Ursula; at that time I was very far from suspecting its cause. On the contrary, I waited for my gaoler’s appearance at first with impatience, and afterwards with despair. One day passed away; another followed it; the third arrived. Still no Camilla! Still no food! I knew the lapse of time by the wasting of my lamp, to supply which fortunately a week’s supply of oil had been left me. I supposed, either that the nuns had forgotten me, or that the domina had ordered them to let me perish. The latter idea seemed the most probable; yet so natural is the love of life, that I trembled to find it true. Though embittered by every species of misery, my existence was still dear to me, and I dreaded to lose it. Every succeeding minute proved to me that I must abandon all hopes of relief. I was become an absolute skeleton: my eyes already failed me, and my limbs were beginning to stiffen.

I could only express my anguish, and the pangs of that hunger which gnawed my heartstrings, by frequent groans, whose melancholy sound the vaulted roof of the dungeon reechoed. I resigned myself to my fate: I already expected the moment of dissolution, when my guardian angel, when my beloved brother arrived in time to save me. My sight grown dim and feeble at first refused to recognize him; and when I did distinguish his features, the sudden burst of rapture was too much for me to bear. I was overpowered by the swell of joy at once more beholding a friend, and that a friend so dear to me. Nature could not support my emotions, and took her refuge in insensibility.