en felt his own tremble. "Canst thou see nothing?" he
stammered. "Ah, wherever I look, I see dark brown eyes fixed on me."
And carried out of herself, filled with a deep passion, she arose. His
self-command now entirely forsook him. He pressed her to him with wild
desire, his burning feverish lips sought her own. Powerless she lay in
his arms. The minutes flew as if but seconds. Suddenly a cold severe
voice was heard. "Are these your exercises, Magister Laurenzano?"
called out the Abbess appearing from behind the organ. "Go to thy room,
Lydia," she said to the trembling maiden, and on finding herself alone
with the Magister, she drew back the window curtain, so that the last
rays of the sun fell on the hidden corner. The young Priest lay as if
overwhelmed on the nearest bench, his head buried in the cushion. He
answered not a word, as the infuriated Matron continued her harangue.
"For this cause would you impress these mystic sensuous images on the
souls of confiding children, and fan in them an impure passion, so as
to bring about their ruin? Shame on you, a thousand times shame. Better
would it be, to attain your evil design by force, than to destroy in
this manner the innocency of their hearts."

A sob as that of an hart struck by an arrow reached the ear of the
enraged Abbess. She noticed how the young Priest writhed in agony. Pity
for the poor young man stirred her to the quick.

"I am willing to believe, Magister Paul," said she in a kinder tone,
"that you had not the intention to act in the way I saw, and I thank
the Saints that they left me no rest in my room but led me hither,
before any greater mischief happened. But you see now what comes of all
this juggling, which the Wicked one himself invented, to give the
heretics a hold against us. The gardener shall immediately bring these
pictures and other objects to your apartment. Should such _Exercitia_
be necessary, I shall preside over them in person, as is required by
the rules of all properly conducted convents. You will however return
to your home in Heidelberg, so soon as you can do so without injury to
our or your reputation. I hold much to a good _conscientia_ in all
things, and the _fama publica_ must not slander us."

Thereupon the kindly Dame wished him farewell and left him alone in the
Chapel, which however he only quitted an hour afterwards quietly, and
as one sick of a fever, supporting himself against the wall.

Dame Sabina went at once to see L