at
Nismes, before he was executed. It is not yet five years since he
sealed his doctrine with an ignominious death."

"Then," pursued Abraham Mazel, "All the former restrictions were
renewed with greater severity. We could not speak, scarcely think
without being betrayed. A year had now elapsed, when an assembly of
religious people in Alais was surprised by Basville, they were all
dragged to prison, and all, without further enquiries, were sentenced
to martyrdom. This took place in October. I had also been present, and
only escaped through a miracle. I had already seen some of the
prophecying children here and there, without profit, my heart became
rather colder at the sight, because the little worms did not please me
in that state. Now, after my day's work was finished, I sat in
solitude, tired and exhausted from riding, and looked round at the
green meadows, the sky and the mountains. I tried, in my inmost soul,
to unravel the mystery, why all should be thus and not otherwise, how
God and man, virtue and sin, in and through one another, and how in
this entwined knot, now and then the rays of eternity shine down into
this temporal world, and how, in one short moment, we feel and
experience within us the whole unfathomable eternity, and many thousand
thoughts and feelings, of which the smallest in the tittle of time, is
allowed no place. Also why we were so miserable, and what was the end
of the Lord in this. Behold, my friend, there descended a vast stream
of thoughts from heaven, (I saw, but knew not one word, one letter of
it) and alighted as with large eagle's wings upon my brain and roared
and murmured there, and the marrow of my back became cold as ice, and
my inmost soul was congealed and frozen, and my teeth chattered with
fear. How the breath lost itself in my breast, and now it was, as if
little cooing doves were flying through the immeasureable space of my
soul. A gentle heat came over me and my heart sprung open as the rose
out of its bud on a spring morning, and the Lord was within me. Then I
fell down and my prayer was prophecy. Oh, how could I have thought that
his presence was so sweet, who, with his glory, almost broke down the
wall of the narrow dwelling. Thanks be to him for ever and ever, Amen!"

"His wonders are immeasureable and unspeakable," said Edmond.

"Many," said Abraham in continuation, "whose faith was suspected,
were imprisoned throughout the whole country. They were most
severely treat