it moved in so definite
and practical a manner."

"It seems to me, Reverend Father," said Mora, leaning upon the table,
her face framed in her hands, and looking with knitted brows at the
Bishop; "it almost seems to me that you regard the entire vision with a
measure of secret incredulity."

"Nay, my daughter, there you mistake. On the contrary I am fully
convinced, by that which you tell me, that the ancient babe, Mary
Antony, was undoubtedly permitted to see you and your knightly lover
kneeling hand in hand before our Lady's shrine; also I praise our
blessed Lady that by vouchsafing this sight to Mary Antony, and by
allowing her to hear words which you yourself know to have been in very
deed actually spoken, your mind has been led to accept as the divine
will for you, this return to the world and union with your lover, which
will, I feel sure, be not only for your happiness and his, but also a
fruitful source of good to many. Yet, I admit----"

The Bishop paused, and considered; as if anxious to say just so much,
and neither more nor less. Continuing, he spoke slowly, weighing each
word. "Yet, I frankly admit, I would sooner for mine own guidance
listen for the Voice of God within, or learn His will from the written
Word, than ask for miraculous signs, or act upon the visions of others.

"No doubt you read, in the Chronicle I lately lent you, how 'in the
year of our Lord eleven hundred and thirty-seven--that time of many
sorrows, of burning, pillaging, rapine and torture, when the city of
York was burned together with the principal monastery; the city of
Rochester was consumed; also the Church of Bath, and the city of
Leicester; when owing to the absence of King Stephen abroad and the
mildness of his rule when at home, the barons greatly oppressed and
ill-used the Church and the people--while many were standing at the
Celebration of Mass at Windsor, they beheld the Crucifix, which was
over the altar, moving and wringing its hands, now the right hand with
the left, now the left with the right, after the manner of those who
are in distress.'

"This wondrous sight convinced those who saw it that the crucified
Redeemer sympathised with the grievous sorrows of the land.

"But no carven crucifix, wringing its hands before a gazing crowd,
could so deeply convince me of the sympathy of the Redeemer as to sit
alone in mine own chamber and read from the book of Isaiah the Prophet:
'Surely He hath borne our griefs, an