eir women; the Wounded asked her for succor, the Sorrowful stretched
forth their hands: 'Do not leave us! do not leave us!' they cried. I,
too, I cried, 'Do not leave us! we adore thee! stay!' Flowers, bursting
from the seed, bathed her in their fragrance which uttered, 'Stay!' The
giant Enakim came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold and its friends and
all the Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined with him, and
they said, 'We are thine for seven hundred years.' At last came Death on
his pale horse, crying, 'I will obey thee!' One and all fell prostrate
before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it were a vast
plain, and they cried aloud to her, 'We have nurtured thee, thou art our
child; do not abandon us!' At length Life issued from her Ruby Waters,
and said, 'I will not leave thee!' then, finding Seraphita silent, she
flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, 'I am light!' '_The light_
is there!' cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood the
archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, she
could only cry, 'My God! my God!' Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, scaling
the mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a rolling
stone which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost Spirits
adored her constancy; they stood around her,--a choir without a
song,--weeping and whispering, 'Courage!' At last she conquered;
Desire--let loose upon her in every Shape and every Species--was
vanquished. She stood in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted
she saw the feet of Angels circling in the Heavens."

"She saw the feet of Angels?" repeated Wilfrid.

"Yes," said the old man.

"Was it a dream that she told you?" asked Wilfrid.

"A dream as real as your life," answered David; "I was there."

The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully.
He went away asking himself whether these visions were any less
extraordinary than those he had read of in Swedenborg the night before.

"If Spirits exist, they must act," he was saying to himself as he
entered the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone.

"Dear pastor," he said, "Seraphita is connected with us in form only,
and even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a lover;
a profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief into
scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. To-morrow
evening we shall both be with her."

"What then?" said Monsieur B