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Then was experienced a new but not unmixed satisfaction; into the

painful void of her soul was infused a powerful stimulus, a fresh

principle of vitality: but this enjoyment resembled the restoring

beverage which the ingenious cruelty of the ancients presented to

the criminal, in order to strengthen him to sustain his

martyrdom. A change came also over her whole deportment; she was

regular, tranquil, endearing, and affable; in such a degree, that

the sisters congratulated themselves upon the circumstance,

little imagining the true motive, and that the alteration was

none other than hypocrisy added to her other defects. This

outward improvement, however, did not last long; she soon

returned to her customary caprices, and, moreover, was heard to

utter bitter imprecations against the cloistral prison, in

unusual and unbecoming language. The sisters bore these

vicissitudes as well as they could, and attributed them to the

light and capricious nature of the signora.