Then how it would have
fared with me and the helpless little ones I know not, but for thy
noble godmother, my Vittoria, the wise and ready helper of all in
trouble, the only friend thy mother had made at Rome, and who had
been able, from all her heights of learning and accomplishment, to
value my Thekla's golden soul in its simplicity. Even then, when too
late, came one of the Kaisar's kindest letters, recalling me,--a
letter whose every word I would have paid for with a drop of my own
blood six weeks before! and which he had only failed to send because
his head was running on the plan of that gorgeous tomb where he is
not buried! Well, at least it brought us home to you again once
more, mother, and, where you are, comfort never has been utterly
absent from me. And then, coming from the wilful gloom of Pope Leo's
court into our Germany, streamed over by the rays of Luther's light,
it was as if a new world of hope were dawning, as if truth would no
longer be muffled, and the young would grow up to a world far better
and purer than the old had ever seen.
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