CHAPTER X. (Concluded.)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 21, 14 September 1883, Page 5

CHAPTER X. (Concluded.)

Long and silently Carlo and Geltruda gazed at the conflagration which was illuminating with a portentious glare the sky at the back of the burning mansion. At last seeing her increasing paleness and evident exhaustion, he insisted on conducting her to the hut which his mother's tender forethought had stored with every possible comfort compatible with suoh an abode. Gently and soothingly, like a parent nursing a sick child, he made her lie down, and persuaded her to swallow some food. She had hardly wept at all during the agon'zing days she had gone through, but now her tears fell fast anl in torrents. As the dawn was beginning to break in the eastern sky, she fell into a deep sleep. He went out, and sitting down on some logs near the hut, leant his head against the trunk of a tree and slept also for a little wbile. When he awoke, the fire was still devouring the remains of what had once been Castel Barco. It coniinned to rage throughout the day and tho following night, and then smouldered for a long while. Strange days followed for those two beings, shut off from the outward world almost as completely as if they had been cast on a desert island. No human, creature would have approached them if it had not baen that the old hermit of Limpadusa, hearing of Carlo's i»elf-devotion and his solitary quarantine, founi his way to the hut; and to his still greater astonishment than when a few months before he had seen Geltruda standing at his own door, did he behold her sitting on the grass under the shade of the four p\lm-trees. Her joy was g"reat when she perceived him, and great the relief of pouring into his ear her pent-up foelings. Carlo had been to her all tenderness. His delicate and watchful care had guarded her from uneasiness and spared her the slightest feeling of distress in her singular and unprotected position ; but Fra Romualdo's visit was, nevertheless, inexpressibly consoling. To him she could impart what as yet she did not venture to say to Carlo, although they spent several hours of the day together, sometimes sitting in the orange and olive groves, sometimes by the side of the torrent of melted snow hastening to reach the blue sea. She was particularly fond of watching that rushing, foaming stream breaking over the stones, narrowing and widening again at intervals. Two words at thoss momenta of ten rosa to her lips—" Time and Eternity." Carlo used then to see her eyes turning towards the dark blue line of the distant sea, and the azure sky above it, and there was in them an expression which made it impossible to .him to interrupt her silent meditation. Often she spoke to him with touching gratitude, with earnest even ardeat affection, but she never mentioned the future, and something seemed to check him when he tried to do so. There was a sort of tacit feeling on both sides which kept thtm silent as to the days that were past and those that were to come. God and Heaven, the marvellous beauty of His works, the wonders of His grace, they spoke of. And the more beautiful the sky, the more lovely the earth, the more their s:>uls rose to the contemplation cf the world beyond the grave. When they walked amidst the ilex and the olive groves, and fUwers of every shape and hue seemed to spring up under their feet; when through the openings in the foliage they caught glimpses of'distant scenery, fairer than any poet's dream, they said to each other : 11 If the prison-house is so beautiful, what will the palace lie 1 Bach day, at noon, the white handkeichief was waved over the hut as the signal to Carlo's mother that all was well with them. Each morning before sunrise they met at a spot agreed upon, between their respective abodes —the hut and the caye —and walked to an eminence rear the boundary they could not cross. When the tinkling bell of the little chapel announced that Mass was going to be said at the sanctuary of Lampedusa, they knelt on the grass and heard it in spirit. As the days elapsed Carlo could see that Geltruda found it more and more difficult to converse about anything connected with this world. She seemed to live in another atmosphere, to be sighing for an invisible home. Bat in proportion with this increasing and absorbing abstraction, so did the tenderness which she showed him seem also to deepen. It was inexpressibly touching, like a mother's for her child. It had in it a pitying sweetness and at the same time a strengthening power. When she spoke of God and Heaven, the fire in her soul seemed to kindle in his a kindred flame and to raise it above earthly careß and thoughts. Time passed quickly. The lastday of the quarantine was approaching. The last but one was Sunday. Fra Romualdo brought them that morning the Blessed Sacrament to the spot where they were wont to repair for their devotions. Kneeling side by side, where they had so often prayed together, they received Holy Commuuion, made a long thanksgiving, and then returned to the valley. After the customary meal, which they shared as usual, Carlo was about to leave Geltruda alone, as he had been wont to do, till noon; but she asked him to stay and sit down by her on the logs under the palm-trees. Then be took courage. His tongue was loosed. The spell that had kept him silent was for a moment dispelled. He s»id: '' Do you remember, Geltruda, that to-morrow we return to the world ; that my mother will be expecting us, aud the Übaldi palace opening its doors to receive us ?" "Oailo mio! have we spent so many days together, have our souls held such intimate communion in this solitude—and you have not read my heart ? Have you thought it possible that the survivor of this awful catvstrophe, the la&t daughter of a house so suddenly, so fearfully swept away, could go back to the world, to its cares and its joys 1 Did yon hope so Carlo ? Oh lif you did, then, I thank God that silence sealed your lips and mine, and that it has been given to

me during thess sweet an I solama days to show you how great, how unchanging is my love for you and not to sadlen your soul before the parting hour arrived." " This is what I feareV he said, and buried his face in. his hands. "If you had wept, Geltruda ; if you had shunned me more ; if you had looked le3s calm, less peaceful, less unearthly, I would have hoped more : if yon had been to me less like an angel leading me to uuknown heights, I shouli not now be so afraid that God will not give you back to me." " Then you did foresee it ? " " How could 1 help foreseeing that he woul 1 accept my off jring, though weak nature clung to the contrary hope ? " •' Tour offering 1 O Carlo 1 speak. What offering did you make?" ' When I heard of the fate of all your family, when I thought of my Geltruda in the living tomb which had closed over her, and the solitary anguish she was undergoing, 1 flung myself on the ground in speechlesi agony ; I asked Ood to save you not for myself, but for Him, if such were His will, and if He called you to the religious life, to let me follow in your footsteps." Geltruda's eyes beamed with a joy only known to those who obtain the dearest wish of their hearts for one they love more than themselves. " I owe you all," she said ; " and now, for eternity, we are united. Believe me, Carlo, it is not for those who have walked in the paths by which we have been led to retrace their steps, to drink at the cisterns when the fountain is in sight. My vocation was marked out for me when my kindred perished near me ou', of reach of my help, when they died without the sacraments. Could I with those memories live happily in an earthly horns ? Would not the remembrance of their deaths?, so unprepared for, haunt m 9 day and night? Oh 1 if you have seen me serene, calm, and hopeful, it is because tomorrow I shall begin as a Poor Clare to off sr up for the repose of those souls the daily sacrifices of my austere rule, the ardent prayers which may hasten their release. I would not leave you before your banishment was over, not till you were restored to your mother ; but I have thirsted to abandon this earthly paradise and to enter the cloister with an intensity words cannot describe." She hesitated and then added : " The moment is at hand. Fri ■Romualdo has arranged everything for my reception at Santa Chiara, near Oaeglia. They expect me this day. Will you take, me there, Carlo ? " "So soon 1 " he said. "Do they know your history ? " "Yes, the prioress was a dear friend of my mother's. Fj.i Romualdo has told her all. She consents to receive the penniless orphan, and to conceal her true name from the world." " Is that your wish 1 " " Yes ;my only wish, and what I ask of you. Let no one but your mother know that the last of the Montenegri escaped the doom which has fallen on her race. Let mo ba de id to every one else. And you," she tenderly added, "you my beloved one— where— ? when—? You cannot yet tell." "In the family of St. Francis, with God's help, I will live and die. Wherever obedience sends me, there I will go. Geltruda, these days have given me new thoughts of Heaven. As we have so often said, if the joys of the prison-house can be so great, what will it ba when we meet in paradise ? " " And your mother — what will she feel ? " "Oh 1 she has long lived in readiness to ace -pt the hardest of sacrifices if God's hand points to it. She will thank him for my vocation. What can Christian mothers like her expect for their children when they ask God daily to grant them His greatest met'eies " This was said with a bright smile, and then Geltruda felt that the bitterness of her sacrifice \va9 over. They might both suffer in bidding each other an eternal farewell on earth, but the light of Heaven was shining on the paths they were botjh about to tread. Late that afternoon the mule was again harnessed, and Carlo condncted Geltruda to the Convent of Santa Chiara. In the presence of the prioress the parting took place. "Addio, Geltruda," " Addio, Carlo," were the only words they uttered. The aged nar, who knew their story, was in tears. They did not weep— not then, at least. Geltruda felt an intense joy, a deep gratitude, that her offering was accepted, and her life henceforward devoted to the work of expiation. As Carlo looked at her for the last time, he thought, " I might have mide sure long ago that she was not meant for an earthly bride," and then bravely went his way to the home he was about to leave for a life of poverty and apostolic labour. His mother gave her assent and blessing to his resolution, and entered herself a religions Order. The Übaldi palace was turned into a hospital. Before Carlo left Ta^gia, be made a pilgrimage to the chapel of Lampedusa, and hungup an ez-voto. He and Geltruda had piomised at the last festa to make an offering of two hearts joined together, in case they w<-re united in the course of the year. On their way to Santa Chiara she had reminded him of it. " Are not our hearts more closely united," she said, " than if the dearest earthly tie had bound us ? Do vre not owe an ex-voto to the shrine of our Blessed Lady 1 " No one knew the story of those two hearts except Fra Romualdo, who, before his death, told it to a brother in religion who joined him in his solitude. Thus was the memory of this incident preserved', and the Legend of the Silver Hearts handed down to posterity.