nd your lenity will bring
back a soul to heaven!'

'Amazing confidence! What! Shall St. Clare's Convent become the
retreat of Prostitutes? Shall I suffer the Church of Christ to cherish
in its bosom debauchery and shame? Unworthy Wretch! such lenity would
make me your accomplice. Mercy would here be criminal. You have
abandoned yourself to a Seducer's lust; You have defiled the sacred
habit by your impurity; and still dare you think yourself deserving my
compassion? Hence, nor detain me longer! Where is the Lady Prioress?'
He added, raising his voice.

'Hold! Father, Hold! Hear me but for one moment! Tax me not with
impurity, nor think that I have erred from the warmth of temperament.
Long before I took the veil, Raymond was Master of my heart: He
inspired me with the purest, the most irreproachable passion, and was
on the point of becoming my lawful husband. An horrible adventure, and
the treachery of a Relation, separated us from each other: I believed
him for ever lost to me, and threw myself into a Convent from motives
of despair. Accident again united us; I could not refuse myself the
melancholy pleasure of mingling my tears with his: We met nightly in
the Gardens of St. Clare, and in an unguarded moment I violated my vows
of Chastity. I shall soon become a Mother: Reverend Ambrosio, take
compassion on me; take compassion on the innocent Being whose existence
is attached to mine. If you discover my imprudence to the Domina, both
of us are lost: The punishment which the laws of St. Clare assign to
Unfortunates like myself is most severe and cruel. Worthy, worthy
Father! Let not your own untainted conscience render you unfeeling
towards those less able to withstand temptation! Let not mercy be the
only virtue of which your heart is unsusceptible! Pity me, most
reverend! Restore my letter, nor doom me to inevitable destruction!'

'Your boldness confounds me! Shall I conceal your crime, I whom you
have deceived by your feigned confession? No, Daughter, no! I will
render you a more essential service. I will rescue you from perdition
in spite of yourself; Penance and mortification shall expiate your
offence, and Severity force you back to the paths of holiness. What;
Ho! Mother St. Agatha!'

'Father! By all that is sacred, by all that is most dear to you, I
supplicate, I entreat....'

'Release me! I will not hear you. Where is the Domina? Mother St.
Agatha, where are you?'

The door o