Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

Lnmb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, from your
heart shall ascend a perpetual sacriftee, a perpetual adoration,
na true ai.d aa worthy aa if you wore in the convent of your
choice. "
There was a long silence. Blanche's face was hidden in her
hands, for such worda needed no answer ; words from which
she gathered strength for many years to come.
Mary entered the room, and seeing them both silent, she sat
down beside Blanche.
"Mary," said Walter, suddenly raising his head, "do you
ever hear from Isabel ?" The word was spoken with nn effort.
Mnry had been expecting this queat.on, and schooling her-
Belt to meet it, yet now it came she trembled.
"
No," she answered ;
" but you know we seldom write let-
ters in these days of danger."
" When did you last hear ? Now, Mary, be open with me ;
it is true kindness t > tell me all you
know. I have heard
nothing but the fact of her unhappy marriage."
" Her letters," answered Mary, "well nigh ceased some time
before she married. When I heard of the event, I wrote to
her, and begged that nothing might interrupt the love between
us. Then came a few lines, saying it was impossible for her,
as I must see, to keep up intercourse with her relations.
There was that in the spirit of those few words which showed
me, that though she was pained at parting from me, her whole
soul was wrapped up in her husband. It was therefore no entrapping
of the late earl's indeed I never could credit he
;
could have bent Isabel's will."
"No," said Walter " in the one letter she ;
wrote, in which
she bade me not to write, she said 'twas her own free choice.
And you have ntver seen her ?"
" Y s, once ; two years since I was in London for a while ;
and we stood one day on the pier at Greenwich to see the queen
take boai for Westminster. I had never s en her majesty, and
'twas a grand pageant; many ladies of the court were there,
among them Isabel. She has grown into such majestic beauty,
she looked fitter than Elizabeth to be the queen, albeit her
highness hath a stately presence."
" Did Isabel recognize you ?"
" Oh, yea, and turned pale as dea'h ; then casting on me a
look of deep affection, she hastened forward to take her place
in the boat that was awaiting her. There wns a sadness in her
beauty ; her eye had that wistful gaze as of those looking to
something beyond and indistinct. I heard a good deal a . out
her during my stay in London, for Rachel contrived to come to
me. She told me Isabel sorrows deeply she has no children,
for it is galliug to her husban .'s pride to have no heir. The
failure of a male heir in the direct line is unknown in the Beau-
ville family, and the estates must now pass to a distant relation,
one whom Beauville dislikes. Another of her sorrows is caused
by her husband's neglect, to Icve a wife, and be a favorite with
the queen, is impossible in England. Lord Beauville prefers the
queen's favor, and, indeed, Rachel saith he seems to have
ceased to care for the beautiful creature he hath wedded, while
she loves him still more wildly."
"It is too much as I feared," answered Walter, sadly," for I
have heard much of Lord Beauville, as Viscount Regnier,
abroad; such news as would not make one imagine a woman
linked to him could be happy. My poor Isabel ! little did she
imagine how vile a man she was wedding.
Mary he does not oppose that, I trust ; I suppose
to gain admission to the ambassadors' chapels ?"
There was no answer.
" Did Rachel say nothing about this?"
But her religion,
she is able
Mary shook like a leaf she could no' ;
speak.
The truth flashed for an instant upon him. He started to
his feet.
"Tell me quickly, Mary," said he, his voice trembling with
anguish ; "it is not possible she can have forsaken her faith ?"
'Alas !" sobbed Mary, "I fear she hat i. She attends the
Protes ant services, and never seeks the Sacraments; I tried for
long not to believe it, but I fear mo it is true. "
Walter silently left the room. Ho shut himself up
TTBORNS. 21
in his own chamber, .and any who listened might
have heard tlie sobs and groans that burst f n
man i:i his ago y, for if any soul was dear to tho priest,
how much more the one of his only sister ! the only tie he yet
had to earth an aponlate ! Oh, awful thought! unendurable
to his ardent and loving soul. Yet, when he remembered his
youth, and how once ho had stood on the very brink of the
precipice, Walter humbled himself exceedingly, and offered up
his life as a sacrifice for this precious soul. And Walter, as he
reviewed the past -with tho keen self-reproach of the holy, accused
himself of neglect and coldness 1o his sister at Apswcll
Court. Had he kept free from that entanglement with Con-
stance, and made Isabel the object of his affection, and resolutely
broken down the icy barrier that she raised, a bond
might have been cemented between them which Viscount Regnier
would have no power to break. Perhaps to -ether they
might have gone abroad ; perhaps to her, too, might have been
given a priceless gift, and at this moment in some holy cloister
she might be praying for him, in tead of his wrestling for her.
Many hours passed ere tho household at Thorcsby saw Father
do Lisle again, and many a nigh! after that was spent in vigil
and in penance, to atone, as far as might be, for the fault
which seemed so grievous to the purified eye of the saint.
CHAPTER III.
' When he stood up in court sn