lo anello.--Vita di Santa Catarina, 1. ii.
Vinegia, 1541.

Four of these wheels, armed with iron teeth, and revolving towards
each other, were to cut her to pieces. Angels broke the wheels. He then
brought her to the stake, and the angels extinguished the flames. He
then ordered her to be beheaded by the sword. This was permitted, and in
the meantime the day had closed. The body, reserved for exposure to wild
beasts, was left under guard at the place of execution. Intense darkness
fell on the night, and in the morning the body had disappeared. The
angels had borne it to the summit of the loftiest mountain of the Horeb
range, where still a rock, bearing the form of a natural sarcophagus,
meets the eye of the traveller. Here it was watched by angel-guards,
and preserved in unchanging beauty, till, in the fulness of time, it
was revealed to a holy man, who removed it to the shrine, under which it
lies to this day, with the ring still on its hand, in the convent which
was then founded, and which bears her name--the convent Saint Catharine
of Mount Sinai.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Most of this is new to me. Yet I am not
unfamiliar with pictures of the marriage of Saint Catharine, which was a
favourite subject with the great Italian masters. But here is a picture
which the legend, as you have related it, does not illustrate. What is
this tomb, with flames bursting from it, and monks and others recoiling
in dismay?

_Mr. Falconer._ It represents a remarkable incident at the tomb of the
saint. The Empress Catharine II. was a great benefactress to the Convent
of Mount Sinai, and desired to possess Saint Catharine's ring. She sent
a mitred abbot as an envoy to request it from the brotherhood.

The monks, unwilling to displease the empress, replied that they did not
dare to remove it themselves, but that they would open the tomb, and
the envoy might take it. They opened the tomb accordingly, and the
envoy looked on the hand and the ring. He approached to draw it off;
but flames burst forth: he recoiled, and the tomb closed. Under such a
manifestation of the saint's displeasure, the fathers could not again
attempt to open it.{1}

1 Illustrations of Jerusalem and Mount Sinai (1837), p. 27.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I should like to have seen the empress
receiving the envoy's report.

_Mr. Falconer._ Her reception of it would depend on the degree of faith
which she either actually felt, or might have thought it poli