to my solitude, it was difficult for me to conceal the satisfaction with which I hastened to obey, for I had found pleasures in this retirement, or rather pleasures had been found for me, which I can hardly describe. How truly doth the Scripture say, 'He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.' I had learned many Scriptures by heart, and these were brought to my remembrance most wonderfully in these solitary hours. Even passages which I had acquired in my nursery, and in the English language, came back to my mind at those times, with small portions of hymns, replete with gospel truth; and such sweet recollections of my father, my brother, my pious nurse, and the green and fragrant fields, and violet banks, and hedge-rows of my native land, all spread beneath a summer sky, presented themselves at those times to my fancy, that I would even weep with joy to think that these were but the earnests of my heavenly Father's love, and but faint and indistinct images of those delights which are prepared for such as have been brought to love the Father as seen through the Son, and as brought near and made known by the Holy Spirit. And at these times it was unfolded to me, that the whole course of time might be divided into three dispensations:-the first, in which the human race, being in its infancy, was taught by palpable figures, this dispensation terminating soon after the manifestation of the Holy Ghost: the second, being that which is entirely spiritual, and hence not to be apprehended by the natural faculties, during which period the divine work is carried on by the Lord the Spirit in the heart of the individual, and multitudes, past count, are brought in again into that union with God which is eternal life; this mighty work being effected by the secret inflowings of the Divine Spirit, by which the body, which was in a state of death according to nature, becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost: and the third and last, which partakes of, or rather verifies in perfection, the imperfect glories which have gone before under the two former dispensations; being that portion of time when the redemption of the body of the believer being complete, the soul and the body shall rejoice together with the incarnate Redeemer. Then came verses like these to my mind:- Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the VOL. VII.-I

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dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isaiah xxvi. 16. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' John xi. 25, 26. And from time to time I stole my little Bible from its hidingplace, and drew fresh draughts from the fountain of truth truly I had many sweet and refreshing moments during that season, and I have often considered that these refreshments were vouchsafed to me in order that I should be strengthened and invigorated for that which was to follow.

"I have calculated that these conversations with la Mère Ursule Annunciata, and Father Joachim took place on the very day that Sister Angelique entered the house as pensionnaire; and that the motive which held back the heads of the establishment from more violent measures with me was the very precarious state of the times, better known to Father Joachim than to us within the house.

"The monastic establishments had already been destroyed in France, and there was a great cry raised against the rulers of the church in other countries. It was, therefore, desirable that I should be brought to obedience, if possible, without exasperating any of the younger members of the family, who are always jealous of any stretch of authority, or any semblance of severity; and, accordingly, having been kept in penitence' until the day of the profession of Sister Angelique, the superieure then called me into her presence, and having stated to me, on the one hand, what the consequences would be if I continued in disobedience (and very terrible indeed did she make these appear), and on the other, the immediate relief which I should experience in case of my submission, she proceeded, without permitting me to reply, to lay her commands upon me, that I should join the rest of the family at the gouté. My dear sister Pauline witnessed the effect of my appearance there; and as I could not be prevailed upon to say that I would renounce my heresies, or even attempt to disguise them, as the superieure, in the true spirit of the apostate church, would have persuaded me that I might do with safety to my conscience under the plea of necessity, other measures were soon after had recourse to. I was stigmatized as being under the influ

ence of evil spirits; and although permitted to go at large in the house, and commanded to attend the services, yet I was not permitted to hold any converse with my sisters. It was then that I began to feel the furious and unrelenting nature of popish bigotry; and poor Annunciata, thinking, perhaps, that she did God service, was not unseldom the instrument of their severity.

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"I have used a hard word, God forgive me, but my trials were dreadful; yet, how far short did they fall of those which have been endured by many of the excellent of the earth; by many of those who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong.' It was between the period in which I was first denounced as a demoniac and that in which I was publicly anathematized by Father Joachim, that I was made to attend all the services at the door of the chœur; in comparison with which, the solitude which I had enjoyed in the superieure's chapel was ease to me, for I was obliged to retain always the same posture, holding the heavy unlighted taper. I was at large, indeed, in the house, and this was only a sort of refinement of punishment, because I was thereby only the more exposed to universal scorn; for there were few whose eyes could penetrate the cloud in which I was involved,-few, very few; only, indeed, the kind Mère Genefride, who often gave me a look of pity, which descended as a ray of light on a darkened landscape; and my own sweet sisters Pauline and Angelique, to whom I owed that communication from my beloved brother which, although I understood it not so at that time, was the forerunner of my great and wonderful deliverance. But on this topic I will not expatiate, lest I should lose the thread of that narrative of which the clew is already too much broken. My strength, as you well know, my sisters, at length sunk under these continual fatigues of standing during all the services; and the interest of some of the sisters, it seems, having been excited in my favour, it was thought expedient to turn the course of these feelings by that test to which all the family was witness; and the cross having fallen at my feet, I was banished for ever from the society as one rejected by the church, and devoted to eternal destruction. And then, my friends, then it was that I was 12

made to drink deep, deep indeed, of the cup of fury, mixed up and poured out by the idolatrous church, even her on whose forehead it is written, Mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.

"I was seen no more in the family, as you well remember, subsequent to that evening, but was sent back, after the mockery of the fall of the cross, to my own cell, in a private part of the house, where, for several days, I know not how many, I was left alone, without seeing a living creature, my food being given me through a tour, and my door being opened to me every night by la Mère Ursule, in order that I might go down to pray and meditate in the cimetière, under the white marble cross; and in order that my figure should not be discerned by the sisters descending to and ascending from the officium nocturnum, I was admonished to wrap myself in a white sheet, and to kneel on the eastern side of the cross. During these cold vigils, and in that gloomy place, amid the mouldering bones of hundreds who had, through ages past, lived and died within those ancient seats of superstition, my meditations often took so sad a form that I used to weep continually, sitting on the marble slab at the foot of the cross, with my head resting on my knees, till, in that attitude, sleep would sometimes surprise me; and it was on one of these occasions that a sudden gust of wind, lifting the drapery which I had drawn over my head, occasioned the alarm which was given by Sister Clotilde, with which I was immediately reproached on my return to my cell by la Mère Ursule; and as I still refused to yield any of my opinions, it was at last decided that I should be removed from the place which I had hitherto occupied, to that which was said to be more fit for one so lost to all sense of right as I was then supposed to be.

i could not, at that time, account for this rather sudden change of measures, but I comprehended it afterward. It seems that the father Joachim had a particular friend, a Jesuit, with whom he had associated in the Jesuits' College at Nice, where he had been educated. This man, namely, the father Juliano, had gone to Rome at the time his friend had come to St. Siffren, and had there become the favourite of a certain cardinal, who had pushed his fortune, giving him an important place in the Inquisition, besides other benefices and

nominal cures, one of which was under our own bishop. In this last character he had come to St. Siffren to prepare things for the reception of his superior, who was shortly expected; and it seems that Father Joachim had mentioned my case to him, and been severely reproved for the lenity which had been shown to me. How truly does the Scripture say, 'The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.' Certainly the treatment I had received up to that time had been severe enough to subdue any spirit supported by no strength but that which is natural. But as this treatment was decided to be too mild, and as it was said that when the bishop came he would think it had been so,-my sin being that of heresy after having known the truth, and hence being the greatest which can be conceived,-other measures were advised, and Father Juliano had entreated that they should be acted upon that very night and although madame kindly wished to have a private conversation with me in the morning, before I had, as it were, sealed my condemnation, yet the alarm which I speak of, which was attributed to some carelessness on my part, hastened their purposes, and accordingly la Mère Ursule came to me as soon as I had returned to my cell, and bidding me to follow her, she led me through certain private passages into the apartment of the superieure.

“There she sat, leaning her head upon her hand, her arm resting upon a marble slab, on which was a crucifix, with a light burning before it. She seemed much agitated. Annunciata stood behind her chair, in an attitude usual with her, namely, having her arms folded within her wide sleeves, and her eyes fixed on the ground. Then and there the superieure first solemnly stated the awful alternative which was before me,either on the one hand a decided recantation of my errors, which I was to evince at that present time, by kneeling down and adoring the visible cross; or, on the other, perpetual confinement in a dungeon beneath the house, in eternal seclusion from the light of day.

"Not eternal, madame,' was the answer which I made; 'my seclusion from the light of day will not be eternal. I know in whom I have trusted, and I shall not be confounded.'

"Annunciata changed her posture as I uttered these words, but spoke not; and the abbess again addressed