said Mr. Maydig, full of the sweetness of unlimited power. "We're only beginning. Think of all the good we're doing. When people wake—"

"But—," said Mr. Fotheringay.

Mr. Maydig gripped his arm suddenly. His eyes were bright and wild. "My dear chap," he said, "there's no hurry. Look"—he pointed to the moon at the zenith—"Joshua!"

"Joshua?" said Mr. Fotheringay.

"Joshua," said Mr. Maydig. "Why not? Stop it."

Mr. Fotheringay looked at the moon.

"That's a bit tall," he said after a pause.

"Why not?" said Mr. Maydig. "Of course it doesn't stop. You stop the rotation of the earth, you know. Time stops. It isn't as if we were doing harm."

"H'm!" said Mr. Fotheringay. "Well." He sighed. "I'll try. Here—"

He buttoned up his jacket and addressed himself to the habitable globe, with as good an assumption of confidence as lay in his power. "Jest stop rotating, will you," said Mr. Fotheringay.

Incontinently he was flying head over heels through the air at the rate of dozens of miles a minute. In spite of the innumerable circles he was describing per second, he thought; for thought is wonderful—sometimes as sluggish as flowing pitch, sometimes as instantaneous as light. He thought in a second, and willed. "Let me come down safe and sound. Whatever else happens, let me down safe and sound."

He willed it only just in time, for his clothes, heated by his rapid flight through the air, were already beginning to singe. He came down with a forcible, but by no means injurious bump in what appeared to be a mound of fresh-turned earth. A large mass of metal and masonry, extraordinarily like the clock-tower in the middle of the market-square, hit the earth near him, ricochetted over him, and flew into stonework, bricks, and masonry, like a bursting bomb. A hurtling cow hit one of the larger blocks and smashed like an egg. There was a crash that made all the most violent crashes of his past life seem like the sound of falling dust, and this was followed by a descending series of lesser crashes. A vast wind roared throughout earth and heaven, so that he could scarcely lift his head to look. For a while he was too breathless and astonished even to see where he was or what had happened. And his first movement was to feel his head and reassure himself that his streaming hair was still his own.

"Lord!" gasped Mr. Fotheringay, scarce able to speak for the gale, "I've had a squeak! What's gone wrong? Storms and thunder. And only a minute ago a fine night. It's Maydig set me on to this sort of thing. What a wind! If I go on fooling in this way I'm bound to have a thundering accident!. . .

"Where's Maydig?

"What a confounded mess everything's in!" He looked about him so far as his flapping jacket would permit. The appearance of things was really extremely strange. "The sky's all right anyhow," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And that's about all that is all right. And even there it looks like a terrific gale coming up. But there's the moon overhead. Just as it was just now. Bright as midday. But as for the rest—Where's the village? Where's—where's anything? And what on earth set this wind a-blowing? I didn't order no wind."

Mr. Fotheringay struggled to get to his feet in vain, and after one failure, remained on all fours, holding on. He surveyed the moonlit world to leeward, with the tails of his jacket streaming over his head. "There's something seriously wrong," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And what it is—goodness knows."

Far and wide nothing was visible in the white glare through the haze of dust that drove before a screaming gale but tumbled masses of earth and heaps of inchoate ruins, no trees, no houses, no familiar shapes, only a wilderness of disorder vanishing at last into the darkness beneath the whirling columns and streamers, the lightnings and thunderings of a swiftly rising storm. Near him in the livid glare was something that might once have been an elm-tree, a smashed mass of splinters, shivered from boughs to base, and further a twisted mass of iron girders—only too evidently the viaduct—rose out of the piled confusion.

You see, when Mr. Fotheringay had arrested the rotation of the solid globe, he had made no stipulation concerning the trifling movables upon its surface. And the earth spins so fast that the surface at its equator is travelling at rather more than a thousand miles an hour, and in these latitudes at more than half that pace. So that the village, and Mr. Maydig, and Mr. Fotheringay, and everybody and everything had been jerked violently forward at about nine miles per second—that is to say, much more violently than if they had been fired out of a cannon. And every human being, every living creature, every house, and every tree—all the world as we know it—had been so jerked and smashed and utterly destroyed. That was all.

These things Mr. Fotheringay did not, of course, fully appreciate. But he perceived that his miracle had miscarried, and with that a great disgust of miracles came upon him. He was in darkness now, for the clouds had swept together and blotted out his momentary glimpse of the moon, and the air was full of fitful struggling tortured wraiths of hail. A great roaring of wind and waters filled earth and sky, and, peering under his hand through the dust and sleet to windward, he saw by the play of the lightnings a vast wall of water pouring towards him.

"Maydig!" screamed Mr. Fotheringay's feeble voice amid the elemental uproar. "Here!—Maydig!"

"Stop!" cried Mr. Fotheringay to the advancing water. "Oh, for goodness' sake, stop!"

"Just a moment," said Mr. Fotheringay to the lightnings and thunder. "Stop jest a moment while I collect my thoughts. . . . And now what shall I do?" he said. "What shall I do? Lord! I wish Maydig was about."

"I know," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And for goodness' sake let's have it right this time."

He remained on all fours, leaning against the wind, very intent to have everything right.

"Ah!" he said. "Let nothing what I'm going to order happen until I say 'Off!'. . . Lord! I wish I'd thought of that before!"

He lifted his little voice against the whirlwind, shouting louder and louder in the vain desire to hear himself speak. "Now then!—here goes! Mind about that what I said just now. In the first place, when all I've got to say is done, let me lose my miraculous power, let my will become just like anybody else's will, and all these dangerous miracles be stopped. I don't like them. I'd rather I didn't work 'em. Ever so much. That's the first thing. And the second is—let me be back just before the miracles begin; let everything be just as it was before that blessed lamp turned up. It's a big job, but it's the last. Have you got it? No more miracles, everything as it was—me back in the Long Dragon just before I drank my half-pint. That's it! Yes."

He dug his fingers into the mould, closed his eyes, and said "Off!"

Everything became perfectly still. He perceived that he was standing erect.

"So you say," said a voice.

He opened his eyes. He was in the bar of the Long Dragon, arguing about miracles with Toddy Beamish. He had a vague sense of some great thing forgotten that instantaneously passed. You see that, except for the loss of his miraculous powers, everything was back as it had been, his mind and memory therefore were now just as they had been at the time when this story began. So that he knew absolutely nothing of all that is told here, knows nothing of all that is told here to this day. And among other things, of course, he still did not believe in miracles.

"I tell you that miracles, properly speaking, can't possibly happen," he said, "whatever you like to hold. And I'm prepared to prove it up to the hilt."

"That's what you think," said Toddy Beamish, and "Prove it if you can."

"Looky here, Mr. Beamish," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It's something contrariwise to the course of nature done by power of Will. . ."

 

THE END