"Sleep sweetly, dear one; thou wilt wake at dawn."--MOSCHUS.
"Her mind was one of those pure mirrors from which the polluting
breath passes away as it touches it."--BISHOP HEBER.
"Cette longue et cruelle maladie qu'on appelle la vie, est enfin
guérie."--MADEMOISELLE D'ESPINASSE.
"Let her pure soul ...
Remain my pledge in heaven, as sent to show
How to this portal every step I go."--SIR JOHN BEAUMONT.
I think that I have not written anything concerning the life of my
sister after we met her at Rome in the winter of 1865-66. Since that
time she had been more incessantly engrossed by the affairs, and often
very trivial interests, of the Roman Catholic Church, but without for a
moment relaxing her affection and cordiality towards us. Great was my
pleasure in watching how, in spite of all religious differences, my
mother became increasingly fond of her every time they met. I think it
is William Penn who says, "The meek, the just, the pious, the devout,
are all of one religion."
On leaving Rome in 1866, Esmeralda made it an object to visit the famous
"Nun of Monza," Ancilla Ghizza, called in religion the "Madre Serafina
della Croce." This nun had been founding a religious order at Monza,
which was at first intended to be affiliated to the Sacramentarie on the
Quirinal at Rome. She was supposed to have not only the "stigmata," but
the marks of our Lord's scourging, to be gifted with a wonderful power
and knowledge of the interior life, and to possess the gift of prophecy.
She was summoned to Rome, and, after three years' noviciate at the
Sacramentarie, she was permitted, in 1862, to return to Monza, and to
begin her community, fifteen nuns being clothed at the same time. She
used to distribute little crosses which she declared to have been
blessed by our Lord in person, and she was often in an ecstasy, in which
it was alleged that her body became so light that she could be raised
from the ground by a single hair of her head! Concerning Serafina della
Croce, Esmeralda had already received from a celebrated Italian
ecclesiastic the following:--
"_Venezia, 3 Gennaio, 1864._--Mi scusi se io così presto riprendo
la penna, per offrirle il mio povero tentativo di consolarla, sotto
la forma di questa piccola croce, che io ebbi dall' Ancilla Ghizzi
di Monza, e che è stata benedetta dalle mani stesse di Nostro
Signore in una visione. Io potrei dirle molto di queste croci, ma
ci vorrebbe troppo tempo. Così io le dirò soltanto per affermare la
sua opinione sopra la santità di questa serva di Dio, che io
conosco qui un sacerdote che andò a vederla, e al quale il
confessore dell' Ancilla delegò la sua autorità, dicendogli che
poteva commandarla ed interrogarla per un' ora, come se fosse lui
stesso il suo confessore. Infatti, portatosi dall' Ancilla, senza
che essa fosse stata avvertita di quest' accordo fra loro, il
Sacerdote le diède mentalmente l'obbedienza di unirsi con Dio in
orazione, ed essa immediatamente andò in estasi, e continuò un' ora
intera in questo stato, nel qual tempo egli le domandò
_mentalmente_ varie cose in rapporto a certe persone che
desiderebbero essere raccomandate alle sue preghiere, ed essa
rispondeva al suo precetto mentale, raccomandogli ogni persona ed
ogni domanda al Signore di _viva voce_, continuando così un dialogo
non interrotto. Qualche volta per la soddisfazione di una terza
persona che era presente, questo Sacerdote gli diceva all' orecchio
il soggetto sopra il quale voleva schiarimento. Debbo aggiungere
che in questo stato il suo corpo è così leggiero che la poteva
sollevare da terra _per un solo dei suoi capelli_, come se non
avesse più nessun peso. Ho pure veduto dei manoscritti voluminosi
del suo confessore pieni di maraviglie, e che dimostrano che la sua
familiarità colle cose e colle persone celesti è arrivata ad un
tal punto, che si può ben paragonare a tutto ciò che si legge nelle
vite dei santi. Anzi a me mi pare che supera tutto quel che io ho
letto fin qui."
Another intention of Esmeralda was to visit "Torchio," the inspired
cobbler at Turin, and consult him on various subjects. This Torchio had
had the most extraordinary visions of the Judgment; but alas! I
neglected to write down the long verbal account which my sister gave me
of her visit to him, and thus it is lost. I have only the following,
written in crossing the Mont Cenis with an Asiatic bishop, to whom
Esmeralda had offered a place in her carriage:--
"_June 4, 1866._--For three days running before leaving Rome, I had
the visits of the venerable Monsignor Natale, and we talked of
coming events in the political world. I went over from Pisa to
Leghorn, and there I saw a very remarkable person called Suora
Carolina. We went to Milan for one day, and from thence to Monza. I
saw the bishop, and besought and entreated, and at last he gave
permission, and I was the first to pass through the closed door of
the convent, and to kneel and kiss the hand of the saint. Auntie
went with me. I can never express what I felt. It was like seeing
S. Francesco d'Assisi, and it seemed like a dream as, side by side,
we walked through the cloisters and then went up into her cell:
one so highly favoured! it was too much happiness. All I had heard
was nothing to the reality, and there was Auntie sitting in her
cell, the other nuns standing round. Her face was quite beautiful,
quite heavenly.
"And then we returned to Milan and started for Turin, and there I
went to see Torchio, the celebrated Torchio, as he sat on his
basket and spoke as he was inspired. It was a wonderful and
beautiful sermon, both in word and action. When he spoke of the
Passion, one seemed to follow him to Calvary. He is a poor man
living at the top of a very poor house, but he is an apostle."
Esmeralda returned to London to Mrs. Thorpe's, but in the autumn she
went north and paid visits to the Monteiths and Stourtons and to Lady
Herries in Yorkshire. Lady Herries said afterwards that she liked to
think of her as she so often saw her in the chapel at Everingham,
praying, "oh, so fervently," for hours together. As her life became more
absorbed in devotion and religious interests, she was conscious of the
danger of neglecting earthly duties and sympathies. On August 4, 1866,
she wrote:--
"Let me walk in the presence of God without underrating His gifts,
for the underrating of God's gifts is one of the temptations which
I am required to fight against."