complain any more."

Some of the Sisters were sobbing as if their hearts would break; some
sat quiet and still, and let the tears fall from their eyes unchecked;
some smiled and cried together; some sighed a little and trembled like
aspen leaves in a southern wind. The great candles in the hall were
burning down to their sockets. One by one they spluttered out. A
ghostly, flickering light fell upon the legend over the broad dais,
"_Connubium mundum sed virginitas paradisum complet_"--"Marriage
replenisheth the World, but virginity Paradise."

"Dong, dong, dong." Suddenly the great bell of the Nunnery began to
toll. With a cry the Abbess sprang to her feet; there were tear stains
on her white cheeks, and her hand shook as she pointed fiercely to the
door.

"Away, false pilgrim," she cried. "Silence, foul blasphemer! _Retro
me, Satanas._" She crossed herself again and again, saying _Pater
Noster_.

The nuns screamed and trembled with terror. A little cloud of blue
smoke arose from where the minstrel had stood. There was a little
tongue of flame, and he had disappeared. It was almost dark in the
hall. A few sobs broke the silence. The dying light of a single candle
fell on the form of the Lady Mother.

"Tomorrow," she said, "we shall fast and sing _Placebo_ and _Dirige_
and the _Seven Penitential Psalms_. May the Holy God have mercy upon
us for all we have done and said and thought amiss this night. Amen."

BELPHAGOR

BY NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

We read in the ancient archives of Florence the following account, as
it was received from the lips of a very holy man, greatly respected by
every one for the sanctity of his manners at the period in which he
lived. Happening once to be deeply absorbed in his prayers, such was
their efficacy, that he saw an infinite number of condemned souls,
belonging to those miserable mortals who had died in their sins,
undergoing the punishment due to their offences in the regions below.
He remarked that the greater part of them lamented nothing so bitterly
as their folly in having taken wives, attributing to them the whole of
their misfortunes. Much surprised at this, Minos and Rhadamanthus,
with the rest of the infernal judges, unwilling to credit all the
abuse heaped upon the female sex, and wearied from day to day with its
repetition, agreed to bring the matter before Pluto. It was then
resolved that the conclave of infernal princes should form a committee
of inquiry, and sho