I had to do with no common woman; one
powerful for good as for evil. I believe that I was able to give her
spiritual assistance from time to time, and that she looked upon me as
a servant of that Holy Church, which has such wonderful power of moving
men's hearts, and relieving them of the burden of their sins. I have
known her cross the moors on the wildest nights of storm, to confess
and be absolved; and then she would return, calmed and subdued, to her
daily work about her mistress, no one witting where she had been during
the hours that most passed in sleep upon their beds. After her
daughter's departure--after Mary's mysterious disappearance--I had to
impose many a long penance, in order to wash away the sin of impatient
repining that was fast leading her into the deeper guilt of blasphemy.
She set out on that long journey of which you have possibly heard--that
fruitless journey in search of Mary--and during her absence, my
superiors ordered my return to my former duties at Antwerp, and for
many years I heard no more of Bridget.

'Not many months ago, as I was passing homewards in the evening, along
one of the streets near St. Jacques, leading into the Meer Straet, I
saw a woman sitting crouched up under the shrine of the Holy Mother of
Sorrows. Her hood was drawn over her head, so that the shadow caused by
the light of the lamp above fell deep over her face; her hands were
clasped round her knees. It was evident that she was some one in
hopeless trouble, and as such it was my duty to stop and speak. I
naturally addressed her first in Flemish, believing her to be one of
the lower class of inhabitants. She shook her head, but did not look
up. Then I tried French, and she replied in that language, but speaking
it so indifferently, that I was sure she was either English or Irish,
and consequently spoke to her in my own native tongue. She recognised
my voice; and, starting up, caught at my robes, dragging me before the
blessed shrine, and throwing herself down, and forcing me, as much by
her evident desire as by her action, to kneel beside her, she
exclaimed:

'"O Holy Virgin! you will never hearken to me again, but hear him; for
you know him of old, that he does your bidding, and strives to heal
broken hearts. Hear him!"

'She turned to me.

'"She will hear you, if you will only pray. She never hears me: she and
all the saints in Heaven cannot hear my prayers, for the Evil One
carries them off, as he carried that