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me to do, for it seemed to me that She had a
great deal of power. She looked at me with a tender kindness which drew me to Her. I could
have thrown myself into Her arms with my eyes closed. She did not give me the time to do so. She
rose imperceptibly from the ground to a
height of around four feet or more; and, hanging thus in the air for a split second, my beautiful
Lady looked up to Heaven, then down on the
earth to her right and then her left4, then She looked at me with Her eyes so soft, so kind and so
good that I felt She was drawing me inside Her, and my heart seemed to open up to Hers.
And as my heart melted away, sweetly glad­
dened, the beautiful face of my good Lady disappeared little by little. It seemed to me that the
light in motion was growing stronger, or rather condensing around the Most Holy Virgin, to pre-
vent me seeing her any longer.
And thus light took the place of the parts of Her body which were disappearing in front of my
eyes, or rather it seemed to me that the body
of my Lady was melting into light. Thus the sphere of light rose gently towards the right. I cannot
say whether the volume of light decreased as She rose, or whether the growing


4. "In which direction had the Holy Virgin turned when she rose?"

 "That way (she pointed to the East) ... I know that Rome is in that direction."

(Conversation with Melanie, Miss des Bruliais, 8th Sept. 1849.)