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 punishment for his guilty life and death, he was condemned to the most rigorous chastisement in Purgatory until the Day of Judgment.

The charitable sister, deeply touched by the state of this soul, generously offered herself as a victim for him. But it is impossible to say what she had to suffer for many years in consequence of that heroic act. The poor prince left her no repose, and made her partake of his torments, She completed her sacrifice by death; but before expiring she confided to her Superior that, in return for so much expiation, she had obtained for her protege the remission of but a few hours of pain. When the Superior expressed her astonishment at this result, which seemed to her entirely disproportionate with what the sister had suffered, Sister Denise replied, "Ah! my dear Mother, the hours of Purgatory are not computed like those of earth; years of grief, weariness, poverty, or sickness in this world are nothing compared to one hour of the suffering of Purgatory. It is already much that Divine Mercy permits us to exercise any influence whatever over His Justice. I am less moved by the lamentable state in which I have seen this soul languish, than by the extraordinary return of grace which has consummated the work of his salvation. The act in which the prince died merited Hell; a million others might have found their eternal perdition in the same act in which he found his salvation. He recovered consciousness but for one instant, just time sufficient to co-operate with that precious movement of grace which disposed him to make an act of perfect contrition. That blessed moment seems to me to be an excess of the goodness, clemency, and infinite love of God."

Thus spoke Sister Denise; she admired at once the severity of God's Justice, and His infinite Mercy. Both one and the other shone forth in this example in the most striking manner.

Continuing the subject of the long duration of Pur-