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A FETTERED AMBASSADOR
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came to him. He banished from Pompouia's heart the dread
that because her Aulus had died unbaptised, he was doomed
to perish
: he told her not to dream that the boy, who had
thus gone home, had departed unloved by his Heavenly
Father. Fearful times were coming on the earth, and her
beloved son, in whom the signs of virtue had not been wanting,
might have been taken only to save him from the furnace
of moral temptation aud the wrath to come. Then taking
from the hand of Luke the scroll in which he had been
writing the great discourse on the Mount of Olives, he read to
'
her the words of Jesus : Ye shall be hated of all men for my
name's sake.
And yet a hair from your head shall not perish.
In your endurance ye shall acquire your souls.'
'
'
'
Alas ! she cried, how may I interpret this promise that
a hair of our heads shall not fall, when niy very heart is cleft
in twain ?
'
He answered that the Lord spake not of earthly things. He
warned us that in the world we should have tribulation but
He has overcome the world.
;
And he prayed her not to dream
of hastening the tyrant's punishment. 'Leave him in God's
hands.
"
Vengeance
is mine ;
I will "
repay, saith the Lord.
When his voice ceased, the passion of Pornponia's grief had
sunk to rest.
The tears which still coursed down her cheeks
were but the natural tears of a mother's bereavement. Her
beautiful soul was prepared for consolation, and her faith had
but bowed for a moment like the upper foliage of a tree under
the stress of some mighty storm. To calm her yet further,
the Beloved Physician began to read aloud a passage here and
there from the Evangel which occupied his daily thoughts.
He read of the love of Jesus for children ;
he read the beatitudes
;
he read the story of the Cross. The music of the
words and thoughts, borne on the music of his sweet arid
solemn voice, sank into Pomponia's soul. She thanked
the Evangelist, and, asking for the blessing of the Apostle,
dropped her veil and departed to her desolate home.
The Heavenly Father who had suffered anguish to fall upon
her had also sent medicine and a physician of the soul to heal
her sickness. When she reached her palace on the Aventine,
she was able to devote her whole strength to save her husband
from succumbing to a sorrow which for him was beyond the
reach of consolation. He had chosen for the epitaph of his