She then said she wished she could get some of the brandy from the cellar.  Her stomach was so weak from long fasting, it would retain neither food or drink, and she thought the brandy would give it strength.  She asked if I could get it for her.  The idea frightened me at first, for I knew that if caught in doing it, I should be most cruelly punished, yet my sympathy for her at length overcame my fears, and I resolved to try, whatever might be the result.  I accordingly went up stairs, ostensibly, to see if the Superior wanted me, but really, to find out where she was, and whether she would be likely to come down, before I could have time to carry out my plan.  I trembled a little, for I knew that I was guilty of a great misdemeanor in thus boldly presenting myself to ask if I was wanted; but I thought it no very great sin to pretend that I thought she called me, for I was sure my motives were good, whatever they might think of them.  I had been taught that “the end sanctifies the means,” and I thought I should not be too hardly judged by the great searcher of hearts, if, for once, I applied it in my own way.

I knocked gently at the door I had left but a few moments before.  It was opened by the Superior, but she immediately stepped out, and closed it again, so that I had no opportunity to see what was passing within.  She sternly bade me return to the kitchen, and stay there till she came down; a command I was quite ready to obey.  In the kitchen there was a small cupboard, called the key cupboard, in which they kept keys of all sizes belonging to the establishment.  They were hung on hooks, each one being marked with the name of the place to which it belonged.  It was easy for me to find the key to the cellar, and having obtained it, I opened another cupboard filled with bottles and vials, where I selected one that held half a pint, placed it in a large pitcher, and hastened down stairs.  I soon found a cask marked “brandy,” turned the faucet, and filled the bottle.  But my heart beat violently, and my hand trembled so that I could not hold it steady, and some of it ran over into the pitcher.  It was well for me that I took this precaution, for if I had spilt it on the stone floor of the cellar, I should have been detected at once.  I ran up stairs as quickly as possible, and made her drink what I had in the pitcher, though there was more of it than I should have given her under other circumstances; but I did not know what to do with it.  If I put it in the fire, or in the sink, I thought they would certainly smell it, and, there was no other place, for I was not allowed to go out of doors.  I then replaced the key, washed up my pitcher, and secreted the bottle of brandy in the waist of the nun’s dress.  This I could easily do, their dresses being made with a loose waist, and a large cape worn over them.  I then began to devise some way to destroy the scent in the room.  I could smell it very distinctly, and I knew that the Superior would notice it at once.  After trying various expedients to no purpose, I at length remembered that I had once seen a dry rag set on fire for a similar purpose.  I therefore took one of the cloths from the sink, and set it on fire, let it burn a moment, and threw it under the caldron.