rending, and increasing grief, suffer a little while with patience,
and you will be undeceived. Neither perfect peace, nor utter
wretchedness can be of long continuance here below. Recollect this
truth, that you may not become unduly elevated in prosperity, and
despicable under the trials which assuredly await you. A sense of
weariness and apathy succeeded the terrible excitement I had
undergone. But indifference itself is transitory, and I had some
fear lest I should continue to suffer without relief under these
wretched extremes of feeling. Terrified at the prospect of such a
future, I had recourse once more to the only Being from whom I could
hope to receive strength to bear it, and devoutly bent down in
prayer. I beseeched the Father of mercies to befriend my poor
deserted Piero, even as myself, and to support his family no less
than my own. By constant repetition of prayers like these, I became
perfectly calm and resigned.



CHAPTER XVII.



It was then I reflected upon my previous violence; I was angry at my
own weakness and folly, and sought means of remedying them. I had
recourse to the following expedient. Every morning, after I had
finished my devotions, I set myself diligently to work to recall to
mind every possible occurrence of a trying and painful kind, such as
a final parting from my dearest friends and the approach of the
executioner. I did this not only in order to inure my nerves to
bear sudden or dreadful incidents, too surely my future portion, but