In exitu Israel : $b an historical novel, volume 2 (of 2)Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
In exitu Israel : $b an historical novel, volume 2 (of 2)
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction
'Bruder Klaus! no. It was the blessed Beatus. He was a British
missionary, and he converted all that portion of Switzerland. I have
visited his cave. From the mouth you can look over the beautiful lake
to the snowy heads of the Jung-Frau, the Mönch, and the Eiger. Oh! the
scene is so lovely. But no pilgrims visit the cave; the people around
have forgotten their benefactor along with the faith he taught them. It
is sad. I wept in that cave, and prayed for the re-conversion of those
cantons which had fallen into heresy.'
His bright, honest face became clouded with sorrow.
Madame Berthier looked at it, smiled, and changed the subject.
'What is that little statuette in your hand?'
The lad coloured, and extended it to her.
'If you please, madame, I bought it for Mademoiselle André. It seemed
to me so long since she left our house, and yet it is only three days,
and I was sure that she wanted something, but I could not exactly
tell what. I thought about it all day. I felt a voice within me say,
"Gabrielle has need of something, you must take it to her." I felt
impelled to come here, but I did not know for what purpose. At last
it flashed across my mind that she must desire a little image of the
Blessed Virgin for her devotions.'
'In other words,' said the lady, 'you felt miserable without Gabrielle,
and hunted about for an excuse to come here?'
Nicholas stared at her. This was a new light in which to view his
sensations. There might be some truth in it, he admitted to himself,
and then his eyes fell.
'Oh, madame,' said he, 'you should see our beautiful lake of the Four
Cantons. There is not a promontory that does not end in a little white
chapel with a red roof, containing a sacred figure; there is not a rock
jutting out of the water which has not its tiny shrine upon it. Oh!
it is so pretty, so religious, so happy! I remember one just opposite
the arm of the lake that points towards the south, it stands almost
on the blue water, a white sunny speck, and when you row up to it you
find it to be an arcaded niche, enshrining a statue of S. Nicolas von
der Flue, the hermit, in his brown serge habit, staff in hand, with
his sad, pale, earnest face looking out towards the hazy ridge, on the
flank of which he dwelt so many years in prayer and fasting. And as you
near the next prong of rock thrust out of the waves, you see a bower of
hazels, in which snuggles another tiny chapel, open only to the water,
overhung by a bush of flowering elder, with braids of crimson wild rose
wavering against the white walls, and blue salvia and pink willow-herb
clustering about the sides; whilst before the statue of the Blessed
Virgin bearing her Child, that it contains, the sparkling ripples
incessantly bow and whisper their litanies.'
'How beautiful!' exclaimed Madame Berthier; 'I must ask my father
whether it was Switzerland that I remember.'
'Your father!' repeated Nicholas, looking blank; 'what can you mean,
madame? do you not know----?'
'Know what?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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