"I know not. You forget I was a child. But this stands yet clear before me: In the evening father and mother took me between them, each holding one of my hands; the master was also there; and they led me with bandaged eyes--for the raw evening air of the late autumn might have hurt them--into the Basilica. Here they took off the bandage and"----
"And now?"
"What didst thou see? What happened?"
"For the first time for months without pain, did my eyes again see the bright but gentle light. Before the altar, which was lighted with many wax candles, stood Johannes in shining white garments; the master placed us all three at the lowest step of the altar, and then spoke a number of words that I did not understand: the priest blessed us; my parents wept--but I noticed it was from emotion, not from pain--and kissed their master's knees; they then again put the bandage on my eyes, and we went from the light of the church out into the darkness. Since then light and Church and Johannes are to me one."
Felicitas could not quite understand what now happened to her.
Her husband warmly kissed her brow and eyes, and her uncle almost crushed her hand.
"Go thou back to the house," cried at last her husband. "We must go immediately to the church; thou art right--as always. Thou--thou hast given to us the best, the saving counsel."
And he led her eagerly, with a last kiss, back into the garden.
"It is quite certain," said Crispus, when Fulvius again appeared, "that it was not only by letter that they were set free; for greater safety there was the ceremony in the church, before the priest, according to all the forms of the law. And the child has all unsuspiciously revealed it to us in our greatest need!"
"And the priest"----