“Not so, Inez! you escaped me once; I have you now!  You have defied me in health; but in death I conquer.  You cannot die in peace without my blessing.  Remember, remember, one sin unconfessed will sink you into everlasting perdition!  Think you I will absolve you!  Never!  Never!”

“What brings you here?  Think you the approach of death will terrify me?—­that I shall claim your intercession and absolution?  Have you come hoping to make a bargain, and receive my order for a hundred sheep, or as many cattle, on condition that you pray me out of purgatory?  I tell you now, if there be such a place, you will surely follow me ere long.  We shall not be separated long, my godly Padre!”

Large drops rolled from her brow, and, gasping, she continued more indistinctly: 

“There is one to stand between us now, even blackbrowed Death! and now, as I speak, I see his shadow flung over me.  I am dying, and if I am lost, you are to blame! you, and you only!  You a man of God!  You forgive my sins, and give me a passport to heaven!  Padre, I know you, in all your hypocrisy, and I know that, if there be a God, you have outraged His every law!  You have led me astray!  You have brought me to this!  Padre, I am sinful, full well I know it; for this is an hour when the barrier which hides the secret soul is thrown down, and every deed and thought stands up boldly for itself.  I have not served God!  But oh!  I would not change places with you, leader, teacher, guide, consecrated priest, as you are—­for you have mocked him!  Yes, mocked him! set aside his written word, and instead of Bible truths you told me of Saints, and Relics, and Miracles!  You bade me worship the cross, and never once mentioned Him who consecrated it with his agony and blood!  In my childhood I believed your legends and miracles, and trusted to such as you to save me.  A dreadful curse will rest upon your head, for you came in sheep’s clothing, and devoured many precious souls!  Padre, I—­I—­” In vain she strove to articulate, further utterance was denied her.  The ghastly hue of death settled upon her face.  She lifted her eyes to heaven as in prayer; vacantly they wandered to the face of the Padre, now well-nigh as pale as her own; then slowly closed forever.  A slight quiver passed over the lips, a faint moan, and Inez was at rest.  For long her wearied spirit had cried “Peace! peace!” and now she laid herself down and slept the long, unbroken sleep of death.

  “Oh! you have yearned for rest,
  May you find it in the regions of the blest.”

As she had died without the pale of the church, they refused the lifeless form a narrow bed in consecrated ground.  Even the ordinary service for the dead was entirely omitted; and, without a prayer, they committed her to the silent tomb.  The kind old dame, remembering her grief at the secret burial of her noble friend, obtained permission to lay her by his side, and, with the fierce howlings of the tempest for her funereal dirge, they consigned Inez—­the proud, beautiful, gifted, yet unfortunate Inez—­to rest.  Peace, Inez, to thy memory, and may the sod lie lightly on thy early grave!