"Yes, lady."
"You want to confide a secret to me?"
"I am dying with the desire."
"But why do you not go to the penitential chamber? I have no power but to console; a priest can comfort and forgive." She spoke the last word hesitatingly.
"I need comfort alone; and to a woman alone can I entrust my confession. Will you listen patiently to my most strange story, to be told to you alone, for you are mighty, and I require the hand of heaven to defend me."
"Defend? Are you pursued and attacked?"
"Yes, indeed, my lady," said the fugitive, with unutterable
fright.
"Reflect, madame, that this is a nunnery and not a
castle," said the princess; "what agitates mankind enters here but to be extinguished; weapons to use against man are not here; it is the abode of God, not of might, repression and justice."