for the first time made manifest to her sight; and, suddenly changing
colour, she rose and left the room. Vannozza followed (alarmed at her
hasty departure), and found her in the oratory kneeling before the
Crucifix, and as pale as death. She inquired into the cause of her
emotion; but Frances simply desired her to return to the sitting-room,
and request Lorenzo to dismiss the hermit. As soon as he was departed,
she re-appeared amongst them as serene and calm as usual; and to no one
but to her confessor did she mention the circumstance. Yet it was a most
awful moment, that first initiation into the supernatural world, that
first contact with the powers of darkness, that opening of the visible
war between her and the great enemy. No wonder that she was habitually
silent; her soul must have lived in very close communion with the
invisible world, and the presence of God must have been realised in
an extraordinary decree by one whose spiritual discernment was so
miraculously keen.

A more ordinary snare was the tempter's next resource, and he chose as
his instrument a person of piety and virtue, but whose human fears and
affections were too strong for her faith. He suggested to Cecilia, the
mother-in-law of the two saints, who was most fondly attached to them,
and maternally solicitous about their healths, that the ascetic life
which they led must necessarily impair it; that amusements were
essential to young persons; and that the singularity of their conduct
reflected discredit on the family. Under this impression, she strove by
every means in her power to counteract their designs, to thwart them in
their devotional and charitable practices, and to induce them to give up
more of their time and of their attention to the world. She thus gave
them occasion to practise a very peculiar kind of patience, and to gain
the more merit in the eyes of God, in that they had daily to encounter a
sort of opposition particularly trying to young and ardent spirits. It