CHAPTER XIV.
ON THE ALTAR STEPS.
It was as the bells of the Abbey rang for matins that the stranger died.
For a few minutes Roland remained beside him, and then he called in the women to attend to the dead, and went out into the fresh morning air.

It was the third day that the mountains had been clear from fog and cloud, and they stood out against the sky in perfect whiteness.

The snow-line had come lower down upon the slopes, and the beautiful crystals of frost hung on the tapering boughs of the pine-trees in the forests about Engelberg.

Here and there a few villagers were going toward the church, and almost unconsciously Roland followed slowly in their track.
The short service was over and the congregation was dispersing when he crossed the well-worn door-sill.

But a few women, especially the late comers, were still scattered about praying mechanically, with their eyes wandering around them.