THE NOISE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
There were two special processions in Saint-Guilhem. There were two where everyone brought out their veils and best sleeves and visitors appeared with their devices and their banners and the whole village shone with solemnity and joy. The first of them had been on 3 May, for the Invention of the Cross, and the local people still talked about it, now, during Ascension, weeks later. The day the True Cross made its journey around the village, protecting it, letting its people know that the abbey wasn’t a stranger in their midst, but their protector. It was a noisy procession, and a happy one.
The time travellers heard it from their vantage point.
“This is the noise of the Middle Ages,” Geoff said.
“Or just the noise of Catholicism,” suggested Artemisia. “I wis
