She paused, as it were, from her sufferings, and looked first at the priest, and then at his companion--but she spoke not.

He then repeated the question, and after a little delay he saw that her lips moved.
"She is striving to speak," said he, "but cannot.

I will stoop to her." He repeated the question a third time, and, stooping, so as to bring his ear near her mouth, he could catch, expressed very feebly and indistinctly, the word--hunger.

She then made an effort, and bent down her mouth to the infant which now lay still at her breast.

She felt for its little heart, she felt its little lips--but they were now chill and motionless; its little hands ceased to gather any longer around her breast; it was cold--it was breathless--it was dead! Her countenance now underwent a singular and touching change--a kind of solemn joy--a sorrowful serenity was diffused over it.