Les miserables (Abridged) - Victor Hugo [192]
“Two or three times.”
“A stone is to be raised.”
“Heavy?”
“The slab of the pavement at the side of the altar.”
“The stone that covers the vault?”
“Yes.”
“That is a piece of work where it would be well to have two men.”
“Mother Ascension, who is as strong as a man, will help you.”
“A woman is never a man.”
“And then you will have a lever.”
“That is the only kind of key that fits that kind of door.”
“There is a ring in the stone.”
“I will pass the lever through it.”
“And the stone is arranged to turn on a pivot.”
“Very well, reverend mother, I will open the vault.”
“And the four mother choristers will assist you.”
“And when the vault is opened?”
“It must be shut again.”
“Is that all?”
“No.”
“Give me your orders, most reverend mother.”
“Fauvent, we have confidence in you.”
“I am here to do everything.”
“And to keep silent about everything.”
“Yes, reverend mother.”
“When the vault is opened—”
“I will shut it again.”
“But before—”
“What, reverend mother?”
“Something must be let down.”
There was silence. The prioress, after a quivering of the underlip which resembled hesitation, spoke:
“Father Fauvent?”
“Reverend mother?”
“You know that a mother died this morning.”
“No.”
“You have not heard the bell then?”
“Nothing is heard at the further end of the garden.”
“Really?”
“I can hardly distinguish my ring.”
“She died at daybreak.”
“And then, this morning, the wind didn’t blow my way.”
“It is Mother Crucifixion. One of the blest.”
The prioress was silent, moved her lips a moment as in a mental orison, and resumed:
“Father Fauvent, the community has been blessed in Mother Crucifixion. Doubtless, it is not given to everybody to die like Cardinal de Bérulle, saying the holy mass, and to breathe out his soul to God, pronouncing these words: Hanc igitur oblationem. But without attaining such great happiness, Mother Crucifixion had a very precious death. She had her consciousness to the last. She spoke to us, then she spoke to the angels. She gave us her last commands. If you had a little more faith, and if you could have been in her cell, she would have cured your leg by touching it. She smiled. We felt that she was returning to life in God. There was something of Paradise in that death.”
Fauchelevent thought that he had been listening to a prayer.
“Amen!” said he.
“Father Fauvent, we must do what the dead wish.”
The prioress counted a few beads on her chaplet. Fauchelevent was silent. She continued:
“I have consulted upon this question several ecclesiastics labouring in Our Lord, who are engaged in the exercise of clerical functions, and with admirable results.
“We must obey the dead. To be buried in the vault under the altar of the chapel, not to go into profane ground, to remain in death where she prayed in life; this was the last request of Mother Crucifixion. She has asked it, that is to say, commanded it.”
“But it is forbidden.”
“Forbidden by men, enjoined by God.”
“If it should come to be known?”
“We have confidence in you.”
“Oh! as for me, I am like a stone in your wall.”
“The chapter has assembled. The vocal mothers, whom I have just consulted again and who are now deliberating, have decided that Mother Crucifixion should be, according to her desire, buried in her coffin under our altar. Think, Father Fauvent, if there should be miracles performed here! what glory under God for the community! Miracles spring from tombs.”
“But, reverend Mother, if the agent of the Health Commission—”
“St. Benedict II, in the matter of burial, resisted Constantine Pogonatus.”
“However, the Commissary of Police—”
“Chonodemaire, one of the seven German kings who entered Gaul in the reign of Constantius, expressly recognised the right of conventuals to be inhumed in religion, that is to say, under the altar.”
“But the Inspector of the Prefecture—”
“The world is nothing before the cross. Martin, eleventh general of the Carthusians, gave to his order this device: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis.”
“Amen,” said Fauchelevent, imperturbable in this method