ould have been
suffocated, and have died that night, if the stream of tears which
constantly flowed from my eyes had not been as a balm to my distressed
heart.

How dark and long the hours of that night seemed to me!

Before the dawn of day I arose, to read my theologians again, and see if I
could not find some one who would allow me to forgive the sins of that dear
child without forcing her to tell me everything she had done. But they
seemed to me more than ever unanimously inexorable, and I put them back on
the shelves of my library with a broken heart.

At nine a.m. the next day I was by the bed of our dear sick Mary. I cannot
sufficiently tell the joy I felt when the doctor and the whole family said
to me, "She is much better; the rest of last night has wrought a marvelous
change indeed."

With a really angelic smile she extended her hand towards me, that I might
press it in mine; and she said, "I thought, last evening, that the dear
Saviour would take me to Him, but He wants me, dear Father, to give you a
little more trouble; but be patient, it cannot, be long before the solemn
hour of the appeal will ring. Will you please read me the history of the
sufferings and death of the beloved Saviour which you read me the other
day? It does me so much good to see how He has loved me, such a miserable
sinner."

There was a calm and a solemnity in her words which struck me singularly,
as well as all those who were there.

After I had finished reading, she exclaimed, "He has loved me so much that
He died for my sins!" And she shut her eyes as if to meditate in silence,
but there was a stream of big tears rolling down her cheeks.

I knelt down by her bed with her family to pray, but I could not utter a
single word. The idea that this dear child was there, dying from the cruel
fanaticism of my theologians and my own cowardice in obeying them, was as a
mill-stone to my neck. It was killing me.

Oh! if by dying a thousand times I could have added a single day to her
life, with what pleasure I would have accepted those thousand deaths!

After we had silently prayed and wept by her bed-side, she requested her
mother to leave her alone with me.

When I saw myself alone, under the irresistible impression that this was
her last day, I fell on my knees again, and with tears of the most sincere
compassion for her soul, I requested her to shake off her shame and to obey
our holy Church, which requires every one to confess thei