chorus of love and benediction of the choirs
within, as, with new hints of devotion in their patient faces, they
folded their own little ones closer with some vague, struggling,
incomprehensible sense of aspiration--they were one with their Royal
Lady and the Blessed Madonna, in the sacred mystery of Motherhood.

In the spacious apse the Hierarchy and the Royal Court were ranged for
the ceremonial, and back of them a low three-arched opening at one side
of the apse, supported on columns of polished porphyry clasped with
grotesquely hammered copper, gave glimpses of palms waving in the great
Court of the Tombs; gave glimpses also of the Monks of Troodos who had
come hither with all their numbers, to witness the solemn services of
the dedication of their infant king to his high trust.

And just within the portal, in strange contrast to the pomp of his
surroundings, stood Hagios Johannes Lampadisti, "the Illumined"--a wild,
stern figure, in his sombre robes--unchanged for any highest
festival--with the symbol of solemn sacrifice on his breast, beyond all
thought of admiration or of reproach for the splendor about him, his
prophetic gaze fastened on the face of the Queen with imperious
intensity--one hand slightly extended towards her, holding out his cross
of thorns.

When the solemn rites were over and the Queen had received her child
again from the arms of the Archbishop of Nikosia, Hagios Johannes,
never moving his eyes from her face came forward with slow movements,
and Caterina, with a sudden, uncontrollable impulse, lifting her eyes
beheld the mystic gaze of Hagios Johannes and knelt down before the
altar, straining her baby close to her breast.

"Dear Christ in Heaven!" she cried, in the dialect of the people. "I
give him to Thee!--I give _my All_ to Thee! He and I, we will live for
Thee; and for this People of Cyprus!--so Thou and the Blessed Mother be
our helpers."

The Queen's Councillors in their splendid robes of office, looked in
amazement to see their Queen forget her state in such a presence, and
outrage every precedent by crying out in the unlearned language of the
people, before this stately company; and the face of the dignified
Primate flamed with wrath at this unseemliness. But Caterina, noting
nothing, turned to receive their homage for the infant King, for whom as
by an inspiration, she had publicly offered these vows, from the depths
of her heart.

As the procession moved out into the sunshine