: there were the
fragments of the vessel strewed upon the beach, or tossed in mockery by
the surge; and close to me lay the dead body of the lady, whose sanctity
the captain had assured us would be a safeguard to us all. I then turned
from the beach to look at the inland country, and perceived, to my
astonishment, that I was not three miles from my native city,
Marseilles. This was a horrid discovery; for I knew that I should
receive no mercy, and could not proceed a mile without being recognised.
What to do was now the subject of my thoughts; and at last, as I viewed
the body of the dead lady, it occurred to me that I might pass myself
off for her.

I stripped it of its outer garment, and having then hauled my own
clothes upon the corpse, and covered it over with sea-weed, I dressed
myself in the religious habit which she had worn, and sat down awaiting
the arrival of the people, which I knew must soon take place. I was then
without a symptom of beard; and, from the hardship and ill-treatment
which I had received on board of the Genoese, was thin and sallow in the
face. It was easy in a nun's dress to mistake me for a woman of
thirty-five years of age, who had been secluded in a cloister. In the
pockets of her clothes I found letters, which gave me the necessary clue
to my story, and I resolved to pass myself off as La Soeur Eustasie,
rather than be put in prison, or run through the body.

I had scarcely time to finish reading these documents, when a party,
attracted by the fragments on the beach, came up to me. I narrated the
loss of the vessel, the death of the whole crew, my name and condition,
my having come over at the request of the bishop to assume the guidance
of the convent of St Therese; and added, that I had called upon the
Virgin in my distress, who had come to my aid, and floated me on shore
with as much care and comfort as if I had been reposing on cushions of
down. The report was spread and credited; for the circumstance of a
helpless woman being the sole survivor of a whole crew was miracle
enough in itself.

The bishop's carriage was sent for me, and I was conducted into the
town, followed by a concourse of priests, monks, and common people, who
were anxious to kiss even the ground that had been trod upon by a
personage so especially under the protection of Heaven. I was conducted
to the bishop's palace, where I held a sort of court, being visited by
deputations from the official bodies, the governo