Oh, the beauty, the surpassing beauty of the
heavenly vision! it filled my whole soul with light.
"Whilst I continued to gaze upon it with increasing awe and admiration,
it addressed me in a voice so rich and melodious that it awoke echoes of
soft music from those eternal rocks.
"'Child of earth,' he said, 'is my aspect so terrible that men should
shrink from me in horror?'
"'Not so,' I exclaimed, in an extasy of joy. 'Your face is like the
face of the angel of the Lord, when he welcomes the beloved with a smile
of peace into the presence of God.'
"'Yet I am he whom men regard as their worst enemy, and shrink from with
cowardly fear. Yes, maiden, I am Death! Death, the friend of man, the
conqueror of grief and pain. I hold in my hand the keys of the unknown
world. I am the bright spirit who unlocks for the good the golden gates
of eternal joy.'
"He took my out-stretched hands, and drawing me forward, bade me look
through the black archway into the far eternity. Oh, that glorious land,
those rivers of delight--those trees and flowers, and warbled
songs--that paradise of living praise! I long, my brother, to break
these bonds asunder, to pass the dark archway, and tread that heavenly
shore."
"Happy Clary," said Juliet, softly approaching the bed. "Dear blessed
girl, who would wish to detain you in this cold miserable world, when
heaven offers you a brighter home?"
"You are come to see your poor friend, my Juliet," said Clary, twining
her thin white arms about her neck.
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