My Library

The result was unexpected but interesting. It appeared that somewhere in the twelfth century the head of the family went to the crusades, like many another valiant man, and took with him to win his spurs in the sacred cause his youngest and favourite son, a promising youth whose success in life was the dearest wish of his father’s heart Unhappily,however,the young man was killed in battle,anc the father was plunged into the depths of despair, lamenting not only the loss of his son, but still more the fact that h< was cut off so suddenly in the full flush of careless and no altogether blameless youth.
So poignant, indeed, were the old man’s feelings tha he cast off hi^knightly armour and joined one of the grea monastic orders, vowing to devote all the remainder c his life to prayer, first for the soul of his son, and secondly that henceforward no descendant of his might ever again encounter what seemed to his simple and pious mind the terrible danger of meeting death unprepared. Day after day for many a year he poured all the energy of his soul into the channel of ?hat one intense wish,