aware of what went on," said the count.
"Strange thing!" said Lorenza, "I could see and hear but without having my eyes open. I was in a trance."
"In fact," said the abbess, "I have heard Doctor Tronchin speak of patients in catalepsy who were buried alive."
"Proceed Lorenza."
"My mother was in despair and would not believe in my death. She passed six-and thirty hours beside me, without my making a move or uttering a sigh. The priest came three times and told my mother that she was wrong to dispute the interment as her daughter had passed away just as she was speaking the vow, and that my soul had gone straight from the altar to heaven. But my mother insisted on watching all Monday night.
"Tuesday morning I was in the same insensibility, and my mother retired, vanquished. The nuns hooted her for the sacrilege.
"The death-candles were lighted in the chapel, where the custom was for the exposure of the body to repose a day and a night.
"I was shrouded, dressed in white, as I had not taken the vow; my hands crossed on my bosom, and a wreath of white blossoms placed on my brow.
"When the coffin was brought in, I felt a shiver pass over my body; for, I repeat, I saw all that happened as though I were my second self standing invisibly beside my counter-part.
"I was placed in the coffin, and after my time of lying in state, left with only the hospital sister to watch me.
"A dreadful thought tormented me in this lethargy—that I should be buried living on the morrow unless some interposition came.
"Each stroke of the time bell echoed in my heart, for I was listening—doleful idea! to my own death-knell.
"Heaven alone knows what efforts I made to break the iron bonds which held me down on the bier; but it had pity on me in my frozen sleep, since here I am.
"Midnight rang.
"At the first stroke, I felt that convulsion experienced whenever Acharat approached me; a shock came to my heart; I saw him appear in the chapel doorway."
"Was it fright that you felt?" asked Count Fenix.
"No, no; it was joy, bliss, ecstasy, for I knew that he came to tear me from the desperate death which I so abhorred. Slowly he came up to my coffin; he smiled on me as he gazed for a moment, and he said:
"'Are you glad to live? Then come with me.'
"All the bonds snapped at his call; I rose, extricated myself from the bier as from the grave clothes, and passed by the slumbering nun. I followed him who for the second time had snatched me from death.
"Out in the courtyard I beheld the sky spangled with stars which never more had I expected to see. I felt that cool night air which blesses not the dead, but which is so refreshing to the living.
"'Now,' said my liberator, 'before quitting the convent, choose between it and me. Will you be a nun, or will you be my wife?' I wanted to be his wife, and I followed him.
"The tower gate was closed and locked. He asked where were the keys, and as I said in the pocket of the wardress, who slept within, he sent me there to get them.
"Five minutes after we were in the street. I took his arm and we ran to the end of Subiaco village. A hundred paces beyond the last house a postchaise was waiting, all ready. We got in, and off it went at a gallop."
"And no violence was done you? No threat was proffered? You followed the man willingly?"
Lorenza remained mute.
"Her royal highness asks you, Lorenza, if by threat or act I forced you to follow me."
"No; I went because I loved you, darling."
With a triumphant smile, Count Fenix turned round to the royal princess.
Chapter XXXIII.
Count And Cardinal.
What took place under the princess-abbess' sight was so extraordinary that her mind, strong and yet tender, questioned if she did not face a true magician who disposed of sentiments and wills as he liked. But Count Fenix was not going to leave things thus.
"As your royal highness has heard only part of the story from my wife's lips, doubts might linger if the rest was not spoken by them. Dear Lorenza," he said, turning again to the Italian, "after leaving your country we went on a tour to the Alps and to the Rhine, the magnificent Tiber of the North——"
"Yes, Lorenza has seen these sights," said the woman.
"Lured by this man—led by a power resistless of which you spoke, my child?" suggested the princess.
"Why should your highness believe this when all you hear is to the contrary? I have a palpable proof in the letter my wife wrote me when I was obliged to leave her at Maintz. She sorrowed and longed for me, so that she wrote this note, which your highness may read."
She looked at the letter which the count took out of the letter case.
"Return, Acharat; for all goes when you leave me. When shall I have you for eternity? Lorenza."
With the flame of choler on her brow the princess went up to the fugitive, holding out this letter. The other allowed her to approach, without seeming to see or hear any but the count. "I understand," said the latter, decided to clear up matters completely. "Your highness doubts, and wishes to be sure the writing is Lorenza's. She herself shall enlighten you. Lorenza, answer; who wrote this note?"
On his putting the paper in her hand, she pressed it to her heart.
"It was Lorenza," she said.
"Lorenza knows what is in it?"
"Of course."
"Well, then, tell the princess what it says, that she may not believe that I deceive her in asserting that you love me. I want you to tell her."
Appearing to make an effort, but without looking at the note, unfolding it or bringing it to her eyes, she read, word for word, what the princess had seen without speaking it aloud.
"This is hard to believe," said the superior. "And I do not believe you, from what is supernatural and inexplicable in what happens."
"It was this very letter which determined me to hurry on our wedding," said Count Fenix, without heeding the interruption. "I love Lorenza as much as she loves me. In our roaming life, accidents might happen. If I died, I wanted my property to be my dear one's; so we were united when we reached Strasburg."
"But she told me that she was not your wife."
"Lorenza," said the count, without replying to the abbess, and turning to the Italian, "do you remember where and when we were married?"
"Yes; in the St. John's Chapel of Strasburg Cathedral, on the third of May."
"Did
