The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-01-24

Angela did : the angel told her; ahs lifted
tho c1ay0p, and taking hAr place before the
Picture, she began to trace with timid hand
the outline of thAt wondrous face which was
engraven npon her heart.
laid his hand gently upon his eyelids.
Leonardo gradually awoke from . calm, re-
Geshing sleep; the pain was gone from MS
again. It seemed to him that the room was
breath Of Aowers.
His first glance was towards his picture.
Angela stood before it painting, tho angel by
her side, his hand guiding hers, and the shining
light Of his countenance illumining her figure,
and playing like . halo round her golden head
Leonardo gazed in wonderment, . veil seemed
torn from his eyes he looked into his own
heart and saw its blackness, and he knew why
it was his pure Angela was ch0eon in his place.
but he owned the justice of the sentence and
prayed to be forgiven. Again the angel Ap-
pGoached and touched his eyelids, and Leonardo
fell back up0n his pillow OncA moro Raleep.
Whom he again awoke, it wes evening. An
gela Wa ON her low seat beside the couch, her
face laid close to his, and his hand pressed be-
tween her own. She lay 80 still, and looked 90
my daughter, awake" he said.
"Ohi have Dreamed abe answered, SO
sweet dream, dear father; thought was
e a,1d angel is guided ny hand. The face
painted was 90 lovely, that it's beauty sank
deep into my heart, and whom had finished, it
sssnsa to smile upon pesxon me
more.D She fell back fainting, and Leonardo
bent over her in an agony of fear
Gently he lifted up his darling, and bore her
to her own little room, where he laid her on the
white curtained bed, calling her by every en-
dearing name, and tenderly chatting her hands
and feet, which were fast becoming cold. 1t
eyes open upon the light of this lower world:
Angelas sacrifice had been accepted the angel
had surrendered his charge at the foot of the
throne. She was dead. y 81. q
Leonardo called wildly upon Albrecht, who
came silently to the bedside his heart too truly
warning him what he was to see there. AL
through the night, in his lonely watch among
the rocks that Iifeless form, with its closed eye
lids and dropping limbs, had been before him.
LII an agony, too deep for tears, he drew the
golden head upon his breast, and PRESSED upon
the breathless lips his first and only kiss.
The picture was placed in the church upon
the day of her funeral, and while they chaflnt-
ed the requiem for her soul, Leonardo made a
solemn vow, that he would forever give up all
thoughts of that earthly fame for the love of
which he had well nigh lost his immortal soul.
Albrecht lived to earn a worldwide renown
as a painter-but no woman ever called him
husband. Angela had been to him the type of
all that was good and beautiful, and he never
sought another. She lives again in the pictures
he has left behind him. He excelled in paint
by golden light, all of which bear more or less
likeness to his lost Angela; in one especially
a st. Agnes-he has reproduced that last smile
he ever saw upon her lips. The deep solemn
eyes, they grow beneath his brush, always
seemed to him to wear a warning look, and
bid him beware of Leonardo's sin ; and SO well
did he heed their warming, that his very name
is unknown to posterity. Leonardo, too, has
been forgotten. He kept that vow he made be-
side his daughters bier. Many a beautiful pic
ture found its way into the churches and cathe-
drals of his native land, the painter of which
was unknown. People used to ask the artists
name-but no one could tell it. They never
suspected that they were painted by the old,
gray haired monk, whom they 80 often saw
kneeling by a grass-g grown grave, that was
marked only by white marble cross, upon
which was engraved the name Of "Angela."