ach word
seemed to come like a lump of lead from a leaden heart, and to fall
leaden to the ground; and in this mechanical office every now and then
he moaned with all his soul. In the midst of which he suddenly observed
a little bundle in the corner he had not seen before in the feebler
light, and at one end of it something like gold spun into silk.

He went to see what it could be; and he had no sooner viewed it closer,
than he threw up his hands with rapture. "It is a seraph," he whispered,
"a lovely seraph. Heaven hath witnessed my bitter trial, and approves
my cruelty; and this flower of the skies is sent to cheer me, fainting
under my burden."

He fell on his knees, and gazed with ecstasy on its golden hair, and its
tender skin, and cheeks like a peach.

"Let me feast my sad eyes on thee ere thou leavest me for thine
ever-blessed abode, and my cell darkens again at thy parting, as it did
at hers."

With all this, the hermit disturbed the lovely visitor. He opened wide
two eyes, the colour of heaven; and seeing a strange figure kneeling
over him, he cried piteously, "MUMMA! MUM-MA!" And the tears began to
run down his little cheeks.

Perhaps, after all, Clement, who for more than six months had not looked
on the human face divine, estimated childish beauty more justly than we
can; and in truth, this fair northern child, with its long golden hair,
was far more angelic than any of our imagined angels. But now the spell
was broken.

Yet not unhappily. Clement it may be remembered, was fond of children,
and true monastic life fosters this sentiment. The innocent distress on
the cherubic face, the tears that ran so smoothly from those transparent
violets, his eyes, and his pretty, dismal cry for his only friend, his
mother, went through the hermit's heart. He employed all his gentleness
and all his art to soothe him; and as the little soul was wonderfully
intelligent for his age, presently succeeded so far that he ceased to
cry out, and wonder took the place of fear; while, in silence, broken
only in little gulps, he scanned, with great tearful eyes, this strange
figure that looked so wild, but spoke so kindly, and wore armour, yet
did not kill little boys, but coaxed them. Clement was equally perplexed
to know how this little human flower came to lie sparkling and blooming
in his gloomy cave. But he remembered he had left the door wide open,
and he was driven to conclude that, owing to this negligence, some
unfo