The distance showed, in a few bold outlines, a dreary desert, broken by alpine ridges, and furrowed here and there by a wandering watercourse.

Long shadows pointed to the half-risen sun, whose disc was climbing above the waste horizon.

And in front of the sun, down the path of the morning beams, came Woman, clothed only in the armour of her own loveliness.

Her bearing was stately, and yet modest; in her face pensive tenderness seemed wedded with earnest joy.

In her right hand lay a cross, the emblem of self- sacrifice.