ure, by some monitory shivering, creeping
along the artery which led to his heart, to rouse the muleteer from his
banquet?--no sweet minstrelsy to bring back the fair idea of the abbess
and Margarita, with their black rosaries!

Rouse! rouse!--but 'tis too late--the horrid words are pronounced this
moment--

--and how to tell them--Ye, who can speak of every thing existing, with
unpolluted lips--instruct me--guide me--

Chapter 4.VI.

All sins whatever, quoth the abbess, turning casuist in the distress
they were under, are held by the confessor of our convent to be either
mortal or venial: there is no further division. Now a venial sin being
the slightest and least of all sins--being halved--by taking either only
the half of it, and leaving the rest--or, by taking it all, and amicably
halving it betwixt yourself and another person--in course becomes
diluted into no sin at all.

Now I see no sin in saying, bou, bou, bou, bou, bou, a hundred times
together; nor is there any turpitude in pronouncing the syllable ger,
ger, ger, ger, ger, were it from our matins to our vespers: Therefore,
my dear daughter, continued the abbess of Andouillets--I will say bou,
and thou shalt say ger; and then alternately, as there is no more sin in
fou than in bou--Thou shalt say fou--and I will come in (like fa, sol,
la, re, mi, ut, at our complines) with ter. And accordingly the abbess,
giving the pitch note, set off thus:

Abbess,.....) Bou...bou...bou..
Margarita,..) ---ger,..ger,..ger.

Margarita,..) Fou...fou...fou..
Abbess,.....) ---ter,..ter,..ter.

The two mules acknowledged the notes by a mutual lash of their tails;
but it went no further--'Twill answer by an' by, said the novice.

Abbess,.....) Bou. bou. bou. bou. bou. bou.
Margarita,..) ---ger, ger, ger, ger, ger, ger.

Quicker still, cried Margarita. Fou, fou, fou, fou, fou, fou, fou, fou,
fou.

Quicker still, cried Margarita. Bou, bou, bou, bou, bou, bou, bou, bou,
bou.

Quicker still--God preserve me; said the abbess--They do not understand
us, cried Margarita--But the Devil does, said the abbess of Andouillets.

Chapter 4.VII.

What a tract of country have I run!--how many degrees nearer to the
warm sun am I advanced, and how many fair and goodly cities have I seen,
during the time you have been reading and reflecting, Madam, upon this
story! There's Fontainbleau, and Sens, and Joigny, and Auxerre, and
Di