the table and presented with a bowl of gruel.  O, what a luxury it seemed to me, and how eagerly did I partake of it!  It was soon gone, and I looked around for a further supply.  Another nun, who sat at the table with me, with a bowl of gruel before her, noticed my disappointment when I saw that I was to have no more.  She was a stranger to me, and so pale and emaciated she looked more like a corpse than a living person.  She had tasted a little of her gruel, but her stomach was too weak to retain it, and as soon as the Superior left us she took it up and poured the whole into my bowl, making at the same time a gesture that gave me to understand that it was of no use to her, and she wished me to eat it I did not wait for a second invitation, and she seemed pleased to see me accept it so readily.  We dared not speak, but we had no difficulty in understanding each other.

I had but just finished my gruel when the Superior came back and desired me to go up stairs and help tie a mad nun.  I think she did this simply for the purpose of giving me a quiet lesson in convent life, and showing me the consequences of resistance or disobedience.  She must have known that I was altogether incapable of giving the assistance she pretended to ask.  But I followed her as fast as possible, and when she saw how difficult it was for me to get up stairs, she walked slowly and gave me all the time I wished for.  She led me into a small room and closed the door.  There I beheld a scene that called forth my warmest sympathy, and at the same time excited feelings of indignation that will never be subdued while reason retains her throne.  In the center of the room sat a young girl, who could not have been more than sixteen years old; and a face and form of such perfect symmetry, such surpassing beauty, I never saw.  She was divested of all her clothing except one under-garment, and her hands and feet securely tied to the chair on which she sat.  A priest stood beside her, and as we entered he bade us assist him in removing the beds from the bedstead.  They then took the nun from her chair and laid her on the bedcord.  They desired me to assist them, but my heart failed me.  I could not do it, for I was sure they were about to kill her; and as I gazed upon those calm, expressive features, so pale and sad, yet so perfectly beautiful, I felt that it would be sacrilege for me to raise my hand against nature’s holiest and most exquisite work.  I therefore assured them that I was too weak to render the assistance they required.  At first they attempted to compel me to do it; but, finding that I was really very weak, and unwilling to use what strength I had, they at length permitted me to stand aside.  When they extended the poor girl on the cord, she said, very quietly, “I am not mad, and you know that I am not.”  To this no answer was given, but they calmly proceeded with their fiendish work.  One of them tied her feet, while the other fastened a rope across her neck in such a way that if she attempted