the instant recognition of whatever was holy, that it might be honoured
even in a grain of sand--the charitable industrious hand, which had so
often fed the hungry and clothed the naked--this hand was now cold and
lifeless. A great favour had been withdrawn from earth, God had taken
from us the hand of his spouse, who had rendered testimony to, prayed,
and suffered for the truth. It appeared as though it had not been
without meaning, that she had resignedly laid down upon her bed the
hand which was the outward expression of a particular privilege granted
by Divine grace. Fearful of having the strong impression made upon me
by the sight of her countenance diminished by the necessary but
disturbing preparations which were being made around her bed, I
thoughtfully left her room. If, I said to myself--if, like so many holy
solitaries, she had died alone in a grave prepared by her own hands,
her friends--the birds--would have covered her with flowers and leaves; if,
like other religious, she had died among virgins consecrated to God,
and that their tender care and respectful veneration had followed her
to the grave, as was the case, for example, with St. Colomba of Rieti,
it would have been edifying and pleasing to those who loved her; but
doubtless such honours rendered to her lifeless remains would not have
been conformable to her love for Jesus, whom she so much desired to
resemble in death as in life.'

The same friend later wrote as follows: 'Unfortunately there was no
official post-mortem examination of her body, and none of those
inquiries by which she had been so tormented during life were
instituted after her death. The friends who surrounded her neglected to
examine her body, probably for fear of coming upon some striking
phenomenon, the discovery of which might have caused much annoyance in
various ways. On Wednesday the 11th of February her body was prepared
for burial. A pious female, who would not give up to anyone the task of