"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 crushing us, truly I see not. I see not; but I trust God."
"You allude to these discussions about the sacrifice of the mass 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 shell 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 God's name, is that to be accomplished? But God forgive me
these words; and God 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 noble 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 God 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 anticipations;
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.