"Bethink you of the awful situation in which you are placed, and that before many hours you must answer for the sins you have committed.

You have yet time for repentance, if you delay it not." "You are right, father," replied the abbot.

"Be seated, I pray you, and listen to me, for I have much to tell.

Thirty and one years ago I was prior of this abbey.

Up to that period my life had been blameless, or, if not wholly free from fault, I had little wherewith to reproach myself--little to fear from a merciful judge--unless it were that I indulged too strongly the desire of ruling absolutely in the house in which I was then only second.