Suddenly the moon, which had been covered with thick clouds, now shone in a clear sky, and, its rays coming through the iron grating in the prison wall, threw a silvery light on the floor of Mary's cell. By the light thus afforded, Mary could make out the large bricks of which the walls of her prison were built, the white mortar which united them, the place in the wall serving as a table on which her meals were placed. Although her surroundings were so miserable, Mary felt that the moonlight had soothed her heart. To her astonishment, she became conscious of a sweet perfume filling her cell. Suddenly she remembered that in the morning she had placed in her bosom a bouquet of roses and other sweet flowers which remained from the basket. Taking it in her hand she untied it, and looked at the flowers in the moonlight. "Alas," said she mournfully, "when I gathered these rosebuds and forget-me-nots from my garden this morning, who would have thought that I should be confined in this gloomy prison in the evening? When I wore garlands of flowers, who would have imagined that on the same day I should be doomed to wear iron chains?" Then she thought of her father, and tears fell from her eyes and moistened the flowers which she held in her hand. [Illustration: "Oh, my father, be sure that I have not the ring." _See page 23._] "Oh, my dear father," she said, "how this bouquet reminds me of the advice which you have given me. From the midst of thorns, I plucked these rosebuds; and thus I know that joy will come to me from the very troubles which now cause me pain. If I had attempted with my own hands to unfold the leaves of these rosebuds, they would have perished; but God with a delicate finger had gradually unfolded their purple cups and shed over them the sweet perfume of His breath. He can disperse the evils which surround me, and make them turn to my good which seemed all evil. Let me then patiently wait His time. These flowers remind me of Him who created them. I will remember Him as He remembers me.