once they have lost all shame before God, are in nothing whatever
to be trusted; and that in exchange for the gratification of
their will, and of that affection which the devil suggests, they
will hesitate at nothing.

11. Though I have been so wicked myself, I never fell into
anything of this kind, nor did I ever attempt to do evil; nor, if
I had the power, would I have ever constrained any one to like
me, for our Lord kept me from this. But if He had abandoned me,
I should have done wrong in this, as I did in other things--for
there is nothing in me whereon anyone may rely.

12. When I knew this, I began to show him greater affection: my
intention was good, but the act was wrong, for I ought not to do
the least wrong for the sake of any good, how great soever it may
be. I spoke to him most frequently of God; and this must have
done him good--though I believe that what touched him most was
his great affection for me, because, to do me a pleasure, he gave
me that little image of copper, and I had it at once thrown into
a river. When he had given it up, like a man roused from deep
sleep, he began to consider all that he had done in those years;
and then, amazed at himself, lamenting his ruinous state, that
woman came to be hateful in his eyes. Our Lady must have helped
him greatly, for he had a very great devotion to her Conception,
and used to keep the feast thereof with great solemnity.
In short, he broke off all relations with that woman utterly, and
was never weary of giving God thanks for the light He had given
him; and at the end of the year from the day I first saw him,
he died.