away
before daylight, disguised as a waiting-woman, to pray in a deserted
church far from all this turmoil, she at last pined away with sorrow,
and was dying of grief at Nivelles.

At this juncture a certain Father Bernard de Montgaillard, Abbot of
Orval, of the Cistercian Order, came to the town. She flew to him, and
besought him to rescue her; and this monk, enlightened by a truly divine
spirit, understood that she was born to be a victim of expiation, to
atone for the insults offered to the Holy Eucharist in churches. He gave
her comfort, and announced to her her vocation as a Carmelite. She set
out for Antwerp to visit the Mother Anne de Saint Barthelemy, a saintly
woman, who, warned of her coming by a vision of Saint Theresa, consented
to receive her into the Carmel of which she was the Superior.

Then obstacles arose, the work of the Devil. Having returned to her
guardian, pending her reception at the convent, she suddenly fell
paralyzed, losing all at once her hearing, speech, and sight. She
nevertheless succeeded in making it understood that they were to carry
her, as she was, to the convent, where she was left half dead. There she
fell at the feet of Mother Anne, who blessed her, and raised her up
cured.

Then her novitiate began.

In spite of her delicate frame, she endured the most terrible fasts, the
most violent scourging; she bound her body in chains with points on the
links, fed on the parings thrown out on plates, drank dirty water to
quench her thirst, and was so cold one winter that her legs froze.

Her body was one wound, but her soul was glorious; she lived in God, who
loaded her with mercies and communed with her sweetly; her probation was
near its end, and again, just when she became a postulant, she fell
dangerously sick. There were doubts as to her being admitted to the
Order, and again Saint Theresa intervened and commanded the Abbess to
receive her.

She took the habit, and then fell a prey to the temptation of despair,
which has assailed some Saints; after this came a sense of dryness and
desertion, which lasted for three years. She held out; she endured all
the tortures of the Mystical Substitution, bearing the most painful and
repulsive diseases to save souls. The Lord vouchsafed at last to
intermit the penitential task of suffering. He allowed her to breathe,
and the Devil took advantage of this lull to come upon the scene.

He appeared to her under the most hostile and monstrous f