VIII.
She was in the act of drawing off her first stocking, when she heard near her a shock like a blast of wind, bursting with irresistible force upon the fields. She thought it was a sudden storm, and instinctively looked behind her. To her great surprise, the poplars which border the Gave were perfectly motionless. Not even the slightest breeze stirred their boughs.
"I must be dreaming," she said, and, still thinking of the noise, she could not believe that she had heard it. She turned again to her stocking. At this instant the impetuous roar of this unknown wind was heard again. Bernadette raised her glance, and uttered, or would have uttered, a loud cry, but it died upon her lips. Her limbs trembled and gave way. Astounded by what she saw, and as if shrinking from it, she fell upon her knees.
A vision of surpassing wonder was before her eyes. The child's story, the countless inquiries to which she has since been subjected by thousands of active and shrewd investigators, have brought out all the details, and enabled us to trace each line of the general appearance of that wonderful being who met at this moment the ravished glance of Bernadette.