Egypt -- History -- 30 B.C.-640 A.D. -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
Her brain too had recovered its faculties. As soon as she tried to
think, her restored intelligence told her that if she were indeed still
in the Serapeum and the door should open, the lady Euryale might come in
to speak courage to her and take her in her motherly arms, and--And she
suddenly recollected the promise which had come to her from the
Scriptures of the Christians. It stood before her soul in perfect
clearness that she had found a loving comforter in the Saviour; she
remembered how gladly she had declared to the lady Euryale that the
fullness of time had now indeed come to her, and that she had no more
fervent wish than to become a fellow-believer with her kind friend--
a baptized Christian. And all the while she felt as though light were
spreading in her and around her, and the vision she had last seen when
she lost consciousness rose again before her inward eye. Again she saw
the Redeemer as He had stood before her at the end of her ride,
stretching out His arms to her in the darkness, inviting her, who was
weary and heavy laden, to be refreshed by him. A glow of thankfulness
warmed her heart, and she closed her eyes once more.
But she did not sleep; and while she lay fully conscious, with her hands
on her bosom as it rose and fell regularly with her deep breathing,
thinking of the loving Teacher, of the Christians, and of all the
glorious promises she had read in the Sermon on the Mount, and which were
addressed to her too, she could fancy that her head rested on Euryale's
shoulder, while she saw the form of the Saviour robed in light and
beckoning to her.
Her whole frame was wrapped in pleasant languor. Just so had she felt
once before-she remembered it well--and she remembered when it was. She
had felt just as she did now after her lover had for the first time
clasped her to his heart, when, as night came on, she had sat by his side
on the marble bench, while the Christian procession passed. She had
taken the chanting train for the wandering souls of the dead and--how
strange! No--she was not mistaken. She heard at this moment the
selfsame strain which they had then sung so joyfully, in spite of its
solemn mode. She did know when it had begun, but again it filled her
with a bitter-sweet sense of pity. Only it struck deeper now than
before, for she knew now that it applied to all human beings, since they
were all the children of the same kind Father, and her own brethren and
sisters.
But whence did the wonderful music proceed--Was she--and a shock of alarm
thrilled her at the thought--was she numbered with the dead? Had her
heart ceased to beat when the Saviour had taken her in His arms after her
ride through blood and darkness, when all had grown dim to her senses?
Was she now in the abode of the blest?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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