CHAPTER XVII.

The torture room.

I remember hearing a gentleman at the depot remark that the very enormity of the crimes committed by the Romanists, is their best protection.  “For,” said he, “some of their practices are so shockingly infamous they may not even be alluded to in the presence of the refined and the virtuous.  And if the story of their guilt were told, who would believe the tale?  Far easier would it be to call the whole a slanderous fabrication, than to believe that man can be so vile.”

This consideration led me to doubt the propriety of attempting a description of what I saw in that room.  But I have engaged to give a faithful narrative of what transpired in the nunnery; and shall I leave out a part because it is so strange and monstrous, that people will not believe it?  No.  I will tell, without the least exaggeration what I saw, heard, and experienced.  People may not credit the story now, but a day will surely come when they will know that I speak the truth.

As I entered the room I was exceedingly shocked at the horrid spectacle that met my eye.  I knew that fearful scenes were enacted in the subterranean cells, but I never imagined anything half so terrible as this.  In various parts of the room I saw machines, and instruments of torture, and on some of them persons were confined who seemed to be suffering the most excruciating agony.  I paused, utterly overcome with terror, and for a moment imagined that I was a witness to the torments, which, the priests say, are endured by the lost, in the world of woe.  Was I to undergo such tortures, and which of those infernal engines would be applied to me?  I was not long in doubt.  The priest took hold of me and put me into a machine that held me fast, while my feet rested on a piece of iron which was gradually heated until both feet were blistered.  I think I must have been there fifteen minutes, but perhaps the time seemed longer than it was.  He then took me out, put some ointment on my feet and left me.

I was now at liberty to examine more minutely the strange objects around me.  There were some persons in the place whose punishment, like my own, was light compared with others.  But near me lay one old lady extended on a rack.  Her joints were all dislocated, and she was emaciated to the last degree.  I do not suppose I can describe this rack, for I never saw anything like it.  It looked like a gridiron but was long enough for the tallest man to lie upon.  There were large rollers at each end, to which belts were attached, with a large lever to drive them back and forth.  Upon this rack the poor woman was fastened in such a way, that when the levers were turned and the rollers made to revolve, every bone in her body was displaced.  Then the violent strain would be relaxed, a little, and she was so very poor, her skin would sink into the joints and remain there till it mortified and corrupted.