Make
your mind easy on that point. I not only shall offer up mass for the
repose of your soul, but I can assure you that I have mentioned you by
name in every mass which I celebrated since my ordination."
He then proceeded to direct the mind of his dying benefactor to such
subjects as were best calculated to comfort and strengthen him.
About day-break the next morning, this man of many virtues, after
struggling rather severely for two hours preceding his death, passed
into eternity, there to enjoy the recompense of a well-spent life.
When he was dead, the priest, who never left him during the night,
approached the bed, and after surveying his benevolent features, now
composed in the stillness of death, exclaimed--
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their
labors, and their works do follow them!"
Having uttered the words aloud, he sat down beside the bed, buried his
face in his handkerchief, and wept.
He was now only a short day's journey from home, and as his presence, he
knew, would be rather a restraint upon a family so much in affliction,
he bade them farewell, and proceeded on his way. He travelled slowly,
and, as every well-known hill or lake appeared to him, his heart
beat quickly, his memory gave up its early stores, and his affections
prepared themselves for the trial that was before them.
"It is better for me not to arrive," thought he, "until the family
shall have returned from their daily labor, and are collected about the
hearth.
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