"Thus the stream of time rolled on, burying beneath its dark waves, our
little span of present, in the huge ocean of a perpetual past, and
devouring, as the food of both, our swift decaying future. But I floated
on its surface, and beheld whole generations flourish and fade away, while
age and silver hairs, growing infirmities, and the closing sigh that ends
them all, mocked me with a horrible exemption. I remained, and might have
remained, for ages yet to come, the fixed and unaltered image of what I
was, when in Mauritania I encountered the potent Amaimon, the damned
magician of the den, but for that--woman's faith, and man's
fidelity--which have made me what I AM!

"This _was_ my destiny. Now mark, how I became enthralled to it; and how
it befell, that at last I shook it off, and found redemption.

"In my middle manhood, when scarcely forty summers had glowed within my
veins, I left my native Italy, and journeyed to the Holy Land, upon the
strict vow of a self-imposed penance. It was for no sin committed in my
days of youth, but for the satisfaction of an ardent piety, and the
growing spirit of a long enkindled devotion. I had patrimonial wealth in
Apulia; I had kindred; I had friends. I renounced them all, to dedicate
myself, thenceforth, to the service of THE CROSS. My purpose was blessed,
by a virtuous mother's prayers, that I might approve myself a worthy
soldier of Christ; and it was sanctified by a holy priest at the altar.

"Even now, the recollection is strong within me, of the feelings with
which, as the rising sun illumined the tops of the surrounding hills, I
approached the once glorious, and still sacred, city of Jerusalem--that
chosen seat of the Godhead--that Queen among the nations. Eclipsed, though
it was, and its majestic head trodden into the dust, by the foot of the
infidel, my gladdened eyes dwelt upon what was imperishable, and my wrapt