Blue-Eyes and Battlewick, Chapters XII-XVII [pp. 182-201]

Blue-Eyes and Battlewicck.
widow and her orphans-shall peace be
there? Oh! merciful God, they are tender, they are weak, they are unused to
sorrow and care. Father! Father! deal
gently with them. Trouble and sorrow
and poverty and sickness, are good in
Thy sight-they are Thy instrumentsbut-but-not my will O! Father, but
thine, only thine. Yet spare them, spare
them! lest the burthen be greater than
they can bear!"
The broken voice could say no more.
A hand, whose ethereal touch had power to assuage all mortal sorrow, was passed softly over the tender eyes that flowed
fast tears because of this broken prayer;
and a voice, whose music was Hope's own
language, bade the little daughter's heart
be still, that throbbed quick with anguish
in her gentle breast.
"Look, Georgie," said that musical
voice. It was sweet to be called "sister"
by that voice, but it was sweeter still
when it called her name as those who
loved her called it. Blue-Eyes, looking
where the fair hand pointed, saw only the
dim outlines of her quiet home upon the
hill, and, speeding from it, a meteor, lost
quickly in the dark expanse.
" What was it that fled so swiftly from
our house?" she asked.
"I will tell thee anon. We will return
now."
Once more they walked in the pleasant
land of mellow skies and lightly-breathing winds. It was tranquil there, as it
had been before, and as it shall ever be.
On they walked, along the smooth upsloping way, under the trees with whispering leaves, and beside the clear rills
that hasted away with soft steps. They
walked in silence, yielding to the spell of
quietude that rested over the land. At
length they gained the shore of what seemed a mighty lake. But a battlement, which
marked the abrupt ending of the pleasant land, was there, and, when they were
seated on its cope, Blue-Eyes saw that the
lake was infinite space.
It was wonderful to look from that battlement. The multitude of the starry
host flashed splendour on splendour of exoeeding brightness and grandeur, that
lifted but to overwhelm the foul. Scarce
could the eye sustain the glory of that
scene, which when it came orb on orb,
system after system, countless-spheres
innumerable of light and life, moving
orderly in their appointed paths-when
the scene came thus, and the knowledge
of the stupendous plan moved in colossal
oneness of conception on the apprehending sense, oh, then, the seeing soul fell
prone in worship and unbearable awe!
It was deep down below that battlement-so deep the eye might see stars
and constellations hidden from earthly
gaze by opposing horizons. It seemed
as if the complete heaven of heavens
shone exposed, dazzling, blinding, endlessly sublime!
But a new wonder awaited her who sat
beside the angel upon that lofty battlement. The stars that seemed fixed from
everlasting to everlasting in the high firmament, there to shine with glory never
to be dimmed, were loosened from their
places. One by one, they came falling;
others fell, and others, others still, and
yet others, until all the shining splendors
of the universe were joined in dread procession downward. From the depths unfathomable above the deep on high, suns
unknown and planets strange came coursing to the nethermost abyss. With majesty they descended, and without noise.
The march of each was slow, yet, because of the multitudes that were falling,
the descent showed swift to the weak
mortal eye that saw them as they came.
And now, so peacefully they fell, the terror of the scene was taken quite away,
and whether they went up or whether
they went down, Blue-Eyes could not
tell.
"See, it is snowing stars!" she cried.
"Wilt thou look into the abyss, to see
if ift be whitened with this snow?" replied the angel.
Leaning far over the battlement, BlueEyes looked down. A moment she gazed,
and drew back to cling and nestle to her
guide, if haply her shuddering, and her
terrible fear, might thus be eased. In
the profound depth, she had seen a black
orb surging out of the abyss, as if to up
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