"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.