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

Tlii: CHURCH OF THE CATACOMBS. 87
meat before his feet, he would have leaped into it,
his remorse and shame.
Strange, too, it to bury
proved, that he should not have ever allowed
Eurotas to get possession of that family relic, but should, ever
of whose garment sends forth virtue to cure alL Are
ready to receive Him ?"
" With all my heart," she replied, clasping her hands ;
'since he regained it, have kept it apart as a sacred thing ; and,
when ill 1 else was being packed up, should have folded it believed, to whom my
up
heart belou;
"
Does no anger or indignation exist in your soul against
and put it in his breast. And now, in the act of drawing out him who has injured you ? does any pride or vanity arise in
you
" I
long to possess Him whom alone I have loved, in whom I have
his eastern dagger, he had plucked this out, too, and both were your mind at the thought of what you have done ? or are you
found upon the floor. conscious of any other fault requiring humble confession and
Dionysius, immediately after dressing the wound; and ad- absolution before receiving the sacred gift into your breast ?"
ministering proper restoratives, which brought back conscious-
" Full of imperfection and sin I know myself to be, vener-
ness, desired the patient to be left perfectly quiet, to see as able father but I ; am not conscious of any knowing offence.
I have had no need to forgive him to whom you allude ;
few persons as possible, so as to prevent excitement, and to go
on with the treatment which he prescribed until midnight. " I
will call," he added, " very early in the morning, when I must
see my patient alone. " He whispered a few words .in her ear,
which seemed to do her more good than all his medicines ; for
her countenance brightened into an angelic smile.
Fabiola had her placed in her own bed, and allotting to her
attendants the outward room, reserved to herself exclusively
the privilege, as she deemed it, of nursing the servant, to
whom a few months before she could hardly feel grateful for
having tended her in fever. She had informed the others
how the wound had been inflicted, concealing the relationship
between her assailant and her deliverer.
I love him too much for that, and would willingly give my life
to save him. And of what have I to be proud, a poor servant,
who have only obeyed my Lord's commands ?"
" Invite, then, my child, this Lord fnto your house, that
coming He may heal you, and fill you with His grace."
Approaching the table, he took from it a particle of the
Blessed Eucharist, in the form of unleavened bread, which,
being dry, he moistened in water, and placed within her lips.*
She closed them upon it, and remained for some time absorbed
in contemplation.
And thus did holy Dionysius discharge his two-fold office of
physician and priest, attributed to him on his tomb.
Although herself exhausted and feverish, she would not
leave the bedside of the patient ; and when midnight was past
and no more remedies had to be administered, she sank to rest
upon a low couch close to the bed. And now what were her
thoughts, when in the dim light of a sick-room, she opened
her mind and heart to them? They were simple and earnest.
She saw at once the reality and truth of all that her servant
had ever spoken to her. When she last conversed with CHAPTER XXXII.
THE SACRIFICE ACCEPTED.
her,
the UUO principles plllllJlUlCO which W11HJ11 she Olid heard llei*iV-l with *1UU delight, wcllgllv, had JUUU ap- illjpeared
THROUGH the whole of that day the patient seemed occupied
with deep, but most pleasing, thoughts. Fabiola who never
. . ,
to her wholly beyond practice, beautiful theories,
^er
f**** f r a few momei>ts to which could not be brought
give necessary directions,
to action. When Miriam t^ her countenance with a mixture of awe and had described a sphere of virtue, wherein no ap.
probation
delight,
Appeared as if her servant s mind were removed from Bur-
or reward of man was to be expected, but only
objects, and conversing in a totally different ^dmg sphere.
f*V 8m 1 e Pass d kke a su across her features, now a
, f ^eam
^ar trembled in her eye, or flowed down her cheeks the approving eye of God, she had admired the idea, which
powerfully
; sometunes
her pupils were raised and kept fixed on heaven for a
considerable time, while a blissful look of perfect and calm en-
seized her generous mind but she had rebelled
;
against its becoming the constraining rule of hourly conduct.
Yet, if the stroke under which she cast herself had proved fatal,
as it might, easily have dcme, where would have been her
reward ? What, then, could be her motive but that very
theory, as it seemed, of responsibility to an unseen power ?
And when Miriam had discoursed of heroism in virtue as
., ,. . . . , ,
"
, t r
prescribed ; feeling it an being
honor, and thinking it did her c-ood
its ordinary standard, how chimerical the principle had
joyment
'
i_ i., .- ...^ .._", i. i_. ,
sat unvarying upon her and ; then, she would
turn round with an expression of infinite tenderness towards
her mistress, and hold out her hand to be clasped in hers. And
Fabiola could sit thus for hours in silence, which was as yet
to be in contact with such a rare type of virtue.
At length, in the course of the day, after giving her patient
il ! Yet here, without preparation, without forethought,
.ut excitement, without glory, nay, with marked desire
of concealment, this slave had performed a deed of self-sacri-
!]