Things are apt to look again as they were.
But a fragrance of roses and lilies still lingered in the chamber.
The blessed Virgin smiled upon the Babe.
And there was peace in the heart of the Prioress.

Her long vigil, her hours of prayer, had won for her the sense of a calm certainty of coming victory.
Strong in that certainty, she bent, and gently kissed the little feet of the holy Babe.
Then, as was her wont, she sounded the bell which called the entire community to arise, and to begin a new day..