Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-17

Nothing evil shall cross this threshold
during the night" pursued the saint. 81
will guard it as in the days OF my youth |
guarded my fathers foeks on the hills.
Light not your lamp, but only the taper,
as have hidden you and stir not forth
on any threat or summons, for such will
only be snare to irjure you; and let not
your heart quail because OF the frightful
sounds you may hear. Though the earth
should quake beneath your feet, and this
solid hill tremble to its foundations, yet
shall not stone of your cell be removed,
neither shall any harm befall you"
The saint then took up the taper and
blessed it in these terms Domino Jesu
Christi, fiji Del vivi, benedic candelam
istam supplicationibus .nostris infunde Ell,
Domino, per virtutem sanctae crucis bene-
dictionem celestem; ut quibuscumque
locis accenss, sive posita fuerit, discedant
principles tenebrarum, ct contremiscant, ct
fugiunt pavidi cum omnibus ministris suis
alb habitationibus ills: nee prasumant
amplius inquietare, aut molestare servien.
ties tibi omDipotenti Deo."
After going through certain other cere.
monials, which it is needless to describe,
the saint sat down, and addressing Sister
Ursula, declared his sadiness to shrive her.
The recluse then knelt down before him,
and, incining her head so as to conceal her
features, said she had one secret within
her breast which she had never revealed to
her confessor-one sin upon her soul of
which she had never been able to repent.
Alter duly reproving her, the saint told
her to make clean her breast by confession,
declaring she would then be able to repent
Thus exhorted, Sister Ursula replied, in
accents half suffocated by irrepressible
emotion: "My secret is, that l loved
you-you, holy father-wben was young
My unrepented Elm is that have never
been able TO Danish that love from my
heart.
'fAlas sister," rei5ined the holy man,
trembling in spite of himself, 1--WE have
been equally unhappy. In days long gone
by could not behold unmoved the charms
of the fair and noble Lady Ursula Braose.
But conquered the passion, and repented
that had ever INDUCED it. Thou must
do likewise. The struggle may be hard,
but strength will be given thee for it.
Hast thou aught more to confess?"
And the poor recluse, who shed abun-
dance Of tears, replying in the negative,
the saint gave her absolution, saying that
the penance he had already enjoined was
sufficient, and that ere the morrow her
breast would be free from its load. Struck
by her looks, which were those of one not
long for this world, he told her that if her
sickness should prove mortal, dirges and
trentals should be said for the repose Of her
soul.
The recluse thanked him, and after a
while became composed and even cheerful.
Saint Cuthman tarried in the cell, dis.
coursing with her upon the glorious pros
poets of futurity, and carefully avoiding
any reference to the past, until, from the
door of the little structure, which opened
toward the west, he beheld the sun sink
into the sea. Telling the good sister that
thousand lives depended upon her vigi-
lance, he gave her his benediction and de-
parted, never more to behold her alive.
As he took his way towards the north.
eastern boundary of the ancient encamp-
ment, noise resembling thunder smote his
ear, and the ground shook so violently be-
meath his feet that he could scarcely stand,
but reeled to and fro, as if his brain
his whose lips no drink stronger than wa
ter had ever passed-had been assaulted by
the fumes of wine. Nevertheless he went
on, and after while reached the lofty
headland overlooking Poynings.
Here, as he expected, he beheld the arch
fiend at work. The internal excavator had
already made great breach into the down,
and enormous fragments Of chalk and flint
stones rolled down with terrific crash like
that caused by an avalanche amidst the
CIV al he tarrf1lo oh
shook the hill to its center. No one who
could have stood firmly upon the quakipg
headland. But Saint Cuthman, planting
his staff upon the ground, remained un.
moved-the only human witness of the
astounding scene. The fiend's proportions
had now become colossal, and he looked
like one of that giant race whom poets of
heathendom tell us warred against Jove.
His earb was suited to his task, and resem-
bled that of miner. His brawny and
hirsute arms were barred to the shoulder,
his uncovered head. His implements had
broadest and heaviest anchor fiuke ever
head of his pickax. Each stroke plunged
lniJ LIC anu tOAC up
huge boulder-like masses of chalk, the
smallest of which might have loaded van
The fand worked away with might and
main, and the coucassion produced by his
tremen lous strokes was incessant and ter
rible, echoing far over the weald like the
rafting of dreadful thunderstorm.
But the sand ran out, and Sister Ursula
turned her glass for the frat time.
@. -. l. -.
his hand to his side, as ii in pain. "a
sharp stitch !" quoth he. "My side tin
giles as if pricked by thousand pins. The
sensation is by no means pleasant-but
twill soon pass" Then perceiving the
saint watching him he called out derisively,
" Aha art thou there, thou sanity man .
What thiDkest thou now of the chance
of escape for thy friends in the weald ?
Thou art judge of such matters, doubt
not. Is my dyke broad enough and pro-
found enough, thinkest thou-or shall l
widen it and deepen it yet more ?" And
the chasm resounded with his hooking
lachter.
"Thou art slovenly workman, after
ALL" remarked Saint Cuthmap. "The
sides of the dyke are rough and uneven,
and want leveling. A mortal laborer would
be shrewdly reprimanded if he left them
in such an untidy condition"
" No mortal laborer could make such
TRENCH" cried the fend. However, it
shall never be said that / am slovenly
workman"
Whereupon he seized his spade, and pro.
ceeded to level the banks of the dyke,
carefully removing all roughness and irreg-
ularity.
evil that satisfy thy precise notions %
he called out when he had done.
81 cannot deny that it looks better"
returned the holy man, glad to think that
another hour had passed-for soft touch
falling upon his brow made him aware that
at this moment Sister Ursula had turned
the hour. glass for second time.
a sharp sudden pain smote the fiend, and
made him roar out Justify, Another
stitch, and worse than the first ! Bat it
shall not hinder my task"
Again he fell to work. Again the hill
was shaken to its base. Again mighty
masses of chalk were hurled into the val.
ley, crushing everything upon which they
descended. Again the stroke of the pickax
echoed throughout the weald.
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