PROCESSION AT DIEPPE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 191, 24 November 1876, Page 9

PROCESSION AT DIEPPE.

[From the Westminster ' Gazette/] W « S e ™nily in luck's way at Dieppe, for I had the good fortune on Sunday evening, after renewing a visit I had paid the previous day to the chapel on the cliff to fall in with a procession^ in this fisherman s quarter of the good town of Dieppe. The procession started trom the new church which has taken the place of the old chapel ot Notre-Dame-des-Greves, where many a generation of brave sailors had offered tip their prayers, and wended its way to the large Crucifix, fifty feet in height, standing at the entrance of the harbor. It was essentially a sailor's procession; a miniature ship covered with flags, in the middle of which stood an image of the Blessed Virgin and Child, was borne on the shoulders of four stalwart sailors, whose bronzed faces bore witness to their seafaring lite. This characteristic display formed the centre of the procession, and -was guarded by long lines of sailors on either side. Iv tront was borne a lofty cross, preceeded by six acolytes, who, with great precision and at regular intervals, swung their censers high in the air. A large image, silvergilt, of the Blessed Virgin, borne by tour girls dressed in white, with white veils gracefully and modestly falling over head and shoulders, followed next in order, lhe Children of Mary, all in white, lined the passage and scattered flowers on the way. Troops of women, in their picturesque dress, followed m long lines, kgaia sailors, bearing a flag, attended their patron samt, passed along, accompanied by their wives and daughters, or, may he, here and there by a more shy, but admiring sweetheart. Groups of girls followed, bearing on trestles mossy mounds covered with followers. Flags and flowers followed in close succession. The air was made sweet with the perfume of flowers and the scent of the smoking incense. Priests in white surplices marched two-and-two chaunting the solemn hymna of the Church or the litanies, the responses to which were caught up by the vast crowd with all the melody of numerous voices rising and tailing together and mingling with the murmur of the sea rolling up to the mouth of the harbor. When the long-drawn procession at last reached the gigantic Crucifix, priests in splendid copes, surrounding the temporary altar, knelt before the Tree of life and offered up the supplications of the Church for the salvation of those especially whose lives are daily and nightly in the peril of many waters. The large space in the front of the harbor was enclosed by. high poles dressed with flags. The stand of the cross was covered with flowers, and the crown of thorns on the head of the Saviour of the World was replaced by a wreath of blood-red roses. The vast masses of the people in every variety of costume kneeling before the towering cross, the white robed girls standing near the bronzed sailors, vested priests, Sisters of Charity, images, crosses, flowers, and flags, the sea in the distance, the sun pouring down its glory on this spot partly sheltered by the high cliff on which stands the chapel I have before spoken of, made up a scene of picturesque beauty, which was only surpassed in its influence on the mind by the simple and touching piety of the kneeling multitudes of men, women, and children.

In returning from the picturesque fisherman's quarter to Dieppe proper one falls in again with ordinary people and more commonplace sights. Yet, to do the people of this town in Normandy justice, I must say that I have seldom seen a more modest and well-behaved people. The activity of the women is remarkable. They are always at work, now in. the marketplace, now mending their husbands' nets ; whilst the men, with both hands in their pockets, lounge on the quay, or are stretched at full length in sheer listlessness. At one corner of the quay I watched for a longtime thirteen men and one boy doing nothing. This is an ordinary sight; but I never saw an idle woman. They are always active and on the move ; they do not even appear, strange to say, to have time to flirt. An intelligent and keen-eyed companion remarked to me that an image of a woman might fitly be erected on the brow of the cliff near the chapel, whose extended arm, outstretched over the city, and indeed over France, might threaten, unless it speedily repented, destruction to that portion of the human race which denies God and is unfaithful to woman. For the sake of its deeper truths, the exaggerated statement may perhaps be allowed to pass muster.

A Seeker and Finder.