They put Declan's crosier in his hand and he struck the water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and made the sign of the cross over the water and immediately, by command and permission of God, the sea commenced to move out from its accustomed placeso swiftly too that the monsters of the sea were swimming and running and that it was with difficulty they escaped with the sea.

[Illustration: Fiddleheads or Crosiers of Christmas Fern] NOTED FERN AUTHORS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

Suddenly, as Quasimodo passed triumphantly along the streets, the spectators saw a man, dressed like a priest, dart out and snatch away the gilded crosier from the mock pope.

Do I not feel the crosier on my breast?

So precious an object cannot long escape the notice and the skill of artists nor the vanity of its owner, especially in times of peace, when it is worn with no more use than a crosier by a bishop or a sceptre by a king.

He grasps the crosier with loving firmness.