"What I must say to you,Sancha,has no concern with those two good persons who were here a moment ago:their task is ended.One has done all for my body that human science could teach him,and all that has come of it is that my death is yet a little deferred;the other has now absolved me of all my sins,and assured me of God's forgiveness,yet cannot keep from me those dread apparitions which in this terrible hour arise before me.Twice have you seen me battling with a superhuman horror.My brow has been bathed in sweat,my limbs rigid,my cries have been stifled by a hand of iron.Has God permitted the Evil Spirit to tempt me?Is this remorse in phantom shape?These two conflicts I have suffered have so subdued my strength that I can never endure a third.Listen then,my Sandra,for I have instructions to give you on which perhaps the safety of my soul depends.""My lord and my master,"said the queen in the most gentle accents of submission,"I am ready to listen to your orders;and should it be that God,in the hidden designs of His providence,has willed to call you to His glory while we are plunged in grief,your last wishes shall be fulfilled here on earth most scrupulously and exactly.
But,"she added,with all the solicitude of a timid soul,"pray suffer me to sprinkle drops of holy water and banish the accursed one from this chamber,and let me offer up some part of that service of prayer that you composed in honour of your sainted brother to implore God's protection in this hour when we can ill afford to lose it."Then opening a richly bound book,she read with fervent devotion certain verses of the office that Robert had written in a very pure Latin for his brother Louis,Bishop of Toulouse,which was,in use in the Church as late as the time of the Council of Trent.
