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Vigil   /vˈɪdʒəl/   Listen
Vigil

noun
1.
A period of sleeplessness.
2.
The rite of staying awake for devotional purposes (especially on the eve of a religious festival).  Synonym: watch.
3.
A purposeful surveillance to guard or observe.  Synonym: watch.



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"Vigil" Quotes from Famous Books



... and the solitary lamp which for weeks past had been quenched at the wholesome hour in the Student's home, streamed from the casement throughout the whole of that night; was it a witness of the calm and learned vigil, or of ...
— Eugene Aram, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... prevents your seeing anything but the horizontal niches in tiers, one above the other, where the mortal remains of the beatific lie surrounded by the symbols of the faith they died for. Here they keep their vigil century after century over our Holy City, while ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 26, August, 1880 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various

... of grace 1654. Monday 23d November, day of St Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St Chrysogone, martyr and others. From about half-past ten o’clock in the evening ...
— Pascal • John Tulloch

... green of sunbright foliage, stared into that shady place through door and window; and Herrick, pacing to and fro on the coral floor, sometimes paused and laved his face and neck with tepid water from the bucket. His long arrears of suffering, the night's vigil, the insults of the morning, and the harrowing business of the letter, had strung him to that point when pain is almost pleasure, time shrinks to a mere point, and death and life appear indifferent. To and fro he paced like a caged brute; his ...
— The Ebb-Tide - A Trio And Quartette • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... merciful gift of God, Our vigil passed unbroken. Yesternight They moved us to the amphitheatre, Our final lodging-place on earth, and there We sat together at our agape For the last time. In silence, rapt and pale, We hearkened to the aged ...
— Alcyone • Archibald Lampman

... and a score of other names which will be in the mouth of history hundreds of years hence, no less certainly than the names of those little villages north and south of Thermopylae, which saw the advance of the Persians and the vigil of the Greeks—a confusion of things read and heard, rush through one's mind, taking new form and vividness from this actual scene in which they happened. There, at those cross roads, broke the charge of the Worcesters, on that most critical day of all ...
— Fields of Victory • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... cooked and eaten, which occupied nearly another hour; and although it was not yet quite nightfall, they were all so sleepy from their long vigil, and so tired with standing upon the ledge, that they were glad to stretch themselves by the fire and go ...
— The Plant Hunters - Adventures Among the Himalaya Mountains • Mayne Reid

... of the milder nights, when Frank and Rastus were on watch, their first intimation that a strange and mysterious presence shared their lonely vigil was made manifest. It was Rastus who called Frank's attention to what was eventually to prove a perplexing puzzle to the ...
— The Boy Aviators' Polar Dash - Or - Facing Death in the Antarctic • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... moored their fleet opposite the harbour of La Rochelle, awaiting the expected arrival of the English and their allies, for whose sails they looked anxiously forth. It was on the Vigil of St. John the Baptist's Day, 1372, that the Spaniards espied the English approaching in gallant array, and they discovered that the entrance to the town of La Rochelle was stopped, and that a ...
— Barn and the Pyrenees - A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre • Louisa Stuart Costello

... The agonizing vigil began again, but I was so weary that I went to sleep a few minutes after lights out. Sullen thunders mingled with my dreams and did ...
— Combed Out • Fritz August Voigt

... was a sad vigil, and not made more pleasant by the sight of the great kangaroo lying just at the edge of the water-hole, and toward which a perfect stream of insects were already hurrying over the dry ground, while flies buzzed incessantly about it in the air. Then, too, ...
— The Dingo Boys - The Squatters of Wallaby Range • G. Manville Fenn

... But her long vigil, her prayers, her ecstatic visions of heroic martyrs had now completely numbed her faculties. Her vitality, her sensibilities were gone: she had become an automaton gliding to her doom, without ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... a telephone message to Battalion Headquarters. Taking a good breath,—you always do this before entering a trench dug-out,—he plunged into the noisome cavern where his Company Signallers kept everlasting vigil. The place was in total darkness, except for the illumination supplied by a strip of rifle-rag burning in a tin of rifle-oil. The air, what there was of it, was thick with large, fat, floating particles of free carbon. The telephone was buzzing plaintively to itself, in unsuccessful competition ...
— All In It K(1) Carries On - A Continuation of the First Hundred Thousand • John Hay Beith (AKA: Ian Hay)

... that most holy Sabbath preceding the Vigil of the Passover, turned aside to a fit and pleasant place, called Feartfethin, and there, according to the custom of the holy church, lighted the lamps at the blessed fire. And it happened on that night ...
— The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick - Including the Life by Jocelin, Hitherto Unpublished in America, and His Extant Writings • Various

... tela gravi manu Sic ibat atrox Ossiani pater: Quiescat urna, stet fidelis Phersonius vigil ad favillam. ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell

... and low The patient watchers come and go, Their loving vigil keeping; When from the dear eyes fades the light, When pales the flush so strangely bright, And the glad spirit takes its flight, We speak ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various

... stripped the tiara and the robes of office from the body, wrapped it up in an old carpet, and then with force of fists and feet rammed it down into the box, without torches, without a ministering priest, without a single person to attend and bear a consecrated candle." Of such sort was the vigil kept by this solemn statue, so dignified in grief and sweet in death, at the ignoble obsequies of him who, occupying the loftiest throne of Christendom, incarnated the least erected spirit of his ...
— The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti • John Addington Symonds

... rifle-fire. And as my recollections went back to those terrible days, I came down heavily as I could on this august couch. I must confess that as a bed it was excellent; the old lady must have slept well through it all, while she caused us our ceaseless vigil.... ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

... was a little shade, and there sate down to wait. And now lost in most melancholy brooding, now dissolved in tears, now plunged in despair of ever seeing the scholar return with her clothes, but never more than a brief while in any one mood, spent with grief and the night's vigil, she by and by fell asleep. The sun was now in the zenith, and smote with extreme fervour full and unmitigated upon her tender and delicate frame, and upon her bare head, insomuch that his rays did not only scorch but bit by bit excoriate ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio

... the Two Brothers there is a very high mountain-range running N.E. and S.W., and E.S.E. from the Cabo de Torres is a small island to which the Admiral gave the name of Santo Tomas, because to-morrow was his vigil. The whole circuit of this island alternates with capes and excellent harbors, so far as could be judged from the sea. Before coming to the island on the west side, there is a cape which runs far into the sea, in part high, the rest low; and for this reason the Admiral ...
— The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 • Various

... he was and replete as the night had been with anxiety and vigil, Drummond climbed the goat-track that led to the sentry's perch feeling full of hope and pluck and fight. He and his men had divided the night into watches, one being awake and astir, not even permitting himself to sit a moment, while the others slept. The fact ...
— Foes in Ambush • Charles King

... second night of our vigil I retired to bed hugely sleepy. I had left Travers on guard in the library. He was seated in an armchair under my Albertus Magnus, with his rifle over his knees. I did not take off my clothes, but threw myself, dressed as I was, upon the bed. Determining to make sure of ...
— War and the Weird • Forbes Phillips

... beside a vigil keep, The West's asleep, the West's asleep— Alas! and well may Erin weep, When Connaught lies in slumber deep. There lake and plain smile fair and free, 'Mid rocks—their guardian chivalry— Sing oh! let man learn liberty From ...
— Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry • Thomas Davis

... night wraps the graveyard around, With only the dead in their vigil to see; Break not my repose or the mystery profound, And perchance thou mayst hear a sad hymn resound; 'Tis I, O my country, raising a ...
— Lineage, Life, and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot • Austin Craig

... shared the ownership of this establishment with Dillingham. It entered largely into his plans. Here his few intimates, like Paul Potter, Haddon Chambers, William Gillette, and Augustus Thomas, came and talked over plays and productions. Here, too, he kept vigil on the snowy night when London was to pass judgment on the first production of "Peter Pan" ...
— Charles Frohman: Manager and Man • Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman

... that tremble, Bleared with a silent weeping, Weird in a shadowy sorrow, As if endless vigil keeping. Faces of dazzling brightness, With childlike radiance lighted, Flashing with many a beauty, Nor care nor time had blighted. But o'er them all there's a glamour thrown. Bright ...
— Christmas - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse • Various

... landlord could prevail with his fellow-townsmen and townswomen to disperse in her interest, and had imposed silence upon his customers indoors, Lanfear began his vigil beside his patient in as great quiet as he could anywhere have had. Once during the evening the public physician of the district looked in, but he agreed with Lanfear that nothing was to be done which he was not doing in his greater experience of the case. From time to time Gerald ...
— Between The Dark And The Daylight • William Dean Howells

... themes over an inept-looking clavier confounding the wits of his children and all men's children down to the last generation. He marvels at the paradox, drums his head with the tattoo: how can a thing as small as he shape and maintain an art out of himself universal enough to carry her daily vigil to crystalled immortality? She lets the hydrant ...
— American Poetry, 1922 - A Miscellany • Edna St. Vincent Millay

... cook had been busy foraging, and soon had a hot breakfast ready for the detachment, who after their long vigil in the cold and darkness fell upon it like so many hungry wolves. The Army Boys did their full share, and Tom especially ate ravenously and as though ...
— Army Boys on German Soil • Homer Randall

... over the city that portion of the Column were visible, or had halted, rather, at Kraalkop, where they ought to be visible. Kraalkop accordingly was watched intently for eight and forty hours, but no sign of a human presence rewarded the vigil. The Boers, meanwhile, evinced no signs of scenting danger from any quarter, and with their usual nonchalance kept leisurely shying shells at Kimberley. These missiles were intended probably for the redoubts, as they fell mainly on the ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan

... Irma, must remember how I found you there, gazing with starting eyeballs on the same mysteriously terrifying scene—and how I drew you away with a laugh and a trifling explanation, so that I might return and resume my ghastly vigil alone. ...
— The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales • Various

... melancholy vigil, and yet brought with it something of the thrill which the hunter feels when he lies beside the water pool and waits for the coming of the thirsty beast of prey. What savage creature was it which might steal upon us out of the darkness? Was it a fierce tiger ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Magazine Edition • Arthur Conan Doyle

... quiet like a child asleep, The deep heart of the Heaven is calm and still, Must thou alone a restless vigil keep, And with thy sobbing all ...
— The Beauties of Nature - and the Wonders of the World We Live In • Sir John Lubbock

... up for final action. As a matter of fact there were two reports; that of the minority was signed by two members of the committee, Judge Bromwell, whose breadth and scholarship were apparent in his able report, and a Mexican named Agapita Vigil, a legislator from Southern Colorado where Spanish is the dominant tongue. Mr. Vigil spoke no English, and was one of those representatives for whose sake an interpreter was maintained during the session of ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... On the Vigil of the Feast of St. John the Baptist, and in the year of our Lord 1395, was consecrated the first chapel on the Mount of St. Agnes the Virgin, and the first altar therein was dedicated in honour of that saint, and of the most blessed Mary Magdalene, by Hubert, the Suffragan ...
— The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes • Thomas a Kempis

... sleep when men must weep Who never yet have wept: So we—the fool, the fraud, the knave— That endless vigil kept, And through each brain on hands ...
— Book of Old Ballads • Selected by Beverly Nichols

... sees each fading phantom changed, Feels every care and thought from war estranged, Seeks the lost quiet of his native shore, And mourns the lengthen'd toils, he gloried in before: Burns with impetuous pleasure's feverish fire, Or trembles in the tumult of desire. The drowsy watch a sullen vigil keep, And scarce oppose the invading hand of sleep. Ev'n Eric, watchful still, and us'd to bear His destined weight of military care, Ev'n Eric feels his soul's wild tumult fled, And bows to softer sleep his restless head. Before him visionary glories roll, And fancied ...
— Gustavus Vasa - and other poems • W. S. Walker

... you would say, the night of October 31 is the vigil of All-saints' Day, one of the four high festivals in the Roman Catholic Church, and a day on which all Christians who hold to ancient forms commemorate the noble doings of the holy dead. But the All-hallow's frolics you will see this evening have nothing ...
— Harper's Young People, October 26, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... After my long vigil on the previous night I speedily fell asleep, but even in my slumbers I heard the occasional serenades of bears and wolves, who seemed to be the principal inhabitants of that wild region. I awoke more than once, and was convinced that the noise was a reality, and not ...
— Dick Onslow - Among the Redskins • W.H.G. Kingston

... had, as yet, no reason to divest themselves of so disagreeable an anticipation. To one in the full glare of daylight, or with a sound roof-tree over his head and a warm fire at his elbow, the idea of a night-vigil may not appear either unpleasant or extraordinary; but, wrapped in a sheet of grey mist, the wet heath oozing beneath his feet, with the cold and benumbing air of the hills for his supper, there could be little question that he ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) • John Roby

... within the net Of tough grass fibres green and wet, A myriad thirsty creatures, pent In sorrowful imprisonment, Await the beat, distinct and sweet, Of the white waves' returning feet. My soul their vigil joins, and shares A nobler discontent than theirs; Athirst like them, I patiently Sit listening beside the sea, And still the waters outward glide: When is ...
— Verses • Susan Coolidge

... above particulars were communicated by Guapo; and when he had finished talking, all the others went to sleep, leaving Guapo to his midnight vigil. ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... arisen again, what that old servant meant. At the time it never occurred to me that but one thing could happen. I had the utmost confidence in Julianna, and indeed, without thinking much of my own troubles, I passed that long vigil in the library only with regret that I could not wrest away from the true and noble woman who had promised to be my wife, all the terrible grief which, alone in the chamber above, she must have been suffering. For the first time, I think, in all my life, which, ...
— The Blue Wall - A Story of Strangeness and Struggle • Richard Washburn Child

... darkest midnight veiled the sky, You'd hear his hasting step go by, To gain the bridge beside the deep, That where its wildest torrents leap Hangs thread-like o'er the surge, Just there, upon its awful verge, His vigil-hour to keep. ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol. XXXII No. 2. February 1848 • Various

... we now celebrate the birthday of the Lord; and the very night which is now so holy to us, they called in their tongue modranecht (modra niht), that is, the mothers' night, by reason we suspect of the ceremonies which in that night-long vigil they performed." With his usual reticence about matters pagan or not orthodox, Bede abstains from recording who the mothers were and what the ceremonies. In 1644 the English puritans forbad any merriment or religious services by act of Parliament, on the ground that it was a heathen festival, ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 - "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" • Various

... which protected the settlements throughout this vast extent of country, keeping the English colonies in constant alarm, and securing the fidelity of the Indian nations. During this period the council-chamber of the castle was the scene of many a midnight vigil [36]—many a long deliberation and deep-laid project to free the continent from the intrusion of the ancient rival of France and assert the supremacy of the Gallic lily. At another era, subsequent to the surrender of Quebec to the British armies, and until the ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... moment the purpose of his vigil, he was thinking of a long morning's fishing, and had turned to pick up his plaid and go off to the house for his fishing-rod, when he thought he heard the sound of dry wood snapping. He listened intently; and the next moment ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

... time the novel which she had brought with her in her travelling bag; she attempted, too, to go to sleep—but did not succeed in doing so. At length four o'clock struck—nearly three hours had passed since she had begun her vigil. ...
— Bertha Garlan • Arthur Schnitzler

... they moved him, and late that night Beth kept her vigil by him, sitting over the fire with her elbows on her knees and her face between her hands, listening dreamily to the clang and clamour of the church-bells, which floated up to her over the snow, mellowed by distance and full-fraught with manifold associations. As she sat ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand

... tried, I will not think of my faithless bride; Where storms are raging there will I follow, Till blood thou drinkest, thou ocean billow. Where swords sow seeds for pale death to reap, On mount or vale I my vigil keep. If king I meet and to combat dare him I smile to think how my sword shall spare him. But if in battle a youth I meet, With heart enamored and visions sweet, Deluded fool who on faith relieth, I'll hew him down e'er the vision flyeth, Will kindly slay him ere yet he ...
— Fridthjof's Saga • Esaias Tegner

... low bench. He seated himself upon it, half his body in the dim and flickering light, and the other half in shadow; and so, with his craving eyes bent upon the slumbering boy, he kept his patient vigil there, heedless of the drift of time, and softly whetted his knife, and mumbled and chuckled; and in aspect and attitude he resembled nothing so much as a grizzly, monstrous spider, gloating over some hapless insect that lay bound and helpless in ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... back to the house and to her bed, whither she went obediently enough, and soon fell into the sleep of exhaustion. But there was no more sleep for me that night. I kept a grim vigil with dread. ...
— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... "Stabat mater," etc. "By the cross, sad vigil keeping, Stood the mournful mother weeping, While on it ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier

... potent than that," answered the Jester; "for when would repentance or prayer make Gurth do a courtesy, or fasting or vigil persuade him to lend you a mule?—I trow you might as well have told his favourite black boar of thy vigils and penance, and wouldst have gotten as civil ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott

... that Mazeppa said, through the lips of his self-appointed spokesman, Byron, of the impossibility of escaping the patient search and long vigil of the man seeking revenge for wrong? He might have cited another motive, less fierce but quite as powerful—curiosity! Job Thornberry may give up his search for the name of the destroyer of his daughter, and allow her to break her ...
— Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 • Henry Morford

... historians we may look for a judgment less partial, less personal. Dr. Doellinger, for instance, to whom wide sympathy and long and profound study of history have given the right, which can only be acquired by vigil and fasting, to speak about the characters of the past—he who by his position as Romanist is no pledged admirer, describes Cromwell as the "prophet of Liberty of Conscience."[2] This is the deliberate judgment of Doellinger. It was the judgment ...
— The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain - Nineteenth Century Europe • J. A. Cramb

... created, Made a full and prudent answer: "I myself have many sorrows, For your son I cannot trouble, 170 For my lot's indeed a hard one, And an evil day awaits me, Wandering lonely in the night-time, In the frost for ever shining, In the winter keeping vigil, But in time ...
— Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) - The Land of the Heroes • Anonymous

... he measured his vigil only by the ticking of a clock somewhere out of sight, then he heard a quiet footfall on the hardwood, and through the fronds of the plants he saw a man's figure pace slowly by. The broad shoulders and ...
— The Lighted Match • Charles Neville Buck

... inexperienced to render it safe for me to commit the child to your care. I appreciate your kindness, but am too much interested in the boy to leave him when the disease is at its crisis, and a cup of coffee will strengthen me for the vigil. You have been to the Asylum this afternoon; tell ...
— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson

... went on mercilessly—"that I undertook the arrangement of this life with you with the thought for a moment in my mind that you would institute a close vigil over ...
— Sally Bishop - A Romance • E. Temple Thurston

... that man's company That fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is call'd the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian, He that outlives this day, and sees old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say to-morrow is Saint Crispian: Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars; And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day Then shall our names, Familiar in their mouths as household words,— Harry, the king, ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... joined him on the piazza. She was pale from her long sad vigil, but renewed strength and a gentle patience were ...
— Taken Alive • E. P. Roe

... her heart make one of three, A trinity in unity, One sentient heart that grieves; And myriad dark-leaved memories keep Vigil above the triune sleep,— Edged all with silver are ...
— Lundy's Lane and Other Poems • Duncan Campbell Scott

... trooped down to the beach, where Tarver was keeping his unpleasant vigil. He had been taking a look round the immediate scene of the murder, he said, during my absence, thinking that he might find something in the way of a clue. But he had found nothing: there were no signs of any ...
— Ravensdene Court • J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

... from my look-out and steer at a guess towards my neighbor in vigil, and come upon him with outstretched hand. "Is that you?" I say to him in a subdued voice, though ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse

... this rite the Omaha youth was taught the Tribal Prayer. He was to sing it during the four nights and days of his vigil in some lonely place. As he left his home, his parents put clay on his head; and, to teach him self-control, they placed a bow and arrows in his hand, with the injunction not to use them during his long fast, no matter how great the temptation might ...
— Indian Story and Song - from North America • Alice C. Fletcher

... beyond our human air; Those who had loved and suffered overmuch, Now free from the world's touch. And with them were the friends of yesterday, Who went before and pointed you the way; And in that place of freshness, light and rest, Where Lancelot and Tristram vigil keep Over their King's long sleep, Surely they made a place for you. Their long-expected guest, Among the chosen few, And welcomed you, their brother and their friend, To that companionship ...
— Georgian Poetry 1916-17 - Edited by Sir Edward Howard Marsh • Various

... encouragement and inspiration. Let us realize, first of all, that we are fighting as a united empire, in a cause worthy of the highest traditions of our race. Let us keep in mind the patient and indomitable seamen, who never relax for a moment, night or day, their stern vigil of the lonely sea. Let us keep in mind our gallant troops, who today, after a fortnight's continuous fighting under conditions which would try the metal of the best army that ever took the field, maintain not only an undefeated but an unbroken front. [Cheers.] Finally, let ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2 - Who Began the War, and Why? • Various

... which he had left on the pine washstand by the window. It was half-past seven o'clock, and that seemed early to him. He was tired and would willingly have turned in again, but a rueful glance at the couch of his night-long vigil sufficed him. He lifted a hand to Heaven and ...
— The Fortune Hunter • Louis Joseph Vance

... the vanished hero's lofty mound; Far on the solitary shore he sleeps; He fell, and falling nations mourned around; But now not one of saddening thousands weeps, Nor warlike worshipper his vigil keeps Where demi-gods appeared, as records tell. Remove yon skull from out the scattered heaps: Is that a temple where a God may dwell? Why, e'en the worm at ...
— Childe Harold's Pilgrimage • Lord Byron

... on the bed, while Dan sat near the window and kept his eyes fixed on the door of the bowling-alley. They talked for some time in low tones, but eventually Tom fell asleep. Dan waked him at twelve for his vigil, and he in turn was wakened at two. During the third watch they ...
— The Inn at the Red Oak • Latta Griswold

... was cruising off the coast of Spain, keeping the seaways open for friends and closed to enemies, thus getting a strangle-hold under which the angry Spaniards went from bad to worse. In the spring his hardy vigil met with its one reward; for he learnt that the second treasure fleet was hiding at Santa Cruz de Teneriffe in the Canary Islands, within a hundred miles of north-western Africa. Teneriffe was strongly fortified, as ...
— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood

... with Burt. Could he be patient, and wear a smiling mask through it all? That tropical night and its experiences taught him anew that he had a human heart, with all its passionate cravings. When he came down from his long vigil on the following morning his brow was as serene as the scene without. Amy gave him a grateful and significant smile, and he smiled back so naturally that observant Burt, who had been a little uneasy ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe

... of fact Henri was sound asleep. He had meant to rest only for an hour a body that was crying aloud with fatigue. But Jean, coming in quietly, had found him sleeping like a child, and had put his own blanket over him and left him. Henri slept until morning, when Jean, coming up from his vigil outside the American girl's door, found him waking and rested, and ...
— The Amazing Interlude • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... Everything indicated that we were safely outside the lines of camp. We conversed in whispers, until Tim, still influenced by his excessive drinking, became sleepy, and slid off the stump onto the ground, where he curled up on a pile of leaves. I let him lie undisturbed, and continued my vigil alone, feeling no inclination to sleep, every nerve throbbing almost painfully. Three or four men straggled into the saloon while I sat there, coming from the direction of the camp, and were doubtless ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish

... calm a space In this gloomy vigil place; Though these confines haunted be Naught of harm can come to thee— Nothing canst thou see or hear Of the ghosts that stalk anear, For around thee Membril flings Charms ...
— The Holy Cross and Other Tales • Eugene Field

... the light ceased to shine through the crack under the door, and he awoke with a sense of dull incredulity to the realisation that the occupants of the drawing-room had called it a day and that his vigil was over. ...
— Three Men and a Maid • P. G. Wodehouse

... the last night of October, being the eve or vigil of All-Hallow's or All Saint's Day, and no holiday in all the year is so informal or so marked by fun both for grown-ups as well as children as this one. On this night there should be nothing but laughter, fun and mystery. ...
— Games For All Occasions • Mary E. Blain

... all the rest of the house had retired, when the long candle was lighted, when the coffee-kettle was filled, when she sat in the elbow-chair, with her lover on a chair close beside her, and when the vigil of the night was fairly begun, she began to find it wearisome. The young man looked chilly, and ...
— The Story of an African Farm • (AKA Ralph Iron) Olive Schreiner

... his house. Knowing that the lights might reappear as they had done in the past, he grabbed his loaded Kodak 35, set the lens and shutter at f 3.5 and one tenth of a second, and went out into the middle of the back yard. Before long his vigil was rewarded when the lights made a second pass. He got two pictures. A third formation went over a few minutes later and he got three more pictures. The next morning bright and early Hart said he took the roll of unexposed film to a friend who ...
— The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects • Edward Ruppelt

... off to his berth, while Frank prepared for three hours of lonely vigil. He expected to make the rounds just about once in so often, and have a few words with the man at the wheel. Felipe had declared that it was his intention to keep busy himself through the night, since he dared not trust the wheel in the hands of an ...
— The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing - Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics • John Luther Langworthy

... lost Skelmersdale; and how was he to bear it? He went home with a dull bitterness in his mind, trying, when he thought of it, to quiet the aching pulses which throbbed all over him, with what ought to have been the hallowed associations of the last Lenten vigil. But it was difficult, throbbing as he was with wild life and trouble to the very finger-points, to get himself into the shadow of that rock-hewn grave, by which, according to his own theory, the ...
— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... only as a spiritual conflict in which men proved themselves heroes or cowards: and he meant to be a hero. For him everything lay in the will to dare or to endure. He recalled tales of old knights keeping vigil by their arms in solitary chapels, and he questioned the far hill-tops and the stars—What substitute for faith supported him? Did he believe in God? Yes, after a fashion—in some tremendous and overruling Power, at any rate. ...
— Fort Amity • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... strange vigil that we held for very near, I should think, twenty minutes or half an hour. We both sat there together without speaking. For the most of the time Mr. Huddleston was reading in his Ritual, and I could see his brow furrowed and his lips moving, as be conned over all that ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson

... the hitching-rack he saw Wood at his post of vigil in the door, watching the road with anxious mien. It was a Saturday night; the town was full of visitors. Lambert went on to the saloon, hitching at the long rack in front where twenty or thirty ...
— The Duke Of Chimney Butte • G. W. Ogden

... where saint and virgin keep The vigil lights of Heaven, I knew that thou hadst woes to weep, And sins to be forgiven; I watched where Genevieve was laid, I knelt by Mary's shrine, Beside me low, soft voices prayed; ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various

... agreed on one thing, more especially: Tasper Britt must have had a strange housecleaning of the heart during that vigil in ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... hors d'oeuvres should be various and manifold to the point of madness. They were taken seriously because they were avowedly useless extras, like the whole dinner and the whole club. There was also a tradition that the soup course should be light and unpretending—a sort of simple and austere vigil for the feast of fish that was to come. The talk was that strange, slight talk which governs the British Empire, which governs it in secret, and yet would scarcely enlighten an ordinary Englishman ...
— The Innocence of Father Brown • G. K. Chesterton

... duty, and marks a higher grade of intrinsic worth than pervades whites of like advantages and conditions. We are told in the Old Testament Scriptures, "four days and four nights should the fires burn," &c. In fulfillment of this sacred injunction, we find the midnight vigil carefully kept by these Indians four days and four nights at the graves of their departed. A small fire is kindled for the purpose near the grave at sunset, where the nearest relatives convene and maintain a continuous lamentation till the morning dawn. There was an ancient tradition that at ...
— A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians • H.C. Yarrow

... and the unearthly screech of the electric auto's siren split the air. But the bull merely cast an inquiring glance in their direction and then resumed his vigil over the professor. ...
— The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone • Richard Bonner

... who waits at home, With her lily cheeks and her violet eyes, Dreaming the sweet old dreams of love, While her lover is walking in Paradise; God strengthen her heart as the days go by, And the long, drear nights of her vigil follow, Nor bird, nor moon, nor whispering wind, May breathe the tale of the hollow; Alas! alas! The secret is safe with the ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various

... to him an endless vigil, Amanda appeared in the doorway. With measured steps and great solemnity of mien, she approached, holding in her right hand a piece of ...
— Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories • Alice Hegan Rice

... without a particle of conceit, she felt were the truth; she thought of Tom away at college, and wondered if his holiday had been as delightful as hers; she thought of the friends at Silver Bow, of Aunt Maria in the East, of the stern father keeping lonely vigil on the desert, and here her thoughts lingered. Had he received the calendar she sent him, and was he glad? What had prompted him to buy her the lovely gifts the express box had contained? Was he, after all, growing to be like ...
— Tabitha at Ivy Hall • Ruth Alberta Brown

... illustrated further on. But even the Scottish lightkeeper was frail. During the unbroken solitude of the winter months, when inspection is scarce possible, it must seem a vain toil to polish the brass hand-rail of the stair, or to keep an unrewarded vigil in the light-room; and the keepers are habitually tempted to the beginnings of sloth, and must unremittingly resist. He who temporises with his conscience is already lost. I must tell here an anecdote that illustrates the difficulties of inspection. In the days of ...
— Records of a Family of Engineers • Robert Louis Stevenson

... merriment that night. A search party was at once organized by the younger men, who started with lanterns and some of their collies to the peat-moss. All that night the anxious mother kept weary vigil, while the men-folk searched the hill. Day broke, and no trace had been found of the lost child. Weary and sad, the men returned for some needful rest and others took their places. But though they traversed the ...
— Up in Ardmuirland • Michael Barrett

... last hours of that dark vigil my mind had been torn with cares. If we escaped the perils of the night, I asked myself, what then? Here were the seven of us, pinned in a hill-fort, with no help within fifty miles, and one of the seven was a woman! I judged that the ...
— Salute to Adventurers • John Buchan

... was too good a housewife to allow herself any extra rest on account of her vigil, and she had just put her Juneating apple-tart into the oven when Anne rushed into the kitchen with the warning that there was a grand gentleman getting off his horse at the gateway, and speaking to her uncle—she thought it must ...
— A Reputed Changeling • Charlotte M. Yonge

... The all night's vigil did not bring a renewal of the attack till after the Bolo artillery gave the position two thorough rakings which destroyed one of the barricades and drove everyone to shelter behind the pine trees. Then the infantry attack petered out before ...
— The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki - Campaigning in North Russia 1918-1919 • Joel R. Moore

... this sort, alone, could ever have drawn him from his love. However, his love was safe, in any case. If they made him editor, they would give him an assistant. He would keep his mornings for himself—four hours a day. In the long vigil last night, he had threshed the whole thing out. On a four-hour schedule he could finish his book in four years and a half more:—an unprecedentedly early age to have completed so monumental a work. And who could say that in thus making haste slowly, he would not ...
— Queed • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... moment stood confessed. Old Mellitus, That night how fared he? In a fragile tent Facing that church expectant, low he knelt On the damp ground. More late, like youthful knight In chapel small watching his arms untried, He kept his consecration vigil still, With hoary hands screening a hoary head, And thus made prayer: 'Thou God to Whom all worlds Form one vast temple: Thou Who with Thyself, Ritual eterne, dost consecrate that Church, For aye creating, hallowing it forever; Thou Who in narrowest heart of man or ...
— Legends of the Saxon Saints • Aubrey de Vere

... a special effort and, with bared arm, prepared for a long vigil. In a few minutes bats began to fan my face, the wings almost brushing, but never quite touching my skin. I could distinguish the difference between the smaller and the larger, the latter having a deeper swish, deeper and longer drawn-out. ...
— Edge of the Jungle • William Beebe

... to be tempted once in this way; and I remember it was on the day before the vigil of Corpus Christi,—a feast to which I have great devotion, though not so great as I ought to have. The trial then lasted only till the day of the feast itself. But, on other occasions, it continued one, two, and even three weeks and—I know ...
— The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus • Teresa of Avila

... and our hero prepared for a night's vigil. He was acting, as he stated, merely as a matter of precaution. He did not anticipate the advent of the burglars, but he was just as watchful and careful as though he knew for a certainty that they would come. He did not sleep, but lay down on a sofa in the rear parlor, ...
— Oscar the Detective - Or, Dudie Dunne, The Exquisite Detective • Harlan Page Halsey

... in these rapid times in the course of an hour and a half. While John was keeping his vigil on the sandstone rock, Betty was having an interview with Mr. Scobell which was to produce far-reaching results, and which, incidentally, was to leave her angrier and more at war with the whole of her world than she could remember to ...
— The Prince and Betty - (American edition) • P. G. Wodehouse

... watchful, Henry Carroll still kept his post. Ever present to his mind was the fair being over whose safety his vigil was kept. Her image, clothed in all the gorgeous fancies which the love-sick brain conjures up, spoke in silver tones to his heart, and the melody of her voice thrilled his soul. Descending from the dignity of the man, he built childish air-castles, wherein he throned his idol, and in a few fleeting ...
— Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue • Warren T. Ashton

... the writer go out for a drink." A French monk adds: "Let a pretty girl be given to the writer for his pains." Ludovico di Cherio, a famous illuminator of the fifteenth century, has this note at the end of a book upon which he had long been engaged: "Completed on the vigil of the nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on an empty stomach." (Whether this refers to an imposed penance or fast, or whether Ludovico considered that the offering of a meek and empty stomach would be especially acceptable, the ...
— Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages • Julia De Wolf Addison

... behind him blew a cab-whistle, a hansom came up, and he drove away. Then I walked up and down in the vicinity, keeping a weary vigil; for my curiosity was now much excited. The stranger meant mischief. Of ...
— The Count's Chauffeur • William Le Queux

... railway tracks. She entered the house, the dark, wrecked house, where from the second story window, a perpetual look-out was kept, like the watch of the Vestal Virgins. They came to the open door, and heard her ascend to the room of the vigil. ...
— Young Hilda at the Wars • Arthur Gleason

... not of so frail a stuff as you have seemed. You shall thirst by day and hunger by night. You shall keep vigil on the sands of the Gulf and on the banks of the Potomac. You shall grow brown, but prettier. You shall shiver in loathsome tatters, yet keep your grace, your courtesy, your joyousness. You shall ditch and lie down in ditches, and shall sing your saucy songs of defiance in the face of the ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable

... scout cruiser had passed on into the night and vanished, but the Yankee lookouts kept vigil even more zealously ...
— Dave Darrin After The Mine Layers • H. Irving Hancock

... Lyciscus, herilis, Dum vixi, tutela vigil columenque senectae, Dux caeco fidus: nec, me ducente, solebat, Praetenso hinc atque hinc baculo, per iniqua locorum Incertam explorare viam; sed fila secutus, Quae dubios regerent passus, vestigia tuta Fixit inoffenso gressu; gelidumque sedile In ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume 2 • Charles Lamb

... never-blenching eyes, that did behold Life's fair and foul, with measureless content, And gaze ne'er sated, saddened as they bent Over the dying soldier in the fold Of thy large comrade love:—then broke the tear! War-dream, field-vigil, the bequeathed kiss, Have brought old age to thee; yet, Master, now, Cease not thy song to us; lest we should miss A death-chant of indomitable cheer, Blown as a gale from God;—Oh, sing it thou! ...
— Walt Whitman Yesterday and Today • Henry Eduard Legler

... and showed signs of a night's vigil, but when she caught sight of Michael it was as though the sun had emerged from a cloud, so radiant grew her eyes. She stood quite still, waiting until they advanced near to her down the long room, and then she steadied herself against the back of a ...
— The Man and the Moment • Elinor Glyn



Words linked to "Vigil" :   religious rite, religion, surveillance, agrypnia, rite, wake, vigil light, listening watch, viewing, wakefulness, faith, religious belief, spying, continuous receiver watch



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