to me last night in a dream. She held her child Jesus on her arm, and
looked at me with a mother's tenderness. She wishes to make saints of
us, for she loves us; and to be a saint, you see, Gabriel, one must
suffer."

"Well, go and pray for me, my kind sister; go away from the view of this
sad place, which will eventually shake your firmness, and perhaps mine.
Go; we shall see each other again in heaven above, where our mother is
waiting for us--our mother whom you have not known, and to whom I shall
often speak of you. Farewell, my sister, until we meet again!"

And he kissed her on the forehead.

The young girl called up all her strength into her heart for this supreme
moment; she walked with a firm step; having reached the threshold, she
turned round and waved him a farewell, preventing herself by a nervous
contraction from bursting into tears, but as soon as she was in the
corridor, a sob broke from her bosom, and Gabriel, who heard it echo from
the vaulted roof, thought that his heart would break.

Then he threw himself on his knees, and, lifting his hands to heaven,
cried, "I have finished suffering; I have nothing more that holds me to
life. I thank Thee, my God! Thou hast kept my father away, and hast
been willing to spare the poor old man a grief that would have been
beyond his strength."

It was at the hour of noon, after having exhausted every possible means,
poured out his gold to the last piece, and embraced the knees of the
lowest serving man, that Solomon the fisherman took his way to his son's
prison. His brow was so woebegone that the guards drew back, seized with