This ceremony was continued as late as 1829, since when the _cortege_ no longer goes round the town as formerly, but a service is performed in the church.
The belief of this miracle seems to form an article of faith; for the story was told me by three persons of different classes, all of whom spoke of it as a tradition in which they placed implicit credit.
Sainte Radegonde seems to hold, however, the highest rank of the three defenders of Poitiers.

"She is a great saint," said the exhibitor of the Museum to me, "and performs miracles every day." "Ste.

Radegonde," said the bibliothecaire--"is a great protectress of this town, and has personally interfered to assist us in times of need--but, perhaps, you are not Catholic." "The great saint," said a votaress, who was selling _chapelets_ at her tomb, "does not let a month escape without showing her power; only six weeks ago a poor child, who was paralyzed, was brought here by its mother, having been given up by the doctors; and the moment it touched the marble where it was laid, all its limbs became as strong as ever, and it walked out of the church." We, of course, lost as little time as possible in paying our _devoirs_ to so wondrous a personage.

The church is a very venerable structure, surmounted by a spire covered with slate.

The Saint was the wife of Clotaire the First, and quitted her court to live a religious life, having built a monastery in honour of the true cross, a piece of which had been sent to her from Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian.