All the reverend men held their heads meekly
down, and affected to be reading in their breviaries.
After the Priests came some Bishops of the neighboring districts, in
purple, with crosses sparkling on their episcopal bosoms.
Then came, after more priests, a set of men whom I have never seen
before--a kind of ghostly heralds, young and handsome men, some of them
in stiff tabards of black and silver, their eyes to the ground, their
hands placed at right angles with their chests.
Then came two gentlemen bearing remarkable tall candlesticks, with
candles of corresponding size. One was burning brightly, but the wind
(that chartered libertine) had blown out the other, which nevertheless
kept its place in the procession--I wondered to myself whether the
reverend gentleman who carried the extinguished candle, felt disgusted,
humiliated, mortified--perfectly conscious that the eyes of many
thousands of people were bent upon that bit of refractory wax. We all of
us looked at it with intense interest.
Another cross-bearer, behind whom came a gentleman carrying an
instrument like a bedroom candlestick.
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