should be at the house of Alessia, her companion and her spiritual daughter. Alessia, hearing in the morning the noise of the crowd, approached the window, and saw at some distance, the unhappy criminals who were conducted and tormented by the executioners. She ran to Catherine, "Mother !" cried she, " what a frightful spectacle directly before the house: here are two men who are condemned to be torn with heated pincers passing by." Catherine, moved not by curiosity but by pity, advanced to the window, perceived the unhappy men, and retired at once to prayer. She informed me that she saw around them a troop of demons which were tormenting their souls still more than the executioners tortured their bodies. Hence she had recourse to fervent prayer, and conjured her Divine Spouse to save those souls who were on the eve of perishing. "Ah ! Lord," said she, "who are so clement, will you so far abandon creatures formed to thy image, and redeemed by thy precious blood. The thief who was crucified at thy side really merited his punishment; but thy grace visited him because at the moment in which thy apostles doubted, he confessed thee publicly, amid the ignominies of thy Passion, and he merited the hearing of thy promise ' Today thou shall be with me in Paradise.' In that word, thou gave hope of pardon to those who might resemble him. Thou did not abandon Peter who denied thee, but gave him a look of compassion; thou did not contemn Mary the sinner, but attracted her to thee; and Matthew the publican, the Cananean, and Zaccheus, the rich, you did not refuse to receive, but invited them to return. I entreat thee by all thy mercies, hasten to relieve these souls."
At length she persuaded Him who desires to be inclined
