The little chapel was very beautiful, with its branching pillars, supporting clusters of Angels carved in stone.

The images of the Saints served to awaken many fine emotions--and the principal statue of Our Lady, which the artist had designed to represent the immaculate purity of the Mother of God--gave an indescribable sweetness to that consecrated spot: but more beautiful still, and more acceptable to God, were the two holy men who, bent with age and grown gray in the service of a heavenly Master, bowed down together before the altar of the Most High, and for a time forgot each other in the contemplation of the majesty and infinite goodness of Him they served.
At length they rose; and when in the open air gave way to the impulse of human love, which until then had yielded to a loftier feeling.
There was a room in the Castle of Hers in which Herman spent the hours not required for the active duties of his ministry, and to this the two friends retired.

There for more than an hour, they discussed topics of mutual interest--compared the condition of their flocks--and wandered back to Naples and Monte Cassino.

The introduction of this last subject seemed to remind Herman of something he had forgotten; for he started up and went to a shelf, which was filled with extracts he had been permitted to make from the celebrated library of the convent, and taking down a small piece of parchment, gave it to his companion.

It was an illuminated manuscript of the _Salve Regina_.
"It was sent me yesterday across the lake by a Benedictine monk," he said, when Father Omehr had finished reading and raised his eyes in wonder and delight.
"And who has written it ?" "A namesake of mine--a Benedictine.