"It is not that I desire him above all things to hold this doctrine or that," thought Carlos; "I desire him to find Christ again, and to rejoice in his love, as doubtless he did in the old days. And surely he will, since Christ found him--chose him for his own even before the foundation of the world."
But in order to bring this about, perhaps it was necessary that the faded colours of his soul should be steeped in the strong and bitter waters of a great agony, that they might regain thereby their full freshness.
XLIII.
El Dorado Found Again.
"And every power was used, and every art,
To bend to falsehood one determined heart,
Assailed, in patience it received the shock,
Soft as the wave, unbroken as the rock."--Crabbe
"What are you doing, my father?" Carlos asked one morning.
Don Juan had produced from some private receptacle a small ink-horn, and was moistening its long-dried contents with water.
"I was thinking that I should like to write down somewhat," he said.
"But whereto will ink serve us without pen and paper?"
The penitent smiled; and presently pulled out from within his pallet a little faded writing-book, and a pen that looked--what it was--more than twenty years old.