Hæc (murmuring):—
"Why should health from God estrange thee?
Morning cometh and may change thee;
Life, to-day, its hues may borrow
Where the grave-worm feeds to-morrow."
Illa.—"Look to yourself then. Speak! Make me sub-prioress, and be Cured on the instant."
Hæc (turning herself back upon the pillow).—"No, no, temptress; begone:—
"'Softest pillow for the dying,
Is a conscience void of dread.'
Go, leave me; my life is in the hand of God. 'For if we live, we live unto the Lord; and if we die, we die unto the Lord. Living, therefore, or dying, we are the Lord's.'"
So saying, the pious mother turned her face to the wall, and
Sidonia went out of the chamber.
In a little while, however, she returned—"Would the good mother promise, at least, to offer no opposition, if Dorothea Stettin proposed, of her own free will, to resign the office of sub-prioress? If so, let her reach forth her hand; she would soon find the pains leave her."
The poor abbess assented to this, and oh, wonder! as it came, so it went; first out of the little finger, and then by degrees out of the whole body, so that the old mother wept for joy, and thanked her murderess.
Just then the door opened, and David Ludeck, the chaplain, whom the abbess had sent for, entered in his surplice. He was a fine tall man, of about thirty-five years, with bright red lips and jet-black beard.