When he had finished reading this meditation, he strode slowly up to
the first of the penitents kneeling at the altar, and after turning the
picture with its face to the wall, he laid his small hand gently over
the maiden's eyes and asked: "Dost thou still see with thy spiritual
eyes the Holy Family." "I think so," lisped the plump maiden.
"Represent to thyself the hut, the saintly personages, their looks,
their dress. Thou must see which persons stand in the shade, which in
the light, what colors are used for their clothing. Thou must touch
their foot prints, hear the rustle of their garments, feel their breath
on thy cheek, before that thou mayest rise. Is it thus with thee, then
answer 'Amen' and go with the sign of the Cross over thee, before that
thy soul is again deadened." And bowing over her he imprinted a
fatherly kiss on the head of the blooming child. He next crossed over
to the excitable passionate Bertha von Steinach, who lay shaking with
fever out-stretched on the cold stone floor before the death's head and
the instruments of martyrdom. He saw with a feeling of contentment, the
effect of the means he had employed and when he looked at this bruised
reed now like pliable wax in his hand, he determined to knead her very
soul. "Knowest thou," he asked, "where tarries the soul that used to
gaze from these empty sockets?" The young maiden shook her head,
without rising up. "It is in the place of torment, and thou shalt see
it, writhing in the dread flames of Hell. Shut thine eyes and look
within the space through which the glowing flames break. Dost thou not
hear the wail of the damned, their meanings, their screams, their
shrieks, their blasphemies against Christ? Dost thou smell the
sulphurous vapor, the breath of corruption, the stink of the slimy
pool, reeking upwards? Dost thou taste on thy tongue the salty
bitterness of the tears wept by those below? Feelest thou on thy
fingers the flames, by whose glow the souls of the damned are now
burning?"

"Oh no, no," sighed the terrified child. Then the dark figure knelt at
her side. She felt his breath on her cheek, how he was shaken with
convulsive tremors as he wrestled in prayers, she heard him whispering
in her ear in fanatical excitement. "I see millions and millions of
beings writhing and shrivelling in the everlasting fire. I see how the
pupil of their eyes roll with indescribable fever, how their hacked and
mangled limbs quiver with unendurable pain. Ah,