to join us who--"

But here she stopped, for Melissa had fallen on her neck, and while
Euryale, much amazed, tried to release herself from her embrace, the girl
cried out, half laughing and half in tears:

"It has all come about as you expected! I will live and die faithful to
that sublime Saviour, whom I love. I am one of you--yes, mother,
now--even before the baptism I long for. For I was weary and heavy-laden
above any, and the word of the Lord hath refreshed me. This book has
taught me that there is but one path to true happiness, and it is that
which is shown us by Jesus Christ. O lady, how much fairer would our life
on earth be if what is written here concerning blessedness were stamped
on every heart! I feel as though in this hour I had been born again. I do
not know myself; and how is it possible that a poor child of man, in such
fearful straits and peril as I, and after such a scene of horror, should
feel so thankful and so full of the purest gladness?"

The matron clasped her closely in her arms, and her tears bedewed the
girl's face while she kissed her again and again; and the cheerfulness
which had just now hurt her so deeply she now regarded as a beautiful
miracle.

Her time was limited, for she was watched; and she had seized the
half-hour during which the townguard had been mustered in the square to
report progress. So Melissa had to be brief, and in a few hasty words she
told her friend all that she had seen and heard from her high window, and
how the gospel of Matthew had been to her glad tidings; how it had given
her comfort and filled her soul with infinite happiness in this the most
terrible hour of her life. At this, Euryale also forgot the horrors which
surrounded them, till Melissa called her back to the dreadful present;
for, with bowed head and in deep anxiety, she desired to know whether her
friend knew anything of her relations and Diodoros.

The matron had a painful struggle with herself. It grieved her to inflict
anxiety on Melissa's heart, as she stood before her eyes like one of the
maidens robed in white and going to be baptized, to whom presents were
given on the festive occasion, and who were carefully sheltered from all
that could disturb them and destroy the silent, holy joy of their souls.
And yet the question must be answered: so she said that of the other two
she knew nothing, any more than of Berenike and Diodoros, but that of
Philip she had bad news. He was a noble man, and