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They rode into a wood where they saw a light burning. But it was only a red glow as if from a charcoal pile or a smithy. They dismounted from their horses, and stole on foot to the place. When they reached it, they heard voices singing a "Miserere" in low tones, and they saw men, women, and children sitting round an oven, the last remains of a village.
For we were to see, we lads, what ne'er had met our eyes before, the very earth open to save us, and this by no miracle save man's skill given by God to devise wise and cunning shifts for those in peril. Lo! the abbot stood, in medio chori, noble and calm, and the sad strains of Miserere rolled down the aisle.
He may not sing his catches when penitent souls are listening to the "Miserere," drop his torpedo-puns when life's mystery and solemnity are pressed heavily upon the soul, be irreverent, profane, or vulgar. He must know and keep his place. But he should have his place, and have it confessed; and that place is not quite at the end of the procession of the benefactors of the race.
Upon the top has been engraved an Agnus Dei, the cognizance of the church. A piece of woodwork, however, which was in the north aisle at the time of the last restoration, is said to have borne the date 1397. The old miserere was probably removed when the Throne was made to comprise two stalls. It has been supposed that these niches were for figures of St. Peter and St.
And as we passed two and two up the choir that morning, the monks raised with slow and solemn voice their last Miserere in that holy place, the home of many of them from their boyhood. But what did the convent at its prayers, as the Moorish host drew near? This was made clear ere long.
In 1680, not long after the appearance of the "Princesse de Cleves," La Rochefoucauld died, and the song of her heart was changed to a miserere. "Mme. de La Fayette has fallen from the clouds," says Mme. de Sevigne. "Where can she find such a friend, such society, a like sweetness, charm, confidence, consideration for her and her son?"
There was scarcely an example of their having betrayed the secrets of the king. This was, it is true, for their interest; and if the king had lost confidence in them, they would have been in great danger. They were thus of use in a political point of view. Moreover these artists furnished singers for the Holy Father. The Comprachicos were useful for the Miserere of Allegri.
Nor was there wind, even a breath of the night's breeze, but only the melancholy silence of the omnivorous frost, the boom of falling avalanche echoing in the ravines and the ice-caverns, the groans of the doomed man a very Miserere amongst the hills, as down below amongst the dead upon the shore.
Sophronisba Scarlett was the first and last to be interred in the old cemetery within the memory of the present generation. We went down dismal paths where the night wind sighed a miserere in the cedars, and things of the dark scurried away with furtive noises, or flapped ill-omened black wings overhead. In a corner shaded by cypresses was the Hynds vault, a venerable affair with a slate roof.
The wintry afternoon closed swiftly, and, in its dusky dreariness, Salome listened to the tattoo of the rain on the roof, and to the miserere that wailed through the lonely chambers of her soul.
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