 Another classic converted by eBooksLib.com.
«All the bells were ringing the Angelus. The sun was sinking; – and from the many quaint and beautiful grey towers which crown the ancient city of Rouen, the sacred chime pealed forth melodiously, floating with sweet and variable tone far up into the warm autumnal air. Market women returning to their cottage homes after a long day's chaffering disposal of their fruit, vegetable, and flower- wares in the town, paused in their slow trudge along the dusty road and crossed themselves devoutly, – a bargeman, lazily gliding down the river on his flat unwieldly craft, took his pipe from his mouth, lifted his cap mechanically, and muttered more from habit than reflection – «Sainte Marie, Mere de Dieu, priez pour nous!» – and some children running out of school, came to a sudden standstill, listening and glancing at each other, as though silently questioning whether they should say the old church-formula among themselves or no? Whether, for example, it might not be more foolish than wise to repeat it? Yes; – even though there was a rumour that the Cardinal- Archbishop of a certain small, half-forgotten, but once historically-famed Cathedral town of France had come to visit Rouen that day, – a Cardinal-Archbishop reputed to be so pure of heart and simple in nature, that the people of his far-off and limited diocese regarded him almost as a saint, – would it be right or reasonable for them, as the secularly educated children of modern Progress, to murmur an «Angelus Domini,» while the bells rang? It was a doubtful point; – for the school they attended was a Government one, and prayers were neither taught nor encouraged there, France having for a time put God out of her national institutions.»
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