ace. I was very
glad of it, for I hoped that, being far away from him, I should not be any
more a cause of sin to him, and that I might begin a better life. But the
fourth time that I went to confess to my new confessor, he invited me to go
to his room, where we did things so horrible together that I do not know
how to confess them. It was two days before my marriage, and the only child
I have had is the fruit of that sinful hour. After my marriage I continued
the same criminal life with my confessor. He was the friend of my husband;
we had many opportunities of meeting each other, not only when I was going
to confess, but when my husband was absent and my child was at school. It
was evident to me that several other women were as miserable and criminal
as I was myself. This sinful intercourse with my confessor went on till God
Almighty stopped it with a real thunderbolt. My dear only daughter had gone
to confess and receive the holy communion. As she had come back from church
much later than I expected, I inquired the reason which had kept her so
long. She then threw herself into my arms, and with convulsive cries said:
'Dear mother, do not ask me any more to go to confess.... Oh! if you could
know what my confessor has asked me when I was at his feet! and if you
could know what he has done with me, and he has forced me to do with him
when he had me alone in his parlour!'

"My poor child could not speak any longer, she fainted in my arms.

"But as soon as she recovered, without losing a minute, I dressed myself,
and, full of an inexpressible rage, I directed my steps towards the
parsonage. But before leaving my house, I had concealed under my shawl a
sharp butcher's knife to stab and kill the villain who had destroyed my
dearly beloved child. Fortunately for that priest, God changed my mind
before I entered his room--my words to him were few and sharp.

'You are a monster!' I said to him. 'Not satisfied to have destroyed me,
you want to destroy my own dear child, which is yours also! Shame upon you!
I had come with this knife to put an end to your infamies, but so short a
punishment would be too mild a one for such a monster. I want you to live,
that you may bear upon your head the curse of the too unsuspecting and
unguarded friends whom you have so cruelly deceived and betrayed; I want
you to live with the consciousness that you are known by me and many
others, as one of the most infamous monsters who have ever defiled