they may be able to
rejoin you, and to enjoy to the full your tender care. Let them both think
of the lesson which I have never ceased to impress upon them, that the
principles and the exact performance of their duties are the chief
foundation of life; and then mutual affection and confidence in one
another will constitute its happiness. Let my daughter feel that at her
age she ought always to aid her brother by the advice which her greater
experience and her affection may inspire her to give him. And let my son
in his turn render to his sister all the care and all the services which
affection can inspire. Let them, in short, both feel that, in whatever
positions they may be placed, they will never be truly happy but through
their union. Let them follow our example. In our own misfortunes how much
comfort has our affection for one another afforded us! And, in times of
happiness, we have enjoyed that doubly from being able to share it with a
friend; and where can one find friends more tender and more united than in
one's own family? Let my son never forget the last words of his father,
which I repeat emphatically; let him never seek to avenge our deaths. I
have to speak to you of one thing which is very painful to my heart, I
know how much pain the child must have caused you. Forgive him, my dear
sister; think of his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever
one wishes, especially when he does not understand it.[15] It will come to
pass one day, I hope, that he will better feel the value of your kindness
and of your tender affection for both of them. It remains to confide to
you my last thoughts. I should have wished to write them at the beginning
of my trial; but, besides that they did not leave me any means of writing,
events have passed so rapidly that I really have not had time.

"I die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers,
that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed. Having
no spiritual consolation to look for, not even knowing whether there are
still in this place any priests of that religion[16] (and indeed the place
where I am would expose them to too much danger if they were to enter it
but once), I sincerely implore pardon of God for all the faults which I
may have committed during my life. I trust that, in his goodness, he will
mercifully accept my last prayers, as well as those which I have for a
long time addressed to him, to receive my soul into his