It is superfluous to say, that Herman’s request was granted with readiness; but how great was the emotion, which his narrative had excited in his auditress, how ardent her impatience for the arrival of the unhappy lady! She was unable to restrain her tears, and a thousand joyful exclamations escaped her lips, whose import was unintelligible to Herman. —“Am I right,” said he, “in supposing, that my friend is not unknown to you?”— —“Heaven grant, that it may prove so,” answered the Abbess, while she hastily wiped away her tears. “But as yet you have allowed me so little insight into her history, that I scarcely dare give credit to my hopes. Oh! furnish me with more light; tell me every thing that you know about her; and prevent my nourishing the sweet but deceitful dreams, which now occupy my fancy. Alas! alas! it is impossible that they should be verified; in pity then destroy them at once, before these fond hopes have time to take such root in my heart, that to tear them out again would almost break it.”— —“All that I know respecting this stranger,” answered Herman, “is, that she was immured by her friends in the Convent of St. Roswitha several months before the fatal conflagration. It was not long, before she became acquainted with the manners, which prevailed in this polluted Sanctuary. Luprian, the unworthy Abbot of Curwald, who even under the protecting roof of her father had insulted her by a declaration of his passion, renewed his persecution with increased ardour in a place, which was completely under his dominion. Much time was not suffered to elapse, before her resistance was punished by confinement in the cell, whence I released her: yet she was occasionally compelled to return to the Convent, in order that her virtue might be assailed by art, flattery, and every power of the most refined seduction, as well as by severity and persecution. “The day preceding the dreadful night, in which these dwellings of sin were purified by fire, had witnessed such a scene of temptation, as Luprian thought could not possibly fail of success. But it was defeated in a manner so disgraceful for the enemies of innocence, that spite and fury took the place of seduction and love. The heroine was compelled to endure a variety of the most cruel insults and injuries, and then was dragged back to her dungeon so exhausted with her sufferings, that she could scarcely be called alive.