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

the wisdom so often withhold from the proud, to bo lavishly
ired upon the hnmbli ooor. Ahis ! like Pilate,
Lady
Orau .1: ~\Vh:d is truth? and, like him sho
i i;e answer, but, impatient of her own feverish i'an-
.1 si' epl.-sw eou,'h, slie rose, dressed herself hastily, a.-t I
have already said, an.i Btepp il out upon the balcony. It was
ly night suc'i a night as that on which the prophet
looked, when he declared that " the heavens show forth the
glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of His
hands." The deep blue sky of Italy seemed to prow deeper
still, as Lady Oranmoro gazed upon it, until sho felt as if she
were looking into it, and through it, and beyond it and from
;
out of this uzuro setting the stars met her glances with looks so
conscious and so calm, that she could almost have persuaded
herself theirs was the light of angel eyes, not merely watching
ov r 11 sleeping world, but engaged in penetrating into the hidden
depths of her soul, nud reading all its secrets. The calm
night air soon soothed the perturbation of her spirits, and
she was fast sinking iu'o a sort of dreamy calm, when the first
notes of the Hymn of the Blessed Sacrament fell on her ears ;
and here a door and there a window opening,
1>L1.\I> AGNJSSE.
told how all
the people were now astir, some going forth to. join in the procession,
others content to sit in their balconies and mingle their
voices with the burden of the song. The voices of the singers
were sweet and true, and the air they sung most touching; and
ever and anon the tinkling of the little bells, which announced
the presence tf the Blessed Sacrament, filled the air with a
melody so spirit-like and sweet, one might have fancied them
rung by the hands of the angels who invisibly crowded round
the sacramental presence of their Lord. Lady Oranmore
looked and listened like one entranced. Holy stars, and silver
moon, aud perfume-breathing flowers, and calm of sea, and
hush of earth, the silent heavens, and the voices of His
adoring creatures, all seemed mingling together to do Him
honor in the lowly state in which His love had laid Him. For
one brief moment, the very sweetness of Jesus Himself seemed
to fill her bosom, and she believed in His sacramental presence
with alaith as firm as the most uudoubtiug of His worshippers.
Tears gushed into' her eyes, she clasped her hands, and ex-
chamber, lighted a taper at the night lamp left burning there,
and, setting it among the flowers of the balcony, knelt down to
worship Jesus as He passed. The procession was almost beneath
her window as she did so. Surrounded by a guard of
honor, the priest who bore the Blessed Sacrament walked beneath
the canopy, of which the silver bells announced his
coming to the people ; and among his immediate assistants,
some carried banners and crosses, and others sent up clouds
hosannahs, proclaiming Him their Saviour and, won by
the sclf-s;>me spirit of love from whence they took their inspifora
little while she, believed us , they did. B
faith, ulas! like theirs,
:
was lleet ng; and, as lie who hud in-
spired it passed slowly out of sight, it would, perlir.ps, have-
form of a child -of Blind A.CTIK s >- for n
'could have; been found with .On to
wander t through a:r '? Lady
Or;..
was neither younj re, and though well acqr
Naples, she was timid, as pdoplo often are in a
crowded city. Even in the broad daylight she had never ventured
in the streets alone, yet now she could not resist the im-
pulse which prompted her to cast a large mantle ovi r h r
shoulders, to quit the balcony, descend the staiis, and join the
procession, side by side with the Little Spouse of the B.
Sacrament.
The wide street and the open square were soon left behind,
and poorer grew the aspect of the houses, anel poorer still the
class of persons who joined in the procession as it passed ;
but still the harmony of the hymn was heard, new voices link-
ing themselves on to the silver chain, just v.iiere the old ones
dropped it; and btill the streets, however dark and squalid they
might have been before, put on a robe of light and brifr
to welcome its approach. At length it paused in one of tho
dirtiest of those dirty streets of which there is no I:
Naples. The song was hushed, the tinkling of the bills was
heard no more, and in their stead arose the low murmur of
prayer, as the people ft 11 on their knees in all the nu;
filth of that most filthy pavement. They thought not of
things, however, for they were in the presence of Him before
whon cherubim and seraphim do veil their faces; and lu.w
shouLl ehiinty thoughts and earthly niceties intrude upc n
minds ? It was in truth to no kingly palace, to no lordly po.--
ses-or of the earth, that the King of kings had come in ji
The dwelling into which tl*e priest now entered could on I.
or i
been willingly chosen by voluntary poverty,
forced upon that which was involuntary. At another tinn
Oranmoro might have trembled to find herself alone ami
tended in such a place at such an hour; but now
which was neither curiosity, nor yet devotion, nor yet a sc-illed
purpose of any kind, seemed to draw her footsteps onward.
She felt as if she were obeying an invisible spirit, an
that spirit resided in the person of Agnese; and, acting still upon
the same irresistible impulse, when the child arose and followed
the priest into the house, she forgot her natr,
claimed aloud, unconscious that she was repeating the very
words of the hymn to which she had betn "
listening Oh, RO
to die is not to die ! Good God ! To go to Thee with Jesus in
my bosom !" By this time tapers began to burn in every balcony,
light flew as if by some invisible communication from
house to house, from window to window, and the street, which
a few minutes before had been as dark as night and the tall
shadows of buildings could make it, became bright and glittering,
as though a shower of stars had suddenly descended upon
iti gloomy places. Not a window without its light not a
black speck left to mar the effect of the general illumination.
The mighty faith of the people stirred the heart of the lady to a
yet higher pitch of enthusiasm, and, by an stricken deer of the flock was lying. It was no sudden accident
or sickness which had brought her there. The wasted
impulse for which
she never afterwards could account, she stepped back into her
form, the sunken cheek, the hectic color, all told of the .si >w
progress of that disease which inch by inch bears its victim 10
the tomb.
Confession had probably gone before ; all the history of that
young life hael been told to God and to His minister, aud tho
words of peace and pardon hael been poured into her ear the
"
go in peace" of the Saviour who now had come in person to
anel steppeel over the threshold with her.
In a miserable room, on a miserable bed if, indeed, the
head of reeeh and Indian straw coulel be so entitled the
fill her heart with hope, anel her soul with joy ;
and hop. ,
joy, and heaven itself, were all so vividly impressed upon
her pallid face, that, but for the poverty in which she w:
veloped, and the lights around her bed, and the tears cf the
wielowed woman (so soon to be a childless mother) who knelt
beside her, she might have seemed to the excited irnagii:
of Lady Oraumore, not a dying woman, but an angel not a
of incense from their silver censers; while the people followed,
some near aud some at a little distance, some with the intention
of attending to the dwelling of the dying person, but the
greater number merely dropping into the spirit ascending
procession, and after
walking with it a short space, returning to their homes. Lady
Oraumore thought of His entrance into the cities of
.Tudea, and of His meek and holy bearing, and of the
crowds that gave Him welcome, and of the little children who
to the sky, but one descending thence, to
speak by her looks of the happiness of heaven. She felt all
tliis, for she had hardly time to think it, or to place herself on
her knees in a distant corner, where she could see, without
being seen, before the voice of tjie priest was heard, the;
mother hushed her sobs, and the girl seemed to try and still
her labored breathing, in order to catch the import
of his
words. It was the Sacrament of Extreme Unction which he
was ub"utto administer, and Lady Oraumore soon becan
so* bed in her deep attention tlmt most touching ritual, by
which the Catholic Church invokes the pardon of ai
God u; the dying person. The: