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Justine shook her head mournfully. "I do not fear to die," she

said; "that pang is past. God raises my weakness and gives me

courage to endure the worst. I leave a sad and bitter world; and

if you remember me and think of me as of one unjustly condemned,

I am resigned to the fate awaiting me. Learn from me, dear lady,

to submit in patience to the will of heaven!"

During this conversation I had retired to a corner of the prison

room, where I could conceal the horrid anguish that possessed me.

Despair! Who dared talk of that? The poor victim, who on the

morrow was to pass the awful boundary between life and death,

felt not, as I did, such deep and bitter agony. I gnashed my

teeth and ground them together, uttering a groan that came from

my inmost soul. Justine started. When she saw who it was, she

approached me and said, "Dear sir, you are very kind to visit me;

you, I hope, do not believe that I am guilty?"