feet, serenely moving on towards what she heard some of
them call a great action and a glorious consummation, though she did not
know what they meant. At length she was fain to sing as well as dance; and
her words were, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost;" on which another said, "A good beginning of the sacrifice."
And when she had come close to this gracious figure, there was a fresh
change. The face, the features were the same; but the light of Divinity
now seemed to beam through them, and the hair parted, and hung down long
on each side of the forehead; and there was a crown of another fashion
than the Lady's round about it, made of what looked like thorns. And the
palms of the hands were spread out as if towards her, and there were marks
of wounds in them. And the vestment had fallen, and there was a deep
opening in the side. And as she stood entranced before Him, and
motionless, she felt a consciousness that her own palms were pierced like
His, and her feet also. And she looked round, and saw the likeness of His
face and of His wounds upon all that company. And now they were suddenly
moving on, and bearing something or some one, heavenwards; and they too
began to sing, and their words seemed to be, "Rejoice with Me, for I have
found My sheep," ever repeated. They went up through an avenue or long
grotto, with torches of diamonds, and amethysts, and sapphires, which lit
up its spars and made them sparkle. And she tried to look, but could not
discover what they were carrying, till she heard a very piercing cry,
which awoke her.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

A GOOD CONFESSION.

The cry came from the keeper's wife, whom we have described as kindly
disposed to her. She was a Lybo-Phoenician, and spoke a broken Latin; but
the language of sympathy is universal, in spite of Babel. "Callista," she
exclaimed; "girl, they have sent for you; you are to die. O frightful!
worse than a runaway slave,--the torture! Give in. What's the harm? you are
so young: those terrible men with the pincers and hot bars!"

Callista sat up, and passed from her vision to her prison. She smiled and
said, "I am ready; I am going home." The woman looked almost frightened,
and with some shade of disgust and disappointment. She, as others, might
have thought it impossible, as it was unaccountable, that when it came to
the point Callista would hold out. "She's cr