He had placed a statue of the Virgin at the foot of his bed: the one which has a heart in flames and open arms. He looked on it as he went to sleep and prayed the Mother, eternally chaste, to watch over his dreams.
But many times in his delirium he saw the Virgin come to life and take the well-known face of her from whom he sought to flee, and come and find him in his couch. And he woke with a start full of terror of himself at the moment when, in his impious sacrilege, he felt the chaste bosom of the Mother of God quiver beneath his kisses.
Then he opened his scared eyes and perceived before him the sweet form which stretched its plaster arms to him in the shadow, and full of agony he cried:
"Mater inviolata, ora pro nobis!"
But once he thought he heard a voice which answered:
"Christe, audi nos."
XXXII.
THE DEATH'S-HEAD.
"God is my witness that I did then everything in the world to divert myself and to heal myself."
A. DE MUSSET (Confession d'un enfant du Siècle).