Part 15 (2/2)

Carlos raised his dark blue eyes and fixed them on the questioner's face.

”Of the future,” he said slowly, ”I think---nothing. I dare not think of it. It is in G.o.d's hand, and he thinks for us. Still, one thing I cannot choose but see. Where we are we cannot remain. We are bound to a great wheel that is turning--turning--and turn with it, even in spite of ourselves, we must and do. But it is the wheel, not of chance, but of G.o.d's mighty purposes; that is all our comfort.”

”And those purposes, are they not mercy and truth unto our beloved land?”

”They may be; but I know not. They are not revealed. 'Mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant,' that indeed is written.”

”We are they that keep his covenant.”

Carlos sighed, and resumed the thread of his own thought,--

”The wheel turns round, and we with it. Even since I came here it has turned perceptibly. And how it is to turn one step further without bringing us into contact with the solid frame of things as they are, and so crus.h.i.+ng us, truly I see not. I see not; but I trust G.o.d.”

”You allude to these discussions about the sacrifice of the ma.s.s now going on so continually amongst us?”

”I do. Hitherto we have been able to work underground; but if doubt must be thrown upon _that_, the thin sh.e.l.l of earth that has concealed and protected us, will break and fall in upon our heads. And then?”

”Already we are all asking, 'And then?'” said Fray Fernando. ”There will be nothing before us but flight to some foreign land.”

”And how, in G.o.d's name, is that to be accomplished? But G.o.d forgive me these words; and G.o.d keep me, and all of us, from the subtle snare of mixing with the question, 'What is his will?' that other question, 'What will be our fate if we try to do it?' As the n.o.ble De Seso said to me, all that matters to us is to be found amongst those who 'follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.' _But he went to Calvary_.”

The last words were spoken in so low a tone that Fray Fernando heard them not.

”What did you say?” he asked.

”No matter. Time enough to hear if G.o.d himself speaks it in our ears.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of a lay brother, who informed Carlos that a visitor awaited him in the convent parlour. As it was one of the hours during which the rules of the house (which were quite liberal enough, without being lax) permitted the entertainment of visitors, Carlos went to receive his without much delay.

He knew that if the guest had been one of ”their own,” their loved brethren in the faith, even the attendant would have been well acquainted with his person, and would naturally have named him. He entered the room, therefore, with no very lively antic.i.p.ations; expecting, at most, to see one of his cousins, who might have paid him the compliment of riding out from the city to visit him.

A tall, handsome, sunburnt man, who had his left arm in a sling, was standing with his back to the window. But in one moment more the other arm was flung round the neck of Carlos, and heart pressed to heart, and lip to lip--the brothers stood together.

XVI.

Welcome Home.

”We are so unlike each other, Thou and I, that none would guess We were children of one mother, But for mutual tenderness.”--E. B. Browning

After the first tumult of greeting, in which affection was expressed rather by look and gesture than by word, the brothers sat down and talked. Eager questions rose to the lips of both, but especially to those of Carlos, whose surprise at Juan's unexpected appearance only equalled his delight.

”But you are wounded, my brother,” he said. ”Not seriously, I hope?”

”Oh no! Only a bullet through my arm. A piece of my usual good luck.

I got it in The Battle.”

<script>