spent the first year, having very bad health, though I do not
think I offended God in it much. And as my illness was so
serious--I was almost insensible at all times, and frequently
wholly so--my father took great pains to find some relief; and as
the physicians who attended me had none to give, he had me taken
to a place which had a great reputation for the cure of other
infirmities. They said I should find relief there. [6]
That friend of whom I have spoken as being in the house went with
me. She was one of the elder nuns. In the house where I was a
nun, there was no vow of enclosure. [7]

7. I remained there nearly a year, for three months of it
suffering most cruel tortures--effects of the violent remedies
which they applied. I know not how I endured them; and indeed,
though I submitted myself to them, they were, as I shall
relate, [8] more than my constitution could bear.

8. I was to begin the treatment in the spring, and went thither
when winter commenced. The intervening time I spent with my
sister, of whom I spoke before, [9] in her house in the country,
waiting for the month of April, which was drawing near, that I
might not have to go and return. The uncle of whom I have made
mention before, [10] and whose house was on our road, gave me a
book called Tercer Abecedario, [11] which treats of the prayer of
recollection. Though in the first year I had read good
books--for I would read no others, because I understood now the
harm they had done me--I did not know how to make my prayer, nor
how to recollect myself. I was therefore much pleased with the
book, and resolved to follow the way of prayer it described with
all my might. And as our Lord had already bestowed upon me the