shalt sing pure songs among the choirs that John of Patmos saw in his
vision as he stood before the great White Lamb.")

The poor widow waited all that night, and in the morning, pale from
anxious thought, she sought the child at school and everywhere
through the town.

Distraught with a mother's grief, she cried piteously throughout the
town, until she learnt that her son was last seen in the Jewry. Then
by Jesus' help she came to the very place where her young son lay,
and though he was dead already, as she drew near he began to sing the
_Alma Redemptions_ so loud and clear that all the Christian folk
passing through the street gathered together. Seeing how things were,
they sent for the provost, who arrested the Jews. Their guilt was
clear, and he dealt with them according to the law, praising Christ
and His Virgin Mother for this marvellous revelation.

The little child, they bore to the abbey, singing sad songs of
lamentation. His mother swooned by the bier. When mass had been said
over him the abbot sprinkled him with holy water and made ready to
bear him out to burial. Yet when the drops of blessed water touched
him, once again the child sang his _Alma Redemptoris Mater_. At this
the abbot, all amazed, charged him to say why, when to all seeming
he was already dead, he still sang in this fashion. Then said the
child, "When I should have died, the Mother of God came to me and
placed a grain on my tongue, and by her grace I sing thus happily in
her honour until the grain be taken from me, and then in heaven she
will receive my soul, never leaving me, because in life I loved and
worshipped her always."