The Angel and the Ring by Sigmund Brouwer

Author:Sigmund Brouwer [Brouwer, Sigmund]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: guardian angel, sigmund brouwer, myrockandrollbooks
Publisher: Sigmund Brouwer
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Father, we have been betrayed. By whom, I cannot say, although as I near death, I wish I had this knowledge to pass on. I only know the betrayer is one of us. Not only has my life been betrayed but the mission as well.

It happened thus. Upon crossing the mountains and reaching the plains of northern Italy, I was sent from our small party of travelers into a small town to seek provisions. Just outside of that town, I was waylaid and taken into the trees near a river. My attackers wore masks. They began to beat me senseless. I pretended early unconciousness, hoping the beating would end. When it did, they began to search me. I heard one of them speak of the precious ring, which I had not taken with me but left behind safely hidden.

As you reach this portion of the letter, the same question will occur to you as it did to me. How is it that thieves could know of the ring? Or that they knew it was my responsibility to safeguard it?

Father, you know better than I do that those who expect us in Rome would never betray the cause or the existence of the ring. Even if one among them were so inclined, none there have knowledge of how we travel, when we are to arrive, or even how we look. It is impossible for them to know we have entered Italy. The source of betrayal, I concluded, could not be one among them, but could only be one of those traveling with us.

Yet even as I concluded this, the knowledge appeared of little use because imminent death was upon me. The thieves bound my arms and legs and tossed me into the river. The current took and battered me. Downstream, around a bend, the river pushed me up against a boulder, and there, for a few moments, I was able to draw air.

I would have died except a woman was washing clothes on the bank. She waded out, and although the rushing water pushed higher than her waist, she persisted. She had a knife, which I found remarkable at the time, but later I discovered she was part of a gypsy camp. With that knife, she cut my bounds and helped me reach shore.

I was too weak and injured to move. This woman hid me and returned at night to tend to my wounds and to feed me. She kept my existence a secret from the other gypsies, for they are united against all outsiders. This continued for one week while the gypsies camped outside of the nearby town.

Her name is Maria. Our love grew. We found a church, and a priest married us before God. In so doing, however, we both became fugitives. I from the betrayer among us. She from her gypsy clan, who were furious that she had joined with an outsider. The stakes were even higher and their fury even greater than I had dreamed, for she had kept hidden from me her position among them.

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