Morning journal and courier., 1890-07-18

crowd of sightseers, meeting here and there isolated detachments of the processionists on their road to the rallying point, and pausing for an instant at Noppeney's (the Gunters of Ostend) to indulge in soyez (a mysterious compound of champagne, bordeaux, hqueur, and fruit, you arrive safely on the scene 70 ot the coming function where N. Tilkins, the chief commissioner of police, his breast bristling with orders (for royalty dearly loves Ostend), Is doing his best to preserve his cooked hat from the ravsges-of fresh gale from the north and keep clear space for the cures and vicaires in the midst of . compact mass of Flemish mstrons, who are all bent on getting the best possible view of the "Zse Weding.n
 The mermafds and three keys of Ostend autter gayly in the wind at the four corners of the altar; the csndlesticks are massive enough to defy the breeze, and although the rolling sea and cloudy sky are both of lead en hue, the rain has stopped and e ray of sunshine suddenly falls on the vessels of furnished brass as the sound of band, the cheers of the rising generation of loups demer, and the presence of @ surpliced digni- tary who bore a remarkable resemblance to MT. James Fernandez proclaimed the arrival of the supreme moment. The Cspucin friars, the white-robed dominicans, the bes- dies of St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Joseph and Notre-dame, the tiny shepherdresses, the diminutive gardeners, the figures of saints (St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Hubert among | them, of course), the medieval pages, the | srehers, the choir-boys in scarlet csssocksr | the bronzsd sailors with brand-new jerseys | aud heavy earrings, the white capped fsh wives (some young and pretty, others old and | ugly), and the bearers of Flemish texts defils slowly past, saluting the altar, and ther turning slowly eastwards towards the hsrbori
 where the whole of the neat fishing smsoks
 t,aI 4
 in anticipation of their own particular bene
 diction. A detachment of youths carrying
 ropes, compasses, anchors, charts, and othel
 nautical emblems hslts on one side of M | Tilkin's square; four maidens in musliI
 gowns and yellow scrafs and wresths way, | silver censers energeticahy at either corne
 of the raised platform; the band of th Garde Ciyique plays a slow march, and a | the dense cloud of incense arises, M. Ocean niere, the dean, and the whole parocis
 clergy, all in gold coupes. advance with pro found references to the "Station," while g ) | acolyte places fine seventeenth century gil , Pyx in the center of the altar, but contiHus | to hold it firmly from behind on account ( | the violence of the gale.
 The breeze adds somewhat to the pictui . | sequences of the spectacle; snd there WI l not sound to be heard save the splash { | the sea and the signing of the wind as tt
 martial music ceased and the celebrsnt con
 menesd in a low clear voice the sentenc
 "Deusqui nobis sub sacramento miribi | passionis," etc. Then came the singing Cassiolini's "Panis Angelieus" by the Star ! the Sea Choral society gathered round the |, green banner inscribed with the myst \ words "Koormastschappij ostend," and q
 sun shone out brightly as the Cure Dove
 stretched ont, his hand containing the sacrs , ! wafer first towards the town, and then fro 3 ! the staircase to the north of the altar ov,
 the waves, which somehow or other al 2 peared to have lost their dulness of hsif-al 6 hour before.
 For @ few seconds the Flemish matrol
 ceased to chatter ss they murmured bri a prayer on pended knee; a Belgian flag VI 5 run up as 8 signal; and then the boom . cannon told the fishermen that the aid
 heaven had been once more invoked in the
 behalf, and at the same time informed Il ' health seekers that their daily "dib" (ss Bi ' on von Glsuber used to call it) might now D indulged in with the full approval of Moth
 | Church.