'Soon after my noviciation, I had the misfortune to lose my dear
father. In the tranquillity of this monastery, however, in the
soothing kindness of my companions, and in devotional exercises, my
sorrows found relief, and the sting of grief was blunted. My repose
was of short continuance. A circumstance occurred that renewed the
misery, which, can now never quit me but in the grave, to which I look
with no fearful apprehension, but as a refuge from calamity, trusting
that the power who has seen good to afflict me, will pardon the
imperfectness of my devotion, and the too frequent wandering of my
thoughts to the object once so dear to me.'
As she spoke she raised her eyes, which beamed with truth and meek
assurance to heaven; and the fine devotional suffusion of her
countenance seemed to characterize the beauty of an inspired saint.
'One day, Oh! never shall I forget it, I went as usual to the
confessional to acknowledge my sins. I knelt before the father with
eyes bent towards the earth, and in a low voice proceeded to confess.
I had but one crime to deplore, and that was the too tender
remembrance of him for whom I mourned, and whose idea, impressed upon
my heart, made it a blemished offering to God.
'I was interrupted in my confession by a sound of deep sobs, and
rising my eyes, Oh God, what were my sensations, when in the features
of the holy father I discovered Angelo! His image faded like a vision
from my sight, and I sunk at his feet. On recovering I found myself on
my matrass, attended by a sister, who I discovered by her conversation
had no suspicion of the occasion of my disorder. Indisposition
confined me to my bed for several days; when I recovered, I saw Angelo
no more, and could almost have doubted my senses, and believed that an
illusion had crossed my sight, till one day I found in my cell a
written paper. I distinguished at the first glance the handwriting of
Angelo, that well-known hand which had so often awakened me to other
emotions. I trembled at the sight; my beating heart acknowledged the
beloved characters; a cold tremor shook my frame, and half breathless
I seized the paper. But recollecting myself, I paused--I hesitated:
duty at length yielded to the strong temptation, and I read the lines!
Oh! those lines prompted by despair, and bathed in my tears! every
word they offered gave a new pang to my heart, and swelled its anguish
almost beyond endurance. I learned that Angelo, severely wounded in a
foreign engagement, had been left for dead upon the field; that his
life was saved by the humanity of a common soldier of the enemy, who
perceiving signs of existence, conveyed him to a house. Assistance was
soon procured, but his wounds exhibited the most alarming symptoms.
During several months he languished between life and death, till at
length his youth and constitution surmounted the conflict, and he
returned to Naples. Here he saw my brother, whose distress and
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