Since his death she had ascertained that it finally led him to a convent, where his severe and self-inflicted penance had even acquired him the reputation of unusual sanctity, and had been the cause of his enjoying greater freedom than is commonly allowed to monks.
"Need I tell you more ?" asked Miriam, after proceeding thus far.

"It is still a dim and dreary mystery, a gloomy twilight into which I guide you; but possibly you may catch a glimpse of much that I myself can explain only by conjecture.

At all events, you can comprehend what my situation must have been, after that fatal interview in the catacomb.
My persecutor had gone thither for penance, but followed me forth with fresh impulses to crime.

He had me in his power.

Mad as he was, and wicked as he was, with one word he could have blasted me in the belief of all the world.