The monks took the most active part in this business; the convents were therefore empty, all but that of Saint Claire, which alone was not deserted. The nuns, however, wished to take part in the struggle: 'Alas!' they said, 'our worthy fathers have gone to share in the fight with a number of monks, because it is in behalf of the faith.... Let us kneel before God that He may show mercy to the poor city.' The mother abbess drew a cross of ashes on the foreheads of the sisters, after which they marched in procession round the cloister, invoking in devout litanies the protection of the whole celestial choir. Then forming a cross, they took their places in the middle of the choir, and there, distracted and weeping, they fell on their knees and cried aloud: 'Mercy, O God! through the intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary and all the Saints! Give victory to the Christians, and bring the poor wanderers back to the way of salvation.'[664] At this moment the sisters heard a noise at the gate of the convent: it was a few good catholic women who, very much afraid themselves, came to bring the sisters tidings calculated to add to their distress. 'If the heretics win the day,' they said, 'they will certainly make you all marry, young and old—all to your perdition.'[665] This was the customary bugbear of the poor nuns. They were superstitious and even fanatical, but nothing indicates that they were not pure. A tradition to the effect that there was an underground communication between their convent and that of the gray friars is a fiction as void of foundation as the frightful news of a _forced marriage_ brought by their indiscreet friends. The terrified nuns crossed themselves, sang their litanies once more, and cried louder than ever: 'O holy Virgin, give victory to the Christians!' [Sidenote: A CRUEL HUSBAND.]