WE are ruin’d and undone, my child, said the abbess to _Margarita_,——we
shall be here all night——we shall be plunder’d——we shall be ravished——
——We shall be ravish’d, said _Margarita_, as sure as a gun.
_Sancta Maria!_ cried the abbess (forgetting the _O!_)—why was I
govern’d by this wicked stiff joint? why did I leave the convent of
_Andoüillets?_ and why didst thou not suffer thy servant to go
unpolluted to her tomb?
O my finger! my finger! cried the novice, catching fire at the word
_servant_—why was I not content to put it here, or there, any where
rather than be in this strait?
Strait! said the abbess.
Strait——said the novice; for terror had struck their
understandings——the one knew not what she said——the other what she
answer’d.
O my virginity! virginity! cried the abbess.
——inity!——inity! said the novice, sobbing.