140 THE KNIGHT, THE HERMIT,

 

In the first house that he entered he
found a young maiden alone and almost in
the agonies of death; and her feeble cry
was for something to slake her burning
thirst. He placed to her lips a cool
draught, of which she drank eagerly ; then
he sat down to watch by her side. Ina
little while the hot fever began to abate, and
the sufferer slept. Then he lifted her in his
arms and bore her beyond the city walls,
where the air was purer and where were
those appointed to receive and minister to
the sick who were brought forth.

Again he went into the deadly atmo-
sphere and among the sick and the dying;
and soon he returned once more with a
sleeping infant that he had removed from
the infolding arms of its dead mother.
There was a calm and holy smile upon the
stranger's lips as he looked into the sweet
face of the innocent child ere he resigned
it to others; and those who saw that smile
said in their hearts—“ Verily, he hath his
rewar