The Equinox (Volume I, Number X)

THE EQUINOX Here is one of his stories : One day Vintras, in an access of enthusiasm, was preaching before his heterodox altar; twenty-five persons were present. An empty chalice was upon the altar, a chalice well known to the Abbé Charvoz ; he brought it himself from his church of Mont-Louis, and he was perfectly certain that the sacred vase had neither secret ducts nor double bottom. “*Tn order to prove to you,’ said Vintras, ‘that it is God Himself who inspires me, He acquaints me that this chalice will fill itself with drops of His blood, under the appearance of wine, and you will all be able to taste the fruit of the vines of the future, the wine which we shall drink with the Saviour in the Kingdom of His Father. . .” “Overcome with astonishment and fear,” continued the Abbé Charvoz, “I go up to the altar, I take the chalice, I look at the bottom of it: it was entirely empty. I overturned it in the sight of everyone, then I returned to kneel at the foot ot the altar, holding the chalice between my two hands... Suddenly there was a slight noise; the noise of a drop of water, falling into the chalice from the ceiling, was distinctly heard, and a drop of wine appeared at the bottom of the vase. “Every eye was fixed on me. Then they looked at the ceiling, for our simple chapel was held in a poor room ; in the ceiling was neither hole nor fissure ; nothing was seen to fall, and yet the noise of the fall of the drops multiplied, it became more rapid, and more frequent, . . and the wine climbed from the bottom of the chalice towards the brim. “When the chalice was full, I bore it slowly around so that all might see it; then the prophet dipped his lips into it, and all, one after the other, tasted the miraculous wine. It is in 146