The clouds of incense blend. But what was Mabel doing, Where was the maiden now? O joy! at Mary’s altar, She plights another vow! Yes! while the girl was weeping, Her Rudolph lost and gone, The Sacred Host drew near her, There from strange glory shone. And there as if in vision, All wondrous, and most clear, Mabel beheld the Saviour, His voice fell on her ear. “Arise, my love, my fair one, Arise, and come away; The winter’s past, the rain gone,” The sunbeams strew thy way. In lily vales the virgins Are waiting now for thee, “Arise my love, my fair one, Arise, and follow Me.” * * * * * Hush! softly in the distance, I hear the nuns’ sweet song, ’Tis floating through the Cloister, Its fretted roofs along. And mingling with the echoes Of nature’s own sweet praise, Which the lowing herd, and the sweet song-bird, With insects hum doth raise. How peacefully, how restfully, Such sounds as these combine To soothe the weary spirit, A weary one like mine. But now my spirit wanders, Woo’d by that distant hymn, Through the hallow’d door, o’er the storied floor, To the steps of the chancel dim. The nuns’ sweet hymn was dying In faintest tones away, While prostrate at the altar, A maiden’s figure lay. Two years had pass’d since Mabel Had heard the Bridegroom’s voice, In Bardsey’s Holy Island, And made her happy choice. And now before His Altar, She lays her young life down, And from the hands of Rudolph Receives the virgin crown! Yes! Father Rudolph blesses, The Virgin-Crown and Veil Adorn the brow of Mabel, With wreaths of lilies pale. Her vows, like his, are plighted, For ever and for aye, To One Whose Love and Beauty Can change not or decay. O happy youths and virgins! In cloister homes that dwell, For ever and for ever Your joyous songs shall swell— Upon the soft sweet breezes Of Zion’s sun-lit lands— Upon the lily hill-slopes, With all the virgin bands. * * * * * And so Carnarvon Convent Enclosed another bride, For Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, The Virgins Joy and Pride. * * * * *