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

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but (hoy worn now floating upon smooth waters, antT a few lazy
:' the our HiilViced to bring them to the shall",
ft strong liaiul laid hold of tin.' boa'-. Mid dre\y it, hif/h :uul dry
upon the sunds, and Grace Nettevville jumped out.
1 nave you, 1 >;' id to the man, at the same time
assisting her little sister to follow her example.
" The same to you kindly, inavoumeeu," replied the man ;
"you have had a rough passage of it, Mios May."
e, aye," rejoined Grace, or May, as we ought now to
call her "the white horses are ; playing strange pranks out
reverence c;m change his shoes afterwards, and most of his
congregation, God help them, have no shoes to change."
' '
Merry Asthur to me, if you ever said a truer v/ovd
that, Miss May,"
nor
said Dan, holding his own bare foot to the
light of the bogwood torch, which he:had kindled during the
conversation, and now presented to his rnistr. ss.
May took it, and twining her other arm around her little
sister's waist, and whispering to her not to be 'afraid, drew her
forward into the cavern. It grew very dark as they proceeded;
and had it not been for her blazing torch, May Netterville
might have found some difficulty in steering clear of the sharppoiuted
rocks everywhere scattered around, and of the pools of
water, some of them looking fearfully dark and deep, which
had been left there by the high tides. Presently the dark wall
of rock receded upon either side, spring up into wide and lofty
arches over their heads ; and, instead of the stony surface
which had wounded her feet sadly, Agnese felt that she was
walking on smooth sands, though even these indicated by their
unusual moisture, the presence of the ocean at no very dis-
tant period of time. An enormous mass of black stone, perfectly
detached from the surrounding rock, stood in the midst
of this cavern chamber ; it resembled, in some degree, a boulder-stone
of unusual size, only the back part, which rose con-
siderably higher than the front, was fashioned into something
of the likeness of a rude stone cross, while the lower portion
was quite flat enough to admit of its serving for an altar a
purpose to which the lighted candles, in their tin or wooden
apparently of a different opinion regarding its necessity,
picked it up, while it was yet smoking on the floar, relighted
it from one of the caudles burning on the altar, and very
gravely presented it to his young mistress.
"What is it, Daniel," said May, it must be confessed a little
"
pettishly. Why waste the good bogwood ? I don't want it
Lere."
"
Maybe not. Miss May, but somebody is wanting yon for all
that. Here's little Paudeen without says the mistress is in a
to tell of, and May turned anxiously
'
My grandmother wants me, darling ;
to her sister :
will you be afraid of
staying here alone ? I will come or send for you directly after
Mass."
'
dear <
()'}. never mind me lam
"
yonder upon the ocean.
" 'Tis a spring-tide, too," said "
Dan, and if the wind contiuife
in this quarter, his reverence won't read Mass dry-shod
fervently
this blessed moruin', I'm thinking."
"
Well, well," said Grace, with her merriest laugh, "his
and BO loudly,
;
'. v -
:rr, in a 1<
ither were to die to-day pray
for her to .'-
Agnese kissed her sister's hand in token of assent, and
taking the torch from Daniel, threaded her way rapidly ft]
the pools of water, and soon dil
cave. She had not been long gone when the poorp<
to arrive from the mainland, dropping in
andorowdin ; towards the altar,
bei'i re which they pra\
that the air cccmed fill
rnur of their voices. A whisper of " hush I his riveiv
soon afterwards announced the coming of tire priest, and.
many a blessing give-. ;, Father
vanced to the foot of the altar, where, after a IV,
in deep recollection of spirit, he began to vest him.-.i
celebration of the divine Sacrifice. And a
tones of his voice reached Aguese's -pie to depart directly, if there is time," w.;s
the hurried anxwer.
" There is plenty of time if they go at once, for the tide
great hurry to see you, and won't have you wait
ence's Mass."
for his rever-
"
Is, then, my grandmother ill ? " said May, rising hurriedly
from her knees.
" Xot as 1 know on, Miss May, but Paudeen says she is very
wake and low like, and his reverence would have stayed with
her till you came, only old Norrishea is dying, and he was
forced to go off to the other side of the island to see her, and
BO he bid you come as quick as "
you could.
Daniel looked as if there was more the matter than he chose
be at its full for ai. other hour. But won't your re\
it with them '>" asked Daniel, anxiously "it wouldn't 1-
;
to remain much longer."
" Then see that the people do not linger," replied tho father;
" I must fiuish what I have begun ;"
liid of the
of httj Hock, he resumed the interrupted s rv:ee with a:
lire :;s i!' Ins li:'e were not perilled by the delay. Daniel
lost not n moment in communicating this mans;
congregation, and a simultaneous rush instantly took pi
: ranee, but the faithful fellow linden d ;
, Ionian..': \visi I'niU t'lA-imls the father, n'itil, ai ;
nis last, he also reluctantly \viUi-."