till numerous and respectable, I will not give
his name, I will call him Rev. Mr. D----. Having been invited to preach in
a parish of Canada, about 100 miles distant from Quebec, called Vercheres,
he was also requested to hear the confessions during a few days of a kind
of Novena (nine days of prayer), which was going on in that place. Among
his penitents was a beautiful young girl, about nineteen years old. She
wanted to make a general confession of all her sins from the first age of
reason, and the confessor granted her request. Twice every day she was
there, at the feet of her handsome young spiritual physician, telling all
her thoughts, her deeds, her desires. Sometimes she was remarked to have
remained a whole hour in the confessional-box, in accusing herself of all
her human frailties. What did she say? God only knows; but what became
hereafter known by the entire of Canada is that the confessor fell in love
with his fair penitent, and that she burned with the same irresistible
fires for her confessor, as it so often happens.

It was not an easy matter for the priest and the young girl to meet each
other in as complete a _tete-a-tete_ as they both wished, for there were
too many eyes upon them. But the confessor was a man of resources. The last
day of the Novena he said to his beloved penitent, "I am going to Montreal,
but three days after I will take the steamer back to Quebec. That steamer
is accustomed to stop here. At about twelve a.m., be on the wharf, dressed
as a young man. Let no one know your secret. You will embark in the
steamboat, where you will not be known, if you have any prudence. You will
come to Quebec, where you will be engaged as a servant-boy by the curate,
of whom I am the vicar. Nobody will know your sex except myself, and we
will there be happy together."

The fifth day after this there was a great desolation in the family of the
girl, for she had suddenly disappeared and her robes had been found on the
shores of the St. Lawrence river. There was not the least doubt in the
minds of all relations and friends, that the general confession she had
made had entirely upset her mind, and, in an excess of craziness, she had
thrown herself into the deep and rapid waters of the St. Lawrence. Many
searches were made to find her body, but all in vain; many public and
private prayers were offered to God to help her to escape from the flames
of Purgatory, where she might be condemned to suffer for many ye