ht glorified, was an expression so seraphic, so entranced, that it
seemed as though to his fervent gaze the very gates of heaven must be
open, and all the splendors and glories and majesties of paradise
revealed.

It is as I thus first saw Fray Antonio--verily a saint kneeling before
the cross--that I strive to think of him always. Yet even when that
other and darker, but surely more glorious, picture of him rises before
my mind I am not disconsolate; for at such times the thought possesses
me--coming to me clearly and vehemently, as though from a strongly
impelled force without myself--that what he prayed for at the moment
when I beheld him was that which God granted to him in the end.

Some men being thus broken in upon while in the very act of communing
with Heaven would have been distressed and ill at ease--as I assuredly
was because I had so interrupted him. But to Fray Antonio, as I truly
believe, communion with Heaven was so entirely a part of his daily life
that our sudden entry in nowise ruffled him. After a moment, that he
might recall his thoughts within himself and so to earth again, he arose
from his knees, and with a grave, simple grace came forward to greet us.
He was not more than eight-and-twenty years old, and he was slightly
built and thin--not emaciated, but lean with the wholesome leanness of
one who strove to keep his body in the careful order of a machine of
which much work was required. His face still had in it the soft
roundness and tenderness of youth, that accorded well with its
expression of gracious sweetness; but there was a firmness about the
fine, strong chin, and in the set of the delicate lips, that showed a
reserve of masterful strength. And most of all did this strength shine
forth from his eyes; which, truly, though at this first sight of him I
did not perceive it fully, were the most wonderful eyes that ever I have
seen. As I then beheld them I thought them black; but they really were a
dark blue, and so were in keeping with his fair skin and hair. Yet that
which gave them so strong an individuality was less their changing color
than the marvellous way in which their expression changed with every
change of feeling of the soul that animated them. When I first saw them,
turned up towards heaven, they seemed to speak a heavenly language full
of love; and when I saw them last, stern, but shining with the exultant
light of joy triumphant, they fairly hurled the wrath of outraged Heaven