The death I endure will purify me from all my sins.

If God, in His impenetrable designs, has appointed this to be my earthly fate, He will, in His mercy, take into account before his judgment-seat what I have innocently suffered here below.

Consoling hope, which, encourages me to look with confidence into eternity! "And yet my life was so happy! Everything in the world smiled upon me; my path was strewn with roses; the future spread out before me like a cloudless sky resplendent with stars.

God had not only given me health, fortune, and peace of heart, but also the hope of uniting my fate with that of a lovely young girl.

Mary Van de Werve! the incarnation of all that men admire and heaven loves: virtue, piety, modesty, charity, beauty, love! Alas! alas! must I leave all that?
Must I say a last adieu, renounce my hopes, and never see her again?
Die and sleep forever in an unknown tomb, while she lives!" A cry of anguish escaped him.