"I cannot say I see anything supernatural in this," observed the princess, with a smile. "Pray be calm, and proceed."
"You do not know what I feel. The demon possesses me entirely--body and soul. Love would not make me suffer so much; would not shake me like a tree by the storm, and would not give me the wicked thoughts coming to me. I ought to confess these to the priest, and the demon bids me not to think of such a thing.
"One day a pious friend, a neighbor and a Roman lady, came to see me. She passed most of the time praying before the image of the Virgin. That night in undressing I found a note in the lining of my robe. It contained these lines:
"'It is death here in Rome for a nun to love a man. But will you not risk death for him who saved your life?'
"That made his possession of me complete, lady; for I should lie if I said that I thought about anybody more than I do about that man."
Frightened at her own words, Lorenza stopped to study the abbess' sweet and intelligent countenance.
"This is not demoniac possession," said Louise of France with firmness. "It is but an unfortunate passion, and unless in the state of regret, human passions have no business here."
"Regret? you see me in tears, on my knees, entreating you to deliver me from the power of this infernal wretch, and you talk of my regret? More than that, I feel remorse!
"My misery could not escape my companions' eyes. The superior was notified, and she acquainted my mother. Only three days after I had taken the vows, I saw the three persons enter my cell who were my only kin--my mother, father and brother. They came to embrace me for the last time, they said, but I saw that they had another aim. Left alone with me, my mother questioned me. The influence of the demon was plain once more, for I was stubbornly silent.
"The day when I was to take the black veil came amid a terrible struggle with myself, for I feared that then the fiend would work his worst. Yet I trusted that heaven would save me as it had when the robbers seized me, forgetting that heaven had sent that man to rescue me.
"The hour of the ceremonial arrived. Pale, uneasy, but not apparently more agitated than usual, I went down into the church. I hurriedly assented to everything, for was I not in the holy edifice and was I not my own mistress while that demon was out of the way? All at once I felt that his step was on the sill; irresistible attraction as before caused me to turn my eyes away from the altar, whatever my efforts.