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

And whatever favor lie had gained by n Rood life h
tli
!>y
is .si:
od. It. was putting (iod'.s will !!'< ire his own
the most trying moment of life. '
,> ready ;
So just
as li
iniouB suspicion, the clond passed :iv. i;y. I)e wus free
and lie was innocent. He was now a hero iu the worldV
1 suffered unjustly.
vhody was ready with sympathy, with congratulations.
ssurances of regard. The whole world in which ho moved
\ to be thankful on his account. Every imaginable ex-
trial, of which we must now speak.
As far as our human eyes can see, nothing but Colonel Penwarne's
death would have brought Father Dunstan to the
mansion; or sent him, at that time, to say Mass in the Catholic
church in th village. Father Joseph, knowing that he should
be so far engaged as to want help in the parish church, had
gone to Dr. Beauelerk, and through him the assistance of
Father Duustan had been obtained. At Penwarne, Father
Dnnsttm had heard all that there was
and he had never forgotten him.
to tell of Peter Sands,
The grand old lady in black was Father Dunstan's mother.
She had lived in London for about three years, and she had become
well acquainted with Mrs. Penwarne and Lady Edith
May.
When Peter's great trouble fell upon him, she heard fiom
them every particular concerning him, and she determined on
going to Treddiugton to see him. This lady, who was by birth
a Portuguese, had been twice married. By her first husband
she had one daughter, who hrul married an Englishman. They
11 to Liver-
pool, and with their child ;
I curious idri 'destination.
.v
expressed
OH i/l' I'eter Qs this child. There I
She had at
that time been in the West linden with her second hut-.
All enquiries had K -iu-law's 1
written to her; but there had been a fixed belief in the J
all, and no idea had ever arisen as to the child having been
saved. She told Peter what she believed. She wished to
adopt him as her grandchild. She produced a miniature of
his grand-father, and no one could deny that there was a remarkable
likeness in Peter'^ face to this picture. She said sho
had observed his countenance as he stood on his trial in the
"ii of friendship and admiration poured in upon Pater.
!!' might have been anything or had anything that the world
could bestow.
But there were a great many practical people who wondered
why all this had happened, and who asked for a reason for what
they had seen.
It is quite certain that many things are suffered in this life
for which there seems to be no reason, and which might very
easily have been prevented, as we dock, and that the likeness he showed to her first husband as
the watched him through her opera-glass convinced her heart
of his relationship to him. And now she proposed that he
should go
think, when all is known.
r, in spite of shaken health, and a spirit sorely tried,
canie out of prison a better man, a stronger mn, a man living
to God than when he went in.
But there was a very curious fact to come out on this strange
to her estates in the West Indies, and take the management
of hi r property there as the assistant of her agent,
who had grown infirm, and had suggested that he should have
a younger man associated with him.
Peter accepted the offer gladly; and within the month he was
sailing to his new home, with Fred Drake by his side, whoso
thorough change of heart was to be rewarded by a year's travel,
and who had chosen to see life in the tropics in company with
the friend to whom he owed so much.
For many a year the people of Penwarne have talked of
Peter Sands; his example still lives in the village, and tho
story of his steadfastness encourages the young. He has never
forgotten his friends, neither have his friends forgotten him;
but the Miss Lances declare they shall never get over parting
with him.
They have, however, consoled themselves in some measure
by letter-writing; and though mounting the steep
stairs to the top of the house, where the glass bower still
stands, has with increasing years become a difficulty, it is a
difficulty surmounted occasionally, when one sister says to the
other, "Ah ! there's the jail, and the meadows, and under that
holly is the granite stile. It is like looking on Peter's youth."
Alter this comes the prayer for final perseverance, in which
we all can join them.