A MEETING OF THE WATERS.
At last the day of the nuptials came. Before dawn Ethne and Baithene
started with the lectica and the cavalcade, and pausing once on the way,
at last reached the great basilica of the Lateran. There the party from
the Aventine met them, and Marius himself wondered at the fresh power
and beauty in Ethne’s face, the radiant glow, the shining of the happy
eyes. The sadness and the worn, weary look had indeed passed out of his
own face, but still he felt as if the weight of the ages rested on him in
comparison with her.
“It is the old world wedding the new,” he said to her with a tender
gravity.
“I have been among the fountains,” she said; “we are going there
together.”
“_You_ are my fountain of youth,” he answered; “I need no other.”
The Bishop and the priests met and received them at the porch, and they
entered the great basilica; it was crowded. Bishop Leo himself was to
give the benediction, and the rank of the betrothed, the romance of the
foreign, far-off origin of Ethne and Baithene, the story of their sorrows
and their joys, had gathered a great company together, touched with a
sympathy unusually real and deep.
The white and purple veil was folded by the Bishop himself around the
bride; at the close of the ceremony he solemnly joined the hands of bride
and bridegroom, laid his own hands on their heads, and then through the
vast spaces of Constantine’s basilica, in his grave, deep tones sounded
the benediction—“O God, Who by Thy mighty power hast made all things out
of nothing, Who, after other things set in order, didst appoint that
out of man created in Thine own image and similitude woman should take
her beginning, teaching that it should never be lawful to put asunder
those whom Thou hadst pleased should be created out of one! O God, Who
hast consecrated the state of matrimony to such an excellent mystery
(or sacrament), that in it Thou didst typify the sacrament (or mystery)
of Christ and the Church! O God, by Whom woman is joined to man, and so
blessed a union was instituted at the beginning, as not to be destroyed
even by the judgment of the Flood, look mercifully upon this Thy servant
now to be joined in wedlock, who seeks to be defended by Thy protection.
May there be on her the yoke of love and peace; may she be a faithful and
chaste wife in Christ, and may she continue a follower of holy women;
may she be lovable to her husband as Rachel, wise as Rebecca, long-lived
and faithful as Sarah. May she strengthen her weakness by the help
of discipline; may she be modest, grave, bashful, and instructed in
godly learning; and may she see her sons’ sons to the third and fourth
generation; and may she reach the rest of the blessed in the Kingdom of
Heaven.”
As the last act of the ceremonial, the Bishop placed on the head of Ethne
a golden crown, of Greek workmanship, and on that of Lucia a golden
diadem, delicately wrought with fine Celtic art. Ethne would rather have
chosen a crown of flowers, but the gold was considered an honour due to
her birth, as for Lucia it was a token of the rank Baithene was able to
offer her.
And so with pomp and music the bridal company were conducted to the old
palace on the Aventine. When they were alone together, Damaris blessed
her son and Baithene according to the old Greek form of her people—“The
servant of the Lord is crowned for the sake of the handmaid of the Lord,
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
And afterwards to her daughter and Ethne she said—“The handmaid of the
Lord is crowned for the sake of the servant of the Lord.” Then embracing
them with tears, she said the ancient words—“With glory and honour didst
Thou crown them, Thou hast placed a crown of precious stones upon their
heads;” and she added in her own words with a radiant smile—“These golden
crowns, beloved, will be offered in a few days on the altar in the
church, but ye shall be a crown of joy to each other for ever.”
Afterwards she gave a little sealed packet to Ethne. It contained a
precious jewelled clasp of oriental workmanship from Miriam, with the
words from the old Hebrew marriage ritual written in Latin folded round
it—“Make these two to rejoice with joy according to the joyousness which
Thou gavest to the work of Thy hands in the Garden of Eden of old.”
Before long Ethne and Marius went away to the country house, now so dear
and familiar to her, amongst the Sabine hills; whilst Baithene and Lucia
remained to be the son and daughter of Fabricius and Damaris in the old
palace on the Aventine.
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