XIX.
"Fold thine arms tighly, then:
Clasp the oak only!
I 'll a white sister be!
Far off in St. Blasi,
Secure and lonely!"
XX.
"Be thou a white-veiled nun
Come to confession,
I will be there as priest,
Thee freely to divest
Of all transgression!"
The startled women their cocoons let fall.
"Noro, make haste!" outspake they one and all:
"What could our hunted Magali answer then?
A nun, poor dear, who had already been
A cloud, a bird, a fish, an oak, a flower,
The sun, the moon, the stream, in one short hour?"
"Ah, yes!" said Noro, "I the rest will sing:
She was, I think, the cloister entering;
And that mad fowler dared to promise her
He would in the confessional appear,
And shrive her. Therefore hear what she replies:
The maid hath yet another last device:"—
