CHAPTER IV.

PURGATORY.

There was sadness in the great house of General Valentino. He had been brought home wounded in battle. Commanding his troops while repulsing an attacking tribe of Indians on the frontier, he had been seriously hurt. He was carried to his home, but the tedious travel and exposure inevitably had its effect. All that physicians and loving friends could do had been in vain, and now the brave soldier lay dying.

The physician had given place to the priest. The sick man had listened passively to the words of his dying confession which the priest had spoken, for the man had been too weak to utter them himself. The sign of the Holy Cross had been made upon his forehead, and he had been anointed with the holy oil. He heard the words of the priest. "Yo te absuelvo!" (I absolve thee!)

The priest had gone, and now the dying man aroused himself.

"Bring my boy to me and leave us here alone!"

Rudolfo kneeled, weeping, by the bedside. "My son, I had hoped to see thee take my place. There are many battles yet to be fought for our Mexico, and thou wilt be needed." The words were spoken slowly. "Yes, my son, thou wilt be needed. Nor are the battles all to be with sword and shot. I see strife of other sort ahead for our own land, and thou must be called to lead it on." His father paused.

"My boy, I have been watching thee. I have known how thou hast been attracted toward the Protestants. They are right, my boy; stay by them," he added as the boy started and raised his head. "I knew them and respected them when a young man in Mexico City. I knew they were right, but I came here, I forgot them, and forgot their teachings. I became a coward. I, who feared not the cannon's mouth, feared a woman, feared her laugh and ridicule, your mother, Rudolfo. And I have lived a life of falsehood. But thou, my boy, be brave, for in the struggle thou wilt be needed."

It was a very imposing burial service, conducted in the cathedral, and the procession was long that followed to its resting place the earthly remains of the famous and brave General Valentino. The boy, following sadly, remembered the quiet, un

noticed laying away of his uncle, the old monk, and again he wondered.

The days of mourning were over. The widow, the Senora de Valentino, lived alone in her quiet house, with the servants and with the boy, for her two daughters had long since gone to distant homes of their own. Rudolfo was growing so tall, so handsome, so like his father. Proudly she looked upon him, and fondly she loved him.

One day a message of great importance was sent to the Senora de Valentino. It had been revealed that the spirit of the departed General Valentino was still in purgatory awaiting further prayers and gifts of money to effect his release.

The widow pleaded her departed husband's deeds of bravery, his generous gifts, when living, to the Church. "Yes," was the reply; his gifts and the gifts of the widow, made at the time of his death for the release of his soul, had been accepted; but they were not enough. During the lifetime of her husband, he had lacked a spirit of entire submission to the teachings of the Holy Church, and a lack of reverence for her doctrine. For this reason a still larger sum of money would be required, and would the widow furnish the means whereby to communicate with the Holy

Virgin? "Thou dost know, daughter," added the priest, "that many things are asked from God and are not granted; they are asked from Mary and are granted. And how is this? It is because God has thus decreed in honor of his Mother." "Mary co-operated in the salvation of man." "Mary was made the mistress of salvation." (These words are taken literally from "Glories of Mary.")

When asked the sum that would be required, the reply was: "Because of the deep esteem in which the departed is held, and because of the deep esteem in which the widow lives, the low sum of four thousand dollars will be required."

When the Senora said that such a sum she could not command, the answer was ready: "It matters not, daughter. It's equivalent will do. This house you live in can easily be transferred to the name and the use of the Church. But there need be no haste, daughter. Take thine own time to find another house, and meantime supplications will be made for thy departed husband's speedy release into glory."

The high-spirited boy was beside himself with wrath.

"The Church commands, and we must obey," was all the proud, though broken woman could reply. Then, for the first

time, the boy told his mother of his father's dying words, and of the occasion attendance upon the preaching of the Protestant. He begged her to go with him to listen, but she seemed only the more broken, and besought him not to bring further sorrow and

disgrace by associating with the

heretics.

Time passed on, and the widow, her boy and her faithful Juan had found another house, a smaller one, and the great home of the Valentinos had passed into the safe keeping of the Holy Church.