ALTHOUGH M. Lacadé, Mayor of Lourdes, avoided giving his own opinion on the extraordinary events which were occurring, he had been deeply impressed by them, and it was not without a certain degree of terror that he saw the Administration having recourse to such violent measures. He was in a terrible state of perplexity. He did not know what attitude the people might assume. It is true the Prefect had announced the possibility of sending a squadron of cavalry to Lourdes to maintain the tranquility of the town when the arrest should have taken place; but the very fact caused him no little uneasiness. The supernatural aspect of the question and the Miracles also filled him with alarm. He did not know exactly how to act, placed as he was between the authority of the Prefect, the force of the people and the power from on high. He would have gladly made some compromise between earth and heaven. To keep up his courage, he addressed himself to the Procureur Impérial, M. Dutour; and the two went together to the residence of the Curé of Lourdes to communicate to him the order for the arrest of Bernadette which had emanated from the Prefecture. They explained to the Abbé Peyramale how, according to the wording of the law of June 3, 1838, the Prefect was acting in the plenitude of his legal rights.
The Priest was unable to restrain himself from a burst of indignation at the cruel iniquity of such a proceeding, though it might actually be in conformity with one of the antiquated laws produced at some time or other by the flowing and ebbing tides of our twelve or fifteen political revolutions.
“This child in innocent!” he exclaimed, “and the proof of it is, that in your capacity of Magistrate, Sir, you have never been able, in spite of your various interrogations, to find a pretext for an attempt at prosecution. You know that there is not a Tribunal in France but would acknowledge her innocence, which is as clear as the sun at noon-day; that there is not a Procureur-Général, who would not only, under such circumstances, declare this arrest to be monstrous and have it cancelled, but would even protest against a simple action at law.”
“This being the case the Magistracy does not act in the matter,” replied M. Dutour. “The Prefect, on the report furnished by the medical men, has requested that Bernadette be shut up on the plea of derangement, and this for her own good, in order that her cure may be effected. It is a simple administrative measure, which has nothing to do with Religion, since neither the Bishop nor the Clergy have pronounced any opinion officially on all these events, which are taking place entirely independently of them.”
“Such a measure,” rejoined the Priest, becoming warm as the discussion proceeded, “would be the most odious of persecutions; so much the more odious from the fact that it assumes the mask of hypocrisy, affects to wish to afford protection, and conceals itself beneath the cloak of legality, while its real object is to strike a blow at a poor defenseless being. If the Bishop and Clergy, including myself, are waiting for more light to be thrown on these occurrences, in order to pronounce on their supernatural character, we at least know enough to judge of Bernadette’s sincerity, and the soundness of her intellectual faculties. And since your two medical men do not certify the existence of any cerebral affection, in what respect are they more competent to judge of madness or good sense than any one of the thousand visitors who have put questions to the child, and who have all agreed in admiring the entire lucidity and normal character of her mind. Your doctors themselves dare not make a positive diagnosis, and only conclude with a hypothesis. The Prefect cannot have Bernadette arrested on any plea whatever.”
“It is a legal proceeding.”
“It is unlawful. As Priest, as the Curé-doyen of the town of Lourdes, I have a duty towards all, and more especially the weakest. If I saw an armed man attack a child, I would defend that child at the peril of my life, for I know the duty of protecting others, which is incumbent on a good Pastor. Be assured, I would act in the same manner even if the man were a Prefect, and his weapon were a bad clause of a bad law. Go, then, and tell M. Massy that his Gendarmes will find me on the threshold of the door of this poor family, and that they will have to lay me low, to pass over my body and trample me under their feet before they touch a hair of this little girl’s head.”
“However”―
“There is no ‘however’ in the case. Examine, institute investigations; you are at full liberty to do so, and everybody invites you to do so. But if, instead of this, you wish to persecute, if you wish to strike the innocent, know well that before you reach the last, and the least among my flock, it is with me you must begin.”
The Priest had risen from his chair. His tall figure, his strongly-marked features, the plenitude of strength for which he was remarkable, his resolute gestures, and his countenance burning with emotion, supplied a commentary to his words and stamped their character upon them.
The Procureur and the Mayor were silent for an instant. They afterwards mentioned the measures relative to the Grotto.
“As far as the Grotto is concerned,” replied the Priest, “if the Prefect wishes, in the name of the laws of the Nation, and in that of his own private piety, to strip it of the various objects which innumerable visitors have deposited there in honor of the Blessed Virgin―let him do so. Believers will be sorry and even indignant. But let him not be alarmed; the inhabitants of this country know the respect due to Authority, even when it strays from the right path. It is said that at Tarbes a squadron of cavalry, with their horses saddled and bridled, are only waiting a signal from the Prefect to hasten to Lourdes. Let the squadron dismount.
“However warm the heads of my people may be, however ulcerated their hearts, they listen to my voice. If armed force is used against them, I will no longer be responsible for their behavior.”
