"Best of all was it for me, since I was spared the harshest duty that can be imposed upon a woman and a wife.

It was necessary that he should expiate the evil he had wrought; moreover, his life was become a menace to my child's salvation.

It was his wish to make of Agostino such another as himself, to lead his only son adown the path of Hell.

It was my duty to my God and to my son to shield this boy.

And to accomplish that I would have delivered up his father to the papal emissaries who sought him." "Ah, never that!" the friar protested.