To illustrate this remark let me relate an incident that transpired about this time.  I was one day sent to a part of the house where I was not in the habit of going.  I was passing along a dark hall, when a ray of light from an open door fell upon my path.  I looked up, and as the door at that moment swung wide open, I saw, before a glass, in a richly furnished room, the most beautiful woman I ever beheld.  From the purity of her complexion, and the bright color of her cheeks and lips, I could have taken her for a piece of wax work, but for the fact that she was carelessly arranging her hair.  She was tall, and elegant in person, with a countenance of such rare and surpassing beauty, I involuntarily exclaimed, “What a beautiful woman!” She turned towards me with a smile of angelic sweetness, while an expression of sympathetic emotion overspread her exquisitely moulded features, which seemed to say as plainly as though she had spoken in words, “Poor child, I pity you.”  I now became conscious that I was breaking the rules of the house, and hastened away.  But O, how many days my soul fed on that smile!  I never saw the lady again, her name I could never know, but that look of tenderness will never be forgotten.  It was something to think of through many dreary hours, something to look back to, and be grateful for, all the days of my life.

But to return to my narrative.  The priests had a large quantity of sap gathered from the maple trees, and brought to the nunnery to be boiled into sugar.  Another nun and myself were left to watch it, keep the kettle filled up, and prevent it from burning.  It was boiled in the large caldron of which I have before spoken, and covered with a large, thin, wooden cover.  The sap had boiled some time, and become very thick.  I was employed in filling up the kettle when the Abbess came into the room, and after a few inquiries, directed me to stand upon the cover of the caldron, and fix a large hook directly over it.  I objected, for I know full well that it would not bear a fourth part of my weight.  She then took hold of me, and tried to force me to step upon it, but I knew I should be burned to death, for the cover, on account of its enormous size was made as thin as possible, that we might be able to lift it.  When I saw that she was determined to make me yield, in self defence, I threw her upon the floor.  Would that I had been content to stop here.  But no.  When I saw her in my power, and remembered how much I had suffered from her, my angry passions rose, and I thought only of revenge.

I commenced beating her with all my might, and when I stopped from mere exhaustion, the other nun caught her by the hair and began to draw her round the room.  She struggled and shrieked, but she could not help herself.  Her screams, however, alarmed the house, and hearing one of the priests coming, the nun gave her a kick and left her.  The priest asked what we were doing, and the Abbess related with all possible