here during the night, and to keep her until morning near herself." Catherine returned a short time after, and found little Laurencia in her room; she recognized that she was possessed by the demon, and suspected that it was the child that she had refused to see: Having questioned her companion and learned the order of her Confessor, she perceived that there was no means of escape; she therefore had recourse to prayer, and forced the child to kneel and pray with her. The whole night was consumed in thus combating the enemy by a holy vigil: before daybreak, the demon, was, notwithstanding his resistance, overcome by the divine virtue, and the delivered child felt no ill. In the morning, as soon as Alessia, Catherine's companion, was informed of it, she told her Confessor that Laurencia was no longer possessed. Friar Thomas,with the parents, repaired directly to Catherine's house; they found Laurencia completely cured, and with tears of joy, thanked God, and her whom he had deigned to use as his merciful instrument. They intended taking their daughter with them; but Catherine knew by a divine light what was to happen and bade them: " Leave the child there a few days, it being necessary to her salvation." They accepted this proposition with eagerness and joyfully withdrew. Catherine profited by this time to give holy counsels to Laurencia; she taught her by word and example to pray frequently and fervently, and prohibited her leaving the house, under any pretext, until her parents came for her. The child was docile, and showed herself day by day better disposed; the house in which she was staying, was not Catherine's, but that of her companion Alessia, and it was not very remote. It happened that Catherine remained a whole day at home with Alessia,
