Satan away.'

"I am not sure whether my words or the removal of the unlucky
manuscript recalled her wandering wits. At any rate, she speedily
recovered, and, after doing my best to soothe and calm her by leading
her to speak on other topics, I quitted the cottage reassured.

"Not long after this episode a neighbor called at my house one morning,
and told me that, having missed the old woman from the weekly market,
and knowing how regular she had always been in her attendance, he
had gone to her dwelling and found her lying sick and desiring to
see me. Of course I immediately prepared to comply with her request,
providing myself in case I should find her anxious for absolution
and the viaticum. Directly I entered her hut, she beckoned me to
the bedside, and said in a low, hurried voice:--

"Father, I wish to confess to you at once, for I know I am going
to die.'

"Perceiving that, for the present at least, she was perfectly sane,
I willingly complied with her request, and heard her slowly and
painfully unburden her miserable soul.

"Monsieur, if the story with which Virginie Giraud intrusted me
had been told only in her sacramental confession, I should not have
been able to repeat it to you. But, when the final words of peace
had been spoken, she took a packet of papers from beneath her pillow
and placed it in my hands. `Here, father,' she said, `is the
substance of my history. When I am dead, you are free to make
what use of it you please. It may warn some, perhaps, from yielding