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CHAPTER XXI
SUNDAY THE FIRST OF NOVEMBER
FOR over a thousand years the CathoHc Church has
kept, on the 2nd or 3rd of November, the solemn
festival of " All Souls " in remembrance of the dead
and as an admonition to the living to send up prayers
to the throne of God for the souls suffering in purgatory.
A Mass for the departed is held in the churches, and the
graves in the cemeteries are adorned with wreaths and
flowers.
In the parish church of Bapaume a German " All Souls
"
celebration was held on Sunday the ist of November in
remembrance of the fallen soldiers. Duke Adolf Friedrich
and I arrived in good time for the service but found the
church filled to overcrowding with four thousand soldiers.
We succeeded however in getting up to the chancel, where
two chairs were placed for us among a group of officers.
The old church makes a truly imposing and magnificent
impression. The first thing I felt constrained to do, after
taking my seat, was to cast my eye over the fane, with its
lofty Gothic arches and handsome windows. On either side
of the mighty nave are small side-aisles supported by massive
pillars. The transept walls are adorned with large memorial
tablets, which however are of doubtful artistic value. The
sunlight filters in through the stained-glass windows and falls
in all the hues of the rainbow upon the white pillars. One
wonders why a town of little more than 3,000 inhabitants
should need a church capable of holding 4,000 persons, but
at the great festivals this place of worship attracts people
from the whole surrounding country.
All pews are overcrowded, soldiers are standing closely
packed all down the aisles, with their helmets slung over their
arms. There are Catholic Sisters in their black dresses, white
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