Volume IV Part 97 (1/2)
At last I was taken to lazed and curtained as in the diningroom, but Clairmont came and told me that he could not unpackand should not care to take the responsibility I thought he was right, and I went to ask my friend about it
”There's not a lock or a key,” said he, ”in the whole castle, except in the cellar, but everything is safe for all that There are no robbers at St Angelo, and if there were they would not dare to come here”
”I daresay, my dear count, but you know' it is ht take the opportunity of robbing me, and you see I should have to keep silence if I were robbed”
”Quite so, I feel the force of your argu a locksmith shall put locks and keys to your doors, and you will be the only person in the castle who is proof against thieves”
I ht have replied in the words of Juvenal, 'Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator', but I should have mortified him I told Clairmont to leave my trunks alone till next day, and I went out with Count A---- B---- and his sisters-in-law to take a walk in the town
Count Aood hteen, herfour years older She took my aro and see the beautiful penitent,” said the count
I asked him who the beautiful penitent was, and he answered, without troubling himself about his sisters-in-law,
”She was once a Lais of Milan, and enjoyed such a reputation for beauty that not only all the flower of Milan but people fro toere at her feet Her hall-door was opened and shut a hundred times in a day, and even then she was not able to satisfy the desires aroused At last an end came to what the old and the devout called a scandal Count Fir and ent to Vienna, and on his departure received orders to have her shut up in a convent Our august Marie Therese cannot pardon mercenary beauty, and the count had no choice but to have the fair sinner imprisoned She was told that she had done aeneral confession, and was conde penance in this convent
She was absolved by Cardinal Pozzobonelli, Archbishop of Milan, and he then confir the name of Therese, which she had received at the baptis her how she should save her soul by following the example of her new patroness, whose wantonness had hitherto been her pattern
”Our family are the patrons of this convent, which is devoted to penitents It is situated in an inaccessible spot, and the ine of a kind mother-superior, who does her best to soften the manifold austerities of their existences They only work and pray, and see no one besides their confessor, who says mass every day We are the only persons who as so whoht tears to dalen!
Cruel ee the source of her austere virtue
When ere announced the e hall, where I soon irls, ere penitents like herself, but I presuly As soon as the poor wo, and stood up respectfully In spite of the severe sireat iht low! Withto the enor so cruelly, I saw before me a picture of innocence--a huround, but asat me, she exclaimed,--
”O one, dreadful sinner, though thou deservest to be here h Her unfortunate position, and the singular apostrophe she had addressed to me, pierced me to the heart
The mother-superior hastened to say,--
”Do not be offended, sir, the poor girl has beconized you”
”That is impossible, madam, I have never seen her before”
”Of course not, but you ive her, as she has lost the use of her reason”
”Maybe the Lord has made her thus in mercy”
As a matter of fact, I saw more sense than rievous for the poor girl to have to encounter my idle curiosity, in the place of her penitence I was deeplytear rolled down ed him to restrain hiain She raved against ed the mother-superior to send ood lady chid her with all a truethat all who came there only desired that she should be saved eternally She was stern enough, however, to add, that no one had been a greater sinner than she, and the poor Magdalen went out weeping bitterly