Then
indeed there was lamentation among the Essenes. For three days and three
nights did they wrestle in constant prayer to God that she might be
spared, many of them touching nothing but water during all that time.
Moreover, they sat about at a distance from her house, praying and
seeking tidings. If it was bad they beat their breasts, if good they
gave thanks. Never was the sickbed of a monarch watched with more
care or devotion than that of this little orphan, and never was
a recovery--for at length she did recover--received with greater
thankfulness and joy.
This was the truth. These pure and simple men, in obedience to the
strict rule they had adopted, were cut off from all the affections of
life. Yet, the foundation-stone of their doctrine being Love, they
who were human must love something, so they loved this child whom they
looked upon as their ward, and who, as there was none other of her age
and sex in their community, had no rival in their hearts. She was the
one joy of their laborious and ascetic hours; she represented all the
sweetness and youth of this self-renewing world, which to them was so
grey and sapless. Moreover, she was a lovely maid, who, wherever she had
been placed, would have bound all to her.
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