untenance. His eyes were blue and very brilliant, his
cheeks were slightly tinged with red, and his hair was of the ruddy
golden colour of wine. From the top of his head to his ears it was
straight and without radiance; but from his ears to his shoulders and
down his back it fell in shining curls and clusters.

Again all was suddenly changed, and Isidore and the Angel were alone.

"Thou hast seen," said the Angel; "give me thy hand so that thou shalt
not forget."

Isidore stretched out his hand, and the Angel opened it, and turning
the palm upward, struck it. Isidore groaned with the sharp pain of the
stroke, and sank into unconsciousness.

When he awoke in the morning the sun was high in the heavens, and the
pilgrim had departed on his way. But the hut was filled with a
heavenly fragrance, and on his bed Isidore perceived the wild flowers
that he had plucked in the fields of Bethany--red anemones and blue
lupins and yellow marigolds, with many others more sweet and lovely
than the flowers that grew in the fields or Spain.

"Then surely," he cried, "it was not merely a dream."

And looking at his hand, he saw that the palm bore blue tracings such
as one sees on the arms of wanderers and seafaring men. These marks,
Isidore learned afterwards, were the Hebrew letters that spelt the name
"JERUSALEM."

As long as he lived those letters recalled to his mind all the marvels
that had been shown him. And they did more than this, for whenever his
eyes fell on them he said, "Blessed be the promise of the Lord the
Redeemer of Israel, who hath us in His care for evermore!"

Now these are the words of that promise:

"_Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I
not forget thee. Behold, I have engraven thee upon the palms of my
hands._"

The Ancient Gods Pursuing

I will now tell of Hilary and his companions, who came over the snowy
passes of the Alps, and carried the lamp of faith into the north; and
this was in the days of the ancient gods. Many of their shrines had
Hilary overturned, and broken their images, and cut down their sacred
trees, and denied their wells of healing. Wherefore terrible phantoms
pursued him in his dreams, and in the darkness, and in the haunted ways
of the woods and mountains. At one time it was the brute-god Pan, who
sought to madden him with the terror of his piping in desolate places;
at