But I floated
on its surface, and beheld whole generations flourish and fade away, while
age and silver hairs, growing infirmities, and the closing sigh that ends
them all, mocked me with a horrible exemption. I remained, and might have
remained, for ages yet to come, the fixed and unaltered image of what I
was, when in Mauritania I encountered the potent Amaimon, the damned
magician of the den, but for that--woman's faith, and man's
fidelity--which have made me what I AM!
"This _was_ my destiny. Now mark, how I became enthralled to it; and how
it befell, that at last I shook it off, and found redemption.
"In my middle manhood, when scarcely forty summers had glowed within my
veins, I left my native Italy, and journeyed to the Holy Land, upon the
strict vow of a self-imposed penance. It was for no sin committed in my
days of youth, but for the satisfaction of an ardent piety, and the
growing spirit of a long enkindled devotion. I had patrimonial wealth in
Apulia; I had kindred; I had friends. I renounced them all, to dedicate
myself, thenceforth, to the service of THE CROSS. My purpose was blessed,
by a virtuous mother's prayers, that I might approve myself a worthy
soldier of Christ; and it was sanctified by a holy priest at the altar.
"Even now, the recollection is strong within me, of the feelings with
which, as the rising sun illumined the tops of the surrounding hills, I
approached the once glorious, and still sacred, city of Jerusalem--that
chosen seat of the Godhead--that Queen among the nations.
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