Book 6 - Part 10

It was not without some hesitation that M. Lacadé consented to sign an order of this nature, and to put such a measure into execution. His somewhat undecided nature, fond of pursuing a middle course and liking to swim, as they said, with the current, could not but regard with considerable alarm such an act of decided hostility against the strange power which plainly hovered over all the events of which the Grotto of Lourdes was the centre. On the other hand, as should always be the case, the Mayor was attached to his official position, and, as the wags asserted, somewhat in love with his official scarf. He must, however, become the instrument of the Prefect’s violent courses or resign his honors. The alternative was embarrassing to the first magistrate of Lourdes, though we cannot term it a very grave one, without feeling a disposition to smile at the weakness of poor human nature. M. Lacadé hoped to get out of the difficulty, by requesting the Prefect, as the condition of his attaching his own signature to the document, to insert at the beginning of the order, and, as it were, its opening sentence, “With reference to instructions addressed to him by the superior Authorities.”

“By these means,” observed the Mayor, “I am entirely freed from any responsibility as regards the public or myself. I have not taken the initiative; I remain neuter. I do not command; I am simply obeying. I do not give this order; I receive it. I do not proclaim this measure; I merely carry it into execution. All the responsibility rests on my immediate superior, the Prefect.

From a private in a regiment of the line, this style of reasoning would have been unexceptionable.

With his mind thus set at rest, M. Lacadé watched over the execution of the Prefect’s decree. He had it published with sound of trumpet, and placarded all over the town. At the same time, under the protection of an armed force, and the directions of Jacomet, barriers were erected around the Rocks of Massabielle, so as to entirely prevent all access to the Grotto and the miraculous Spring, unless by breaking them down or scaling them. Posts with notices attached to them were placed here and there, at all points whereby the people might penetrate the communal lands with which the venerated Rocks were surrounded, absolutely forbidding any one to trespass on the grounds belonging to the commune, under penalty of prosecution before the tribunals. The Sergents de Ville and Gardes Champêtres kept watch day and night, relieving each other every hour, and drawing up official reports against such as passed the outer posts for the purpose of going and kneeling in the vicinity of the Grotto.

There was a Juge de Paix at Lourdes called Duprat. He was as inveterate a foe to Superstition, as were the Jacomets, Massys, Dutours, and other constituted authorities. This judge, being unable under the circumstances to inflict any but the smallest possible fines on delinquents, imagined an indirect way of rendering these fines enormous and really formidable to the poor folks who came from all directions to pray in front of the Grotto and request at the hands of the Blessed Virgin, one, the recovery of health long broken; a second, the cure of a much-loved child; a third, some spiritual grace, or some consolation in overwhelming sorrow.

M. Duprat, finding them guilty of a misdemeanor, sentenced the culprits to a fine of five francs each. But, by a conception worthy of his genius, he combined in a single judgment all those who had violated the Prefect’s prohibition, whether by forming part of the same throng, or even, as it appeared, by repairing to the Grotto in the course of the same day. When he sentenced them, he made them all jointly and severally liable for the costs. Consequently should one or two hundred persons have gone to the Rocks of Massabielle, each of them was made liable to pay, not only for himself, but for all the rest; or, in other words, to pay out 500 or 1000 francs. And yet, since the individual and original sentence amounted only to a fine of five francs, this magistrate’s decision could not be appealed from to a superior court, and there was no means of obtaining redress. The judge was omnipotent, and this is a specimen of the way in which he exerted his omnipotence.