There was need; for spring which
touched the earth so benignly had not passed me by. And at moments certain
longings for the world would stir in me again, and again would come those
agonizing thoughts of Giuliana which I had conceived were for ever laid to
rest, so that I sought refuge once more in the hair-shirt; and when this
had once more lost its efficacy, I took long whip-like branches of tender
eglantine to fashion a scourge with which I flagellated my naked body so
that the thorns tore my flesh and set my rebellious blood to flow.
One evening, at last, as I sat outside my hut, gazing over the rolling
emerald uplands, I had my reward. I almost fainted when first I realized
it in the extremity of my joy and thankfulness. Very faintly, just as I
had heard it that night when first I came to the hermitage, I heard now the
mystic, bell-like music that had guided my footsteps thither. Never since
that night had the sound of it reached me, though often I had listened for
it.
It came now wafted down to me, it seemed, upon the evening breeze, a sound
of angelic chimes infinitely ravishing to my senses, and stirring my heart
to such an ecstasy of faith and happiness as I had never yet known since my
coming thither.
It was a sign--a sign of pardon, a sign of grace.
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