excuse for rendering the discipline of the monastic institutions more
rigid than ever. Nor was the Abbess Maria a woman who hesitated to avail
herself of this fact as an apology for strengthening her despotism and
widening the circle of her influence.

The reader has now heard enough to make him fully aware that the Carmelite
Convent was an establishment enjoying influence, exercising an authority,
and wielding a power, which--if these were misdirected--constituted an
enormous abuse in the midst of states bearing the name of a republic.
But the career of the Medici was then hastening toward a close; and in
proportion as the authority of the duke became more circumscribed, the
encroachments of the ecclesiastical orders grew more extensive.

The Abbess Maria, who was far advanced in years, but was endowed with
one of those vigorous intellects against which Time vainly directs his
influence, received the Lady Nisida in a little parlor plainly
furnished. The praying desk was of the most humble description; and
above it rose a cross of wood so worm-eaten and decayed that it seemed
as if the grasp of a strong hand would crush it into dust. But this
emblem of the creed had been preserved in the Carmelite Convent since
the period of the Second Crusade, and was reported to consist of a piece
of the actual cross on which the Saviour suffered in Palestine.

Against the wall hung a scourge, with five knotted thongs, whereon the
blood-stains denoted the severity of that penance which the abbess
frequently inflicted upon herself. On a table stood a small loaf of
coarse bread and a pitcher of water; for although a sumptuous banquet
was every day served up in the refectory, the abbess was never known to
partake of the delicious viands nor to place her lips in contact with
wine.

When Nisida entered the presence of the abbess, she sank on her knees,
and folded her arms meekly across her bosom. The holy mother gave her a
blessing, and made a motion for her to rise. Nisida obeyed, and took a
seat near the abbess at the table.

She then drew forth her tablets, and wrote a few lines, which the
superior read with deep attention.

Nisida placed a heavy purse of gold upon the table, and the abbess
nodded an assent to the request contained in the lines inscribed on the
tablet.

The interview was about to terminate, when the door suddenly opened, and
an elderly nun entered the room.

"Ursula," said the lady abbess, in a cold but repro