«You who still believe in miracles, oh ! if only you would seek out this lost village! Remember: the farmhouse and the arch of its barn bridge, the hedge beneath the lamp, the tall church. The inn’s staircase has a double banister, and beneath the windows stand two of those iron gates where dragons tie their horses on Sunday afternoons.» If these words by Gustave Roud resonate so deeply with me, it is surely because of the inverted mysticism that animates it, the hope sustained by a promise of…