Page:Francesca Carrara 1.pdf/206

202 has my heart gone back to the things of its former life; but tenderly—not repiningly. Mademoiselle de Montpensier passed here a week in Lent, and her first intelligence was, that the Duc de Joyeuse had died of the wounds he had received while leading on a charge of cavalry during a sortie from Paris. He died, too, unmarried. Heaven forgive the weakness which found in that thought sweetest consolation! I was free to remember him—to pray for him—to know that to none other could his memory be precious as it was to me. Perhaps even now, looking down from another world, better and happier than the one where we go on our way in heaviness, he knows with what truth and constancy I loved him. I now dare hope to meet him again; for, Francesca, what may we not hope from the goodness of God?"

The nun's voice sank into silence, and her companion saw that her pale cheek was warm with emotion, and her large lustrous eyes bright with tears. A kind pressure of the hand expressed her sympathy, and they parted,—Louise to join a service about to be performed, requiring the attendance of the sisters only, and Francesca to her solitary cell, to muse over the votary's confession. But she looked back to the world; her yet unbroken spirit asked activity, not repose