fraud,
and expose our subjects to the poisonous taint of Jewish blood and
unbelief. A Christian thou must become. The plan we have decided upon
must bring conviction at last; but it will be attended with such
long years of mental and physical suffering, that we shrink from the
alternative, and only thine own obstinacy will force us to adopt it."

She paused for above a minute; but though Marie's very lips had
blanched, and her large eyes were fixed in terror on the Queen's face,
there was no answer.

"Thou hast more than once alluded to death," Isabella continued,
her voice growing sterner; "but, though such may be the punishment
demanded, we cannot so completely banish regard as to expose thy soul,
as well as body, to undying flames. Thou hast heard, perchance, of
holy sisterhoods, who, sacrificing all of earthly joys and earthly
ties, devote themselves as the willing brides of Christ, and pass
their whole lives in acts of personal penance, mortification,
self-denial, and austerity; which to all, save those impelled try this
same lofty enthusiasm, would be unendurable. The convent of St. Ursula
is the most strictly rigid and unpitying of this sternly rigid school;
and there, if still thou wilt not retract, thou wilt be for life
immured, to learn that reverence, that submission, that belief,
which thou refusest now. Ponder well on all the suffering which this
sentence must comprise. It is even to us--a Christian--so dreadful,
that we would not impose it, could we save thy deluded spirit by any
other means. The Abbess, from the strict and terrible discipline of
long years, has conquered every womanly weakness; and to a Jewess
placed under her charge, to be brought a penitent to the bosom of
the Virgin, is not likely to decrease the severity of treatment and
discipline, the portion even of her own. Once delivered to her charge,
we interfere no further. Whatever she may command--short of actual
torture, or death--thou must endure. Marie! wilt thou tempt a doom
like this? In mercy to thyself, retract ere it be too late!"

"If I can bear the loss of thy favor, my Sovereign, I can bear this,"
replied Marie, slowly and painfully. "There is more suffering in the
thought, that your Grace's love is lost for ever; that I shall never
see your Highness more; and thou must ever think of me as only a
wretched, feelingless ingrate, than in all the bodily and mental
anguish such a life may bring."

"Marie!" exclaimed Isabella, with