; I have thrown myself
into the arms of my heavenly Father, and I know He has mercifully accepted
and forgiven His poor prodigal child! Oh, I see the angels with their
golden harps around the throne of the Lamb! Do you not hear the celestial
harmony of their songs? I go--I go to join them in my Father's house. I
shall not be lost!"

While she was thus speaking to me, my eyes were really turned into two
fountains of tears, and I was unable, as well as unwilling, to see
anything, so entirely overcome was I by the sublime words which were
flowing from the dying lips of that dear child, who was no more a sinner,
but a real angel of Heaven to me. I was listening to her words; there was a
celestial music in every one of them. But she had raised her voice in such
a strange way, when she had begun to say, "I go to my Father's house," and
she had made such a cry of joy when she had let the last words, "not be
lost," escape her lips, that I raised my head and opened my eyes to look at
her. I suspected that something strange had occurred.

I got upon my feet, passed my handkerchief over my face, to wipe away the
tears which were preventing me from seeing with accuracy, and looked at
her.

Her hands were crossed on her breast, and there was on her face the
expression of a really superhuman joy; her beautiful eyes were fixed as if
they were looking on some grand and sublime spectacle; it seemed to me at
first that she was praying.

In that very same instant the mother rushed into the room, crying, "My God!
my God! what does that cry 'lost' mean?"--for her last words, "not be
lost," particularly the last one, had been pronounced with such a powerful
voice that they had been heard almost everywhere in the house.

I made a sign with my hand to prevent the distressed mother from making any
noise, and troubling her dying child in her prayer, for I really thought
that she had stopped speaking, as she used so often to do, when alone with
me, in order to pray. But I was mistaken. That redeemed soul had gone, on
the golden wings of love, to join the multitudes of those who have washed
their robes in the blood of the Lamb, to sing the eternal Alleluia.

* * * * *

CHAPTER II.

AURICULAR CONFESSION A DEEP PIT OF PERDITION FOR THE PRIEST

* * * * *

It was some time after our Mary had been buried. The terrible and
mysterious cause of her death was known only to God and to