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An Inland Voyage-Part12_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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carrying a Virgin and child upon a table. The priests and

choristers arose from their knees and followed after, singing 'Ave



Mary' as they went. In this order they made the circuit of the

cathedral, passing twice before me where I leaned against a pillar.



The priest who seemed of most consequence was a strange, down-

looking old man. He kept mumbling prayers with his lips; but as he



looked upon me darkling, it did not seem as if prayer were

uppermost in his heart. Two others, who bore the burthen of the



chaunt, were stout, brutal, military-looking men of forty, with

bold, over-fed eyes; they sang with some lustiness, and trolled



forth 'Ave Mary' like a garrison catch. The little girls were

timid and grave. As they footed slowly up the aisle, each one took



a moment's glance at the Englishman; and the big nun who played

marshal fairly stared him out of countenance. As for the



choristers, from first to last they misbehaved as only boys can

misbehave; and cruelly marred the performance with their antics.



I understood a great deal of the spirit of what went on. Indeed it

would be difficult not to understand the MISERERE, which I take to



be the composition of an atheist. If it ever be a good thing to

take such despondency to heart, the MISERERE is the right music,



and a cathedral a fit scene. So far I am at one with the

Catholics:- an odd name for them, after all? But why, in God's



name, these holiday choristers? why these priests who steal

wandering looks about the congregation while they feign to be at



prayer? why this fat nun, who rudely arranges her procession and

shakes delinquent virgins by the elbow? why this spitting, and



snuffing, and forgetting of keys, and the thousand and one little

misadventures that disturb a frame of mind laboriously edified with



chaunts and organings? In any play-house reverend fathers may see

what can be done with a little art, and how, to move high



sentiments, it is necessary to drill the supernumeraries and have

every stool in its proper place.



One other circumstance distressed me. I could bear a MISERERE

myself, having had a good deal of open-air exercise of late; but I



wished the old people somewhere else. It was neither the right

sort of music nor the right sort of divinity for men and women who



have come through most accidents by this time, and probably have an

opinion of their own upon the tragic element in life. A person up



in years can generally do his own MISERERE for himself; although I

notice that such an one often prefers JUBILATE DEO for his ordinary



singing. On the whole, the most religious exercise for the aged is

probably to recall their own experience; so many friends dead, so



many hopes disappointed, so many slips and stumbles, and withal so

many bright days and smiling providences; there is surely the



matter of a very eloquentsermon in all this.

On the whole, I was greatly solemnised. In the little pictorial



map of our whole Inland Voyage, which my fancy still preserves, and

sometimes unrolls for the amusement of odd moments, Noyon cathedral



figures on a most preposterous scale, and must be nearly as large

as a department. I can still see the faces of the priests as if



they were at my elbow, and hear AVE MARIA, ORA PRO NOBIS, sounding

through the church. All Noyon is blotted out for me by these



superior memories; and I do not care to say more about the place.

It was but a stack of brown roofs at the best, where I believe



people live very reputably in a quiet way; but the shadow of the

church falls upon it when the sun is low, and the five bells are



heard in all quarters, telling that the organ has begun. If ever I

join the Church of Rome, I shall stipulate to be Bishop of Noyon on



the Oise.

DOWN THE OISE



TO COMPIEGNE

THE most patient people grow weary at last with being continually



wetted with rain; except of course in the Scottish Highlands, where

there are not enough fine intervals to point the difference. That



was like to be our case, the day we left Noyon. I remember nothing




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