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"You would be in the wrong," said the king. "That is contrary to the laws of the Church and of the State; of the State, because you might deprive me of a subject; of the Church, because you would be sending an innocent to limbo unshriven." "Sire, I admire your profound wisdom, and I clearly perceive you to be the centre of all justice."
"Will she be able to speak to the priest?" asked Ebbo. "Priest!" feebly screamed the old woman. "No priest for me! My lord died unshriven, unassoilzied. Where he is, there will I be. Let a priest approach me at his peril!" Stony insensibility ensued; nor did she speak again, though life lasted many hours longer.
"Think what it is to see the sins we sin, the tempting look, the word idle or unkind aye, even the selfish thought or struggle, multiplied ten thousandfold and more eternal than ourselves, spring up upon the universal bosom of the earth to be the bane of a million destinies, whilst the everlasting Finger writes its endless count, and a cold voice of Justice cries in our conscience-haunted solitude, 'Oh! soul unshriven, behold the ripening harvest thy wanton hand did scatter, and long in vain for the waters of forgetfulness.
Ever sithence that tempestuous night, the deep green sea lies heavy on the bosom of the lost land; and no man of unpure heart, nor of evil life, ne unbaptised, ne unshriven, may see nor hear.
Thou hast whispered into her mother-soul that one of thy sons, however base and undeserving, should not be sent unshriven to the judgment-seat of the most Holy Christ, thy son. Through the holy church thou hast enlightened her soul to the duties of a Christian, for in her beautiful face shines the radiance of heaven. Ah, señora! see me plead for mercy!
And so she passed unshriven to the mercies of a God who is doubtless sufficiently broad-minded to have such baptisms properly attended to somewhere in Heaven. But the dying are not the only ones who suffer most from the sickness of their hopes. There are men with beautiful souls born with little devil seeds in them somewhere that grow like immoral perennials and poison the goodness in them.
Only those who know the extraordinary terror inspired in an Italian Catholic by the prospect of dying unshriven can appreciate the merit of the King, whose faith was childlike, in standing as firm in the presence of supernatural arms as he stood before the Austrian guns. Menabrea's administration was then upon the eve of falling.
Few stand by its yawning mouth, to see the last of the man whose name has been just hailed everywhere with wild enthusiasm. Unloved, unhonored, unregretted, unshriven, with all his imperfections on his head, he waits the last trump. Alone in death, as in life.
I remained single for a short time and presently married one of the richest of his day. Ill-omened hag! unshriven be her sins * Nor mercy visit her on dying bed: Thousand head strongest he mules would her guiles, * Despite their bolting lead with spider thread. And as saith another:
If there was any man in that vast assembly unshriven, let him confess now what his fault was; so that instant prayer might be made to their glorious Visitant for forgiveness by intercession. It was noticed afterwards that the death by butchery of the feudal lord was passed by without a comment.
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