of being guillotined, by constantly performing, and exhorting others to join in their religious duties; and that the rising generation might not imbibe the pernicious principles which then prevailed, St. Etienne, at her advanced age, kept a day-school, and by her cheerful manners and assiduous application, taught the young people to venerate and worship that Supreme Being whose goodness and bounty had enabled their ancient preceptress, in the dreadful prison of Arras, and before that tribunal at which Robespierre presided, to stand firm in her religious and moral duties, and to persevere in acknowledging her God and her king.

St. Etienne was dragged from her home and placed in a prison: the only accusation against her was, that her family name was Grey, and as General Grey at that period commanded the British army in Flanders, they persisted that she was related to him, and that she had forwarded information which had proved destructive to the French interest. At this

period St. Etienne laboured under great bodily infirmity, but she could obtain no commiseration : to prison she must go, placed among common felons; and the indecencies and enormities which were tolerated in the prison were such as excited the greatest horror; but Mrs. Grey had made her vows from choice; she had sworn at the altar to devote her life to her maker, and it appeared to her that the period was now arrived when her exertions might probably save some of her depraved companions from perdition; she therefore hailed that moment as the most fortunate of her existence, which had placed her in a situation where she could, by preaching repentance and forgiveness, probably recall numerous sinners to a sense of their wickedness, and induce them to return to the paths of virtue.

When first she began to say mass, she only met with derision and indignity from the prisoners; the jailor rebuked

and threatened her for daring to fly in the face of the laws of liberty; but St. Etienne possessed a firmness of mind which rises superior to mere self-preservation: if they put her to death she knew that she had forfeited her life in preaching that Gospel which she had vowed to propagate existence, therefore, could have no charms for her if she was divested of the power of serving her creator. She accordingly persevered in her laudable undertaking, and her perseverance was crowned with success: every day lessened the ridicule she experienced, and after a few weeks her companions voluntarily attended her devotions both morning and evening in a short time that prison, which had been a scene of licentiousness and riot, became quiet; the prisoners were industriously employed, and most grateful to their instructress, for her endeavours to save them from everlasting perdition.

:

St. Etienne assured Mrs. Mortimer

that she felt amply repaid for all the insults and the great hardships which she had endured, by seeing those poor wretches endeavour, by their exertions, to become useful to that society which they had disgraced.

The blessed day which relieved the world from that monster, Robespierre, opened the prison doors to the abbess; but this amiable woman felt no pleasure in her emancipation. She considered that her beloved and pious sisterhood no longer wanted her example to excite them to perform with cheerfulness the austerities of their religious order, and to preach faith, hope, and charity; she felt that in a prison she could be of more service to her fellow creatures than in the world, as by her patience and forbearance she could teach them that only the good and the virtuous can inherit the kingdom of heaven. But the dangerous state of her health induced her friends to insist upon her returning to them, that

she might not only have the best advice, but that she might have every care and attention paid to promote her comfort; but they had great difficulty in accomplishing their wishes, as unknown to them she had petitioned to end her days in that very prison, the horrors of which, at entering, had even appalled her firm mind.

The furniture of St. Etienne's cell con

sisted of an iron bedstead without hangings, a small chest of drawers, above which was a crucifix; one chair, and an old carpet which had been presented to her by Mrs. Mortimer when she was a pensioner in the convent of les Dames. Dominicaines at Calais.

"This carpet, my dear, has been my constant companion, and, I may add, my greatest luxury when in prison, I slept on it, for only straw with one blanket was allowed me. Every day I prayed for the donor, that she might escape from experiencing such miseries as I then endured; or, if it pleased the Almighty