to baby clothes and caps for the children of poor
women, the times of whose confinements were near at hand. The next day
she would be surprised to see all these things neatly arranged in her
drawers. This happened to her every year about the same time, but this
year she had more fatigue and less consolation. Thus, at the hour of
our Saviour's birth, when she was usually perfectly overwhelmed with joy,
she could only crawl with the greatest difficulty to the crib where the
Child Jesus was lying, and bring him no present but myrrh, no offering
but her cross, beneath the weight of which she sank down half dying at
his feet. It seemed as though she were for the last time making up her
earthly accounts with God, and for the last time also offering herself
in the place of a countless number of men who were spiritually and
corporally afflicted. Even the little that is known of the manner in
which she took upon herself the sufferings of others is almost
incomprehensible. She very truly said: 'This year the Child Jesus has
only brought me a cross and instruments of suffering.'

She became each day more and more absorbed in her sufferings, and
although she continued to see Jesus travelling from city to city during
his public life, the utmost she ever said on the subject was, briefly
to name in which direction he was going. Once, she asked suddenly in a
scarcely audible voice, 'What day is it?' When told that it was the 14th of
January, she added: 'Had I but a few days more, I should have related the
entire life of our Saviour, but now it is no longer possible for me to
do so.' These words were the more incomprehensible as she did not appear
to know even which year of the public life of Jesus she was then
contemplating in spirit. In 1820 she had related the history of our
Saviour down to the Ascension, beginning at the 28th of July of the
third year of the public life of Jesus, and had continued down to the
10th of January of the third year of his public life. On the 27th of
April 1823, in consequence of a journey made by the writer, an
interruption of her narrative took place, and lasted down to the 21st
of October. She then took up the tread of her narrative where she had
left it, and continued it to the last weeks of her life. When she spoke
of a few days being wanted her friend himself did not know how far her
narrative went, not having had leisure to arrange what he had written.
After her death he became convinced that if she