Sovrani caught him as he
fell--and Angela ran for water, and tenderly bathed his forehead
while Manuel took his hand and held it fast.
"Too long a journey, and too much excitement!" said the Prince,--
"Our Felix is growing old,--he cannot stand fatigue. He is failing
fast!"
"Oh, no," said Manuel brightly, "He is not failing! He is younger by
far than he seems! He is too strong to fail!"
And as he spoke the Cardinal opened his eyes and smiled with an
expression of perfect rapture.
"Why, what has ailed me?" he enquired, looking at Angela's anxious
face, "I had but gone for a moment into the presence of my Lord!"
Here he paused, and then gradually recovering himself entirely, sat
upright.
"All is well with me!" he said, pressing the hand of Manuel in his
own, and releasing it again, "Do not fret, Angela,--it was the
merest passing faintness. Forgive me, brother, for alarming you thus
foolishly! As for the letter from the Vatican concerning this
miracle, I must needs present myself before His Holiness and assure
him that I know nothing of it,--that I did no more than pray--that I
left the crippled child still crippled--and that if indeed it be
true he is healed, it is by the merciful act of God and--the
intervention of our Lord and Saviour Christ, to Whom be all the
praise and glory!"
He rose up again from his chair and stood full height,--a grand and
beautiful figure of noble old age, transfigured by the light of some
never-aging thought, some glorious inspiration.
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