the glare of their
torches, dimmed by the vapours and dampness of the Vault, gilded with
cold beams the surrounding Monuments. For some moments all preserved a
dead and solemn silence. I stood at some distance from the Prioress.
At length She beckoned me to advance. Trembling at the severity of her
aspect my strength scarce sufficed me to obey her. I drew near, but my
limbs were unable to support their burthen. I sank upon my knees; I
clasped my hands, and lifted them up to her for mercy, but had no power
to articulate a syllable.

She gazed upon me with angry eyes.

'Do I see a Penitent, or a Criminal?' She said at length; 'Are those
hands raised in contrition for your crimes, or in fear of meeting their
punishment? Do those tears acknowledge the justice of your doom, or
only solicit mitigation of your sufferings? I fear me, 'tis the
latter!'

She paused, but kept her eye still fixt upon mine.

'Take courage;' She continued: 'I wish not for your death, but your
repentance. The draught which I administered, was no poison, but an
opiate. My intention in deceiving you was to make you feel the agonies
of a guilty conscience, had Death overtaken you suddenly while your
crimes were still unrepented. You have suffered those agonies: I have
brought you to be familiar with the sharpness of death, and I trust
that your momentary anguish will prove to you an eternal benefit. It
is not my design to destroy your immortal soul; or bid you seek the
grave, burthened with the weight of sins unexpiated. No, Daughter, far
from it: I will purify you with wholesome chastisement, and furnish
you with full leisure for contrition and remorse. Hear then my
sentence; The ill-judged zeal of your Friends delayed its execution,
but cannot now prevent it. All Madrid believes you to be no more; Your
Relations are thoroughly persuaded of your death, and the Nuns your
Partizans have assisted at your funeral. Your existence can never be
suspected; I have taken such precautions, as must render it an
impenetrable mystery. Then abandon all thoughts of a World from which
you are eternally separated, and employ the few hours which are allowed
you, in preparing for the next.'

This exordium led me to expect something terrible. I trembled, and
would have spoken to deprecate her wrath: but a motion of the Domina
commanded me to be silent. She proceeded.

'Though of late years unjustly neglected, and now opposed by many of
our misgui