was reading the letter, she cast a look at the score, which
happened to lie open on the desk; and as the cloth merchant's narrative
had given her the notion that it might have been the power of music
that had turned the brains of her poor sons on that awful day, she
timidly turned round, and asked the nun who stood behind her chair,
whether that was the composition which had been played in the cathedral
on the memorable _Corpus Christi_ day, six years ago. The young nun
answered in the affirmative, saying that she remembered hearing of the
affair, and that since then, when the music was not used, it was
generally kept in the abbess's room. At this the lady, deeply moved,
arose and placed herself before the desk, occupied by various thoughts.
She looked at the magical unknown signs, with which, as it seemed, some
fearful spirit had mysteriously marked out its circle, and was ready to
sink into the ground, when she found the "_Gloria in excelsis_" open.
It seemed to her as if the whole terrors of music, which had proved the
destruction of her sons, were whirling over her head; at the mere sight
of the score her senses seemed to be leaving her, and with an
infinitely strong feeling of humility and submission to the divine
power, she heartily pressed the leaf to her lips, and then again seated
herself in her chair. The abbess had, in the meanwhile, read the
letter, and said, as she folded it up: "God himself, on that wonderful
day, preserved the cloister from the wantonness of your misguided sons.
The means that He employed may be indifferent to you, since you are a
Protestant; indeed, you would hardly understand what I could reveal to
you on the subject. For you must know that nobody has the least notion
who it was, that under the pressure of that fearful hour, when
destruction was ready to fall upon us, calmly sat at the organ, and
conducted the work which you there find open. By evidence taken on the
following morning, in the presence of the bailiff of the convent and
several other persons, as recorded in our archives, it is proved that
Sister Antonia, the only one among us who knew how to conduct the work,
lay in the corner of her cell, sick, insensible, and without the use of
her limbs during the whole time of its performance. A nun who, as a
personal relative, was appointed to take charge of her, never stirred
from her bedside during the whole morning on which the festival of
_Corpus Christi_ was celebrated in the