way.

"Christians," said the archbishop, "you have heard the confession of
that penitent woman; it confirms the sentence of human justice. You
ought to see in this fresh reason to join your prayers to those of the
Church which offers to God the holy sacrifice of the mass, to implore
his mercy in favor of so deep a repentance."

The services went on. Veronique, lying on the bed, followed them with a
look of such inward contentment that she seemed, to every eye, no longer
the same woman. On her face was the candid and virtuous expression of
the pure young girl such as she had been in her parents' home. The dawn
of eternal life was already whitening her brow and glorifying her face
with its celestial tints. Doubtless she heard the mystic harmonies, and
gathered strength to live from her desire to unite herself once more
with God in the last communion. The rector came beside the bed and
gave her absolution. The archbishop administered the sacred oils with a
fatherly tenderness that showed to all there present how dear the lost
but now recovered lamb had been to him. Then, with the sacred anointing,
he closed to the things of earth those eyes which had done such evil,
and laid the seal of the Church upon the lips that were once too
eloquent. The ears, by which so many evil inspirations had penetrated
her mind, were closed forever. All the senses, deadened by repentance,
were thus sanctified, and the spirit of evil could have no further power
within her soul.

Never did assistants of this ceremony more fully understand the grandeur
and profundity of the sacrament than those who now saw the acts of the
Church justly following the confession of that dying woman.

Thus prepared, Veronique received the body of Jesus Christ with an
expression of hope and joy which melted the ice of unbelief against
which the rector had so often bruised himself. Roubaud, confounded in
all his opinions, became a Catholic on the spot. The scene was touching
and yet awesome; the solemnity of its every feature was so great that
painters might have found there the subject of a masterpiece.

When this funeral part was over, and the dying woman heard the priests
begin the reading of the gospel of Saint John, she signed to her mother
to bring her son, who had been taken from the room by his tutor. When
she saw Francis kneeling by the bedside the pardoned mother felt she
had the right to lay her hand upon his head and bless him. Doing so, she
died.