The Dawn of All

by Robert Hugh Benson

  (III)

  The hall was already crowded in every part as the two priestslooked in at the lower end a few minutes before eleven o'clock.It was arranged more or less like a theatre, with a broad gangwayrunning straight up from the doors at one end to the foot of thestage at the other. The stage itself, with a statue of Marytowering at the back, communicated with the examination-roomsbehind the two doors, one on either side of the image.

  "What's going on?" whispered Monsignor, as he glanced up first onthis side and that, at the array of heads that listened, and thenat the two figures that occupied the stage.

  "It's a doctor lecturing on a cure. This goes on nearly all day.We must get round to the back somehow."

  As they passed in at last from the outside through the privatedoor through which the doctors and privileged persons had accessbehind the stage, they heard a storm of clapping and voices fromthe direction of the public hall on their right.

  "That's finished then. Follow me, Monsignor."

  They went through a passage or two, after their guide--a youngman in uniform--seeing as they went, through half-open doors hereand there, quite white rooms, glimpses of men in white, and onceat least a litter being set down; and came at last into whatlooked like some kind of committee-room, lighted by tall windowson the left, with a wide horseshoe table behind which sat perhapsa dozen men, each wearing on his left breast the red and whitecross which marked them as experts. Opposite the examiners, buthalf hidden from the two priests by the back of his tall chair,sat the figure of a man.

  Their guide went up to the end of the table, and almostimmediately they saw Father Adrian stand up and beckon to them.

  "I've kept you two chairs," he whispered when they came up. "Andyou'd better wear these crosses. They'll admit you anywhere." (Hepointed to the two red and white badges that hung over the backsof their chairs.)

  "Are we in time?"

  "You're a little late," whispered the monk. Then he turned againtowards the patient, a typical fair-haired, bearded Russian withclosed eyes, who at that moment was answering some question putto him by the presiding doctor in the centre.

  The monk turned again.

  "Can you understand Russian?"

  Monsignor shook his head.

  "Well, I'll tell you afterwards," said the other.

  * * * * *

  It seemed very strange to be sitting here, in this quiet room,after the rush and push of the enormous crowds through which theyhad made their way this morning. The air of the room wasexceedingly business-like, and not in the least even suggestiveof religion, except in the matter of a single statue of Our Ladyof Lourdes on a bracket on the wall above the President's head.And these dozen men who sat here seemed quietly business-liketoo. They sat here, men of various ages and nationalities, all inthe thin white doctor's dress, with papers spread before them,and a few strange instruments scattered here and there, leaningforward or leaning back, but all intently listening to andwatching the Russian, who, still with closed eyes, answered theshort questions put to him continuously by the President. Thereseemed no religious excitement even in the air; the atmospherewas one, rather, of simple science.

  There seemed something faintly familiar in all this to the manwho had lost his memory. . . . Certainly he had known of Lourdesas soon as it was mentioned to him, and he seemed now toremember that some such claim to be perfectly scientific hadalways been made by the authorities of the place. But he hadsupposed, somehow, that the claim was a false one. . . .

  The Russian suddenly rose.

  "Well!" whispered Monsignor sharply as the doctors began to talk.

  The monk smiled.

  "He's just said an interesting thing. The President asked himjust now whether he had seen anything of the crowds as he camedown this morning."

  "Yes?"

  "He said that people looked like trees moving about. . . . Oh no!he didn't know he was making a quotation. Look! he's going downto the grotto. He'll be back in half an hour to report."

  Monsignor leaned back in his chair.

  "And you tell me that the optic nerves were destroyed?"

  The monk looked at him in wide-eyed wonder.

  "Certainly. He was examined on Tuesday, when he came.To-day's Friday."

  "And you believe he'll be cured?"

  "I shall be very much surprised if he's not."

  There was a stir by the door as the Russian disappeared. A young,bright-eyed doctor looked in and nodded, and the next instant abrancardier appeared, followed by a litter.

  "But how have you time to examine all these thousands of cases?"asked the prelate, watching the litter advance.

  "Oh, not one in a hundred comes through to us here. Besides,this is only one of a dozen committee-rooms. It's only the mostsensational cases--where there's real organic injury of areally serious kind--that ever come at all before the highestcourts. Cases, I mean, where, if there's a cure, thepublication of the miracle follows as a matter of course. . . .What's this case, I wonder?" he ended sharply, glancing down atthe printed paper before him, and then up again at the litterthat was being arranged.

  Monsignor looked too at the paper that lay before him. Somethirty paragraphs, carefully numbered, dated, and signed, gave,as it seemed, a list of the cases to be examined.

  "Number fourteen," murmured the monk.

  Number fourteen, it appeared, was a case of fractured spine--ayoung girl, aged sixteen; a German. The accident had happenedfour months before. The notes, signed by half a dozen names,described the complete paralysis below the waist, with a fewother medical details.

  Monsignor looked again at the girl on the other side of thetable, guarded by the brancardiers and a couple of doctors, whilethe monk talked to him rapidly in Latin. He saw her closed eyesand colourless lips.

  "This case has attracted a good deal of attention," whisperedthe monk. "The Emperor's said to be interested in it, throughone of the ladies of the Court, whose servant the girl was. It'sinteresting for two or three reasons. First, the fracture iscomplete, and it's marvellous she hasn't died. Then it's beentaken up as a kind of test case by a group of materialists inBerlin. They've taken it up, because the girl has declared againand again that she is perfectly certain she will be cured atLourdes. She claims to have had a vision of Our Lady, who toldher so. Her father's a freethinker, by the way, and has onlyfinally allowed her to come so that he can use her as anargument afterwards."

  "Who has examined her?" asked Monsignor sharply.

  "She was examined last night on her arrival, and again thismorning. Dr. Meurot, the President here" (he indicated with hishead the doctor who sat three places off, who was putting hisquestions rapidly to the two attending physicians)--"Dr. Meurotexamined her himself early this morning. This is just the formalprocess before she goes to the grotto. The fracture is complete.It's between the eleventh and twelfth dorsal vertebrae."

  "And you think she'll be cured?" The monk smiled.

  "Who can tell?" he said. "We've only had one case before, and thepapers on that are not quite in order, though it's commonlybelieved to be genuine."

  "But it's possible?"

  "Oh, certainly. And her own conviction is absolute. It'llbe interesting."

  "You seem to take it pretty easily," murmured the prelate.

  "Oh, the facts are established a hundred times over--the facts, Imean, that cures take place here which are not even approached inmental laboratories. But---"

  He was interrupted by a sudden movement of the brancardiers.

  "See, they're removing her," he said. "Now, what'll you do,Monsignor? Will you go down to the grotto, or would you soonerwatch a few more cases?"

  "I think I'd sooner stay here," said the other, "at least foran hour or two."