Читать книгу No. XIII; or, The Story of the Lost Vestal онлайн

3 страница из 55

Thus, through the symbol of the sacred fire, which the Vestals vowed to keep for ever burning, we may see the foreshadowing of the mission of every Christian woman, matron or maiden, whose high vocation it is to keep the light of truth, purity, and love, for ever burning in her daily life, and by giving light to those around fulfil the command of her Master, when He said—

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

No. XIII;

OR,

THE STORY OF THE LOST VESTAL.

ssss1

There was silence in the city of Verulam on a bright summer day now nearly sixteen hundred years ago. It was a strange silence which reigned in the deserted streets of the old Roman city, which, with its baths and public buildings, was reckoned one of the finest in that sea-girt island, which the mistress of the world had made her own.

A vast crowd had left the city gates at dawn on that cloudless morning of early summer; women and children, stately matrons and tender maidens, all poured out of the town towards a river, some in chariots, many on foot, but all eager to get a good position on a flower-covered hill where a scene which would fill their hearts with an unhealthful excitement was to be enacted. For many of the Roman ladies, who wore costly robes, and fared delicately, and were at once the envy and admiration of the Britons, had inherited for the most part the passion for a sight which would now blanch the cheeks of their descendants, and fill their hearts with horror and shame.