Page 263 of 1118

By such conversations as these the implicit idea was produced in

the mind of the child, that she was to be a nun. The manners of

the prince were habitually austere and repulsive; and, with

respect to the destination of the child, his resolution appeared

fixed as fate. At six years of age she was placed for her

education in the monastery where we find her: her father, being

the most powerful noble in Monza, enjoyed there great authority;

and his daughter, consequently, would receive those distinctions,

with those allurements, which might lead her to select it for her

perpetual abode.