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heart, and hope, and existence, that followed its perusal, he trembled, - uttered some inarticulate sounds, - wept; - and his agitation appeared to

when I walked in the garden. I laughed at the jar of the doors as they opened, and said to myself, 'You shall soon expand to me for ever.' I behaved with uncommon complacency to the community. But I did not, amid all this, neglect the most scrupulous precautions suggested by my brother. Am I confessing the strength or the weakness of my heart? In the midst of al

with the secrets of his own soul.' Others said, 'He has been in a state of alienation for some time, he is giving an account to God for it, - we shall never hear a word about it.' Others, who were more judicious, said, 'He is weary of the monastic life, he is writing an account of his monotony and ennui, doubtless that must be very long;' and the speakers yawned as they uttered these words, which gave a very strong attestation to what they said. The Superior watched me in silence. He was alarmed, and with reason. He consulted with some of the discreet brethren, whom I mentioned before, and the result was a restless vigilance on their part, to which I supplied an incessant fuel, by my absurd and perpetual demand for paper. Here, I acknowledge, I committed a great oversight. It was impossible for the most exaggerated conscience to charge itself, even in a convent, with crimes enough to fill all the paper I required. I was filling them all

en ask? I am withered to a spectre by the terrors of the office I have been bribed to. Do you know what I risk? - incarceration for life, or rather for death, - perhaps a denunciation to the Inquisition. Every line I deliver from you, or to you, seems a charge against my own soul, - I tremble when I meet you. I know that you have the sources of life and death, temporal and eternal, in your hands. The secret in which I am an agent should never be intrusted but to one, and you are another. As I sit in my place, I think every step in the cloister is advancing to summon me to the presence of the Superior. When I attend in the choir, amid the sounds of devotion your voice swells to accuse me. When I lie down at night, the evil spirit is beside my bed, reproaching me with perjury, and reclaiming his prey; - his emissaries surround me wherever I move, - I am beset

their arms were folded, their lips closed, their eyes half shut, their heads declined - they looked like men assembled reluctantly to witness the execution of a criminal. The Superior began, in a mild voice, 'My son, you have been intently employed on your confession for some time - that was laudable. But have you, then, accused yourself of every crime your conscience charges you with?' 'I have, my father.' 'Of all, you are sure?' 'My father, I have accused myself of all I was conscious of. Who but God can penetrate the abysses of the heart? I have searched mine as far as I could.' 'And you have recorded all the accusations you found there?' 'I have.' 'And you did not discover among them the crime of obtaining the means of writing out your confession, to abuse them to a very different purpose?' - This was coming to the point. I felt it necessary to summon my resolution - and I said, with a venial equivocation, 'That is a crime of which my conscience does not accuse me? 'My son, do not dissemble with your conscience, or with me. I should be even above it in your estimation; for if it

ntrary to the interests of this house.' - At these words I was roused. I saw again the cloven foot of interest peeping from beneath the monastic garb. I answered, 'Why am I suspected if you are not guilty? What could I accuse you of? What could I complain of if there were no cause? Your own consciences must answer this question for me.' At these words, the monks were again about to interpose, when the Superior, silencing them by a signal, went on with his matter-of-fact questions, that paralyzed all the energy of passion. 'You will not tell me what you have done with the paper committed to you?' - I was silent. - 'I enjoin you, by your holy obedience, to disclose it this moment.' - His voice rose in passion as he spoke, and this operated as a signal on mine. I said, 'You have no right, my father, to demand such a declaration.' 'Right is not the question now. I command you to tell me. I require your oath on the altar of Jesus Christ, and by the image of his blessed Mother.' 'You have no right to demand such an oath. I know the rules of the house - I am responsible to the confessor.' 'Do you, then, make a question between right and power? You shall soon feel, within these walls, they are the same.' 'I make no question - perhaps they are the same.' 'And you will not tell what you have done with those papers, blotted, doubtless, with the most infernal calumnies?' 'I will not.' 'And you will take the consequences of your obstinacy on your own head?' 'I will.' And the four monks chorussed again, all in the same unnatural tone, 'The consequences be on his own head.' But while they spoke thus, two of them whispered in my ears, 'Deliver up your papers, and all is well. The whole convent knows you have been writing.' I answered, 'I have nothing to give up - nothing on the faith of a monk. I have not a single page in my possession, but what you have seized on.' The monks, who had whispered in a conciliatory tone to me before, quitted me. They conversed in whispers with the Superior, who, darting on me a terrible look, exclaimed, 'And you will not give up your papers?' 'I have nothing to give up: Search my person - search my cell - every thing is open to you.' 'Every thing shall be soon,' said the Superior in fury. In a moment the examination commenced. There was not an article of furniture in my cell that was not the object of thei

er, and was at last summoned. This restored my courage, and I went through my duties more tranquilly. After I had made my confession, only a few simple questions were proposed to me, as, Whether I could accuse myself of any inward breach of conventual duty? of any thing I had reserved? any thing in my conscience? &c. - and on my answering them i

Superior in his own apartment, - I said I was ready to go. Two minutes after the order was reversed, and I was desired to remain in my cell, and await the approach of the Superior, - I answered I was willing to obey. But this sudden change of orders filled me with an indefinite fear; and in all the changes of my life, and vicissitude of my feelings, I have never felt any fear so horrible. I walked up and down, I repeated incessantly, 'My God protect me! my God strengthen me!' Then I dreaded to ask the protection of God, doubting whether the cause in which I was engaged merited his protection. My ideas, however, were all scattered by the sudden entrance of the Superior and the four monks who had attended him on the visit previous to the confession. At their entrance I rose, - no one desired me to sit down. The Superior advanced with a look of fury, and, dashing some papers on my table, said, 'Is that your writing?' I threw a hurried

repel that alternation of reproach and remonstrance, of solicitation and menace, which they so well know how to employ in a convent. 'Your repugnance to a conventual life is then invincible?' 'It is.' 'But to what do you object? - not to your duties, for you perform them with the most edifying punctuality, - not to the treatment you receive, for it has been the most indulgent that our discipline admits of, - not to the community itself, who are all disposed to cherish and love you; - of what do you complain?' 'Of the life itself, - that comprehends every thing. I am not fit to be a monk.' 'Remember, I implore you, that though the forms of earthly courts must be obeyed, from the necessity that makes us dependent on human institutions, in all matters between man and man, they never can be available in matters between God and man. Be assured, my deluded child, that if all the courts on earth pronounced you absolved from your vows this moment, your own conscience never can absolve you. All your ignominious life, it will continue to reproach you with the violation of a vow, whose breach man has connived at, but God has not. And, at your last hour, how horrible will those reproaches be!' 'Not so horrible as at the hour I took that vow, or rather at the hour when it was extorted.' 'Extorted!' 'Yes, my father, yes, - I take Heaven to witness against you. On that disastrous morning, your anger, your remonstrances, your pleadings, were as ineffectual as they are now, till you flung the body of my mother before my feet.' 'And do you reproach me with my zeal in the cause of your salvation?' 'I do not wish to reproach you. You know the step I have taken, you must be aware I will pursue it with all the powers of nature, - that I will never rest till my vows are annulled, while a hope of it remains, - and that a soul, determined as mine, can convert despair itself into hope. Surrounded, suspected, watched as I have been, I yet found the means of conveying my papers to the hands of the advocate. Calculate the strength of that resolution which could effectuate such a measure

they all stood in a grim and executioner-like row. I said to each with tears, 'Brother Clement, - Brother Justin, - why do you try to irritate the Superior against me? Why do you precipitate a sentence which, whether just or not, must be severe, since you are to be the executioners? What have I done to offend you? I interceded for you when you were guilty of any slight deviation - Is this my return?' 'This is wasting time,' said the monks. 'Hold, said the Superior; 'give him leave to speak. Will you avail yourself of the last moment of indulgence I can ever afford you, to renounce your horrible resolution of recalling your vows?' Those words renewed all my energies. I stood upright before them all. I said, in a loud distinct voice, 'Never - I stand at the bar of God.' 'Wretch! you have renounced God.' 'Well, then, my father, I have only to hope that God will not renounce me. I have appealed to a bar also, over which you have no power.' 'But we have power here, and that you shall feel.' He made a signal, and the four monks approached. I uttered one short cry of fear, but submitted the next moment. I felt convinced it was to be my last. I was astonished, when, instead of fastening the cords round my neck, they bound my arms with them. They then took off my habit, and covered me with the sackcloth. I made no resistance; but shall I confess to you, Sir, I felt some disappointment. I was prepared for death, but something worse than death appeared threatened in these preparations. When we are driven to the precipice of mortality, we spring forward with resolution, and often defeat the triumph of our murderers, by merging it in our own. But when we are led to it step by step, held often over it, and then withdrawn, we lose our resolution along with our patience; and feel, that the last blow would be mercy, compared with its long-suspended, slowly descending, wavering, mutilating, hesitating stroke. I was prepared for every thing but what followed. Bound with this rope as fast as a felon, or a galley-slave, and covered only with the sackcloth, they dragged me along the gallery. I uttered no cry, made no resistance. They descended the stairs that led to the church. I followed, or rather was dragged after them. They crossed the aisle; there was a dark passage near it which I had never observed before. We entered it. A low door at the end presented a frightful perspective. At sight of it I cried aloud, 'You will not immure me? You will not plunge me in that horrible dungeon, to be withered by damps, and devoured by reptiles? No, you will not, - remember you are answerable for my life.' At these words, they surrounded me; then, for the first time, I struggled, - I called for help; - this was the moment they waited for; they wanted some repugnance on my part. The signal was instantly given to a lay-brother, who waited in the passage, - the bell was rung, - that terrible bell, that requires every member of a convent to plunge into his cell, as something extraordinary is going on in the house. At the first toll I lost all hope. I felt as if not a living being was in existence but those who surrounded me, and who appeared, in the livid light of one taper burning faintly in that dismal passage, like spectres hurrying a condemned soul to his doom. They hurried me down the steps to this door, which was considerably below the level of the passage. It was a long time before they could open it; many keys were tried; perhaps they might have felt some agitation at the thoughts of the violence they were going to commit. But this delay increas

rable with the whole credit of the house for my re-appearance whenever the courts demanded it, - that the very rank of my family was a powerful protection, though none of them but my generous fiery Juan was probably favourable to me; - that if I was permitted to receive and read the advocate's first memoir, even through the hands of the Superior, it was absurd to imagine that I

ed. In fact, he felt a repugnance at delivering an intimation of hope; it was not consonant either to his profession, or the office which, in the wantonness of monastic malignity, he had accepted as penance. You shudder at this, Sir, but it is nevertheless true; this man thought he was doing service to God, by witnessing the misery of a being incarcerated amid famine, darkness, and reptiles. He recoiled when his penance terminated. Alas! how false is that religion which makes our aggravating the sufferings of others our mediator with that God who willeth all men to be saved. But this is a question to be solved in convents. This man hesitated long, struggled with the ferocity of his nature, and at last departed and bolted the door, that he might indulge it a few moments longer. Perhaps in those moments he prayed to God, and ejaculated a petition, that this protraction of my sufferings might be accepted as a melioration of his own. I dare say he was very sincere; but if men were taught to look to the one great Sacrifice, would they be so ready to believe that their own, or those of others, could ever be accepted as a commutation for it? You are surprised, Sir, at these sentiments from a Catholic; but another part of my story will disclose the cause of my uttering them. At length this man could delay his commission no longer. He was obliged to tell me that the Superior was moved by my sufferings, that God had touched his heart in my behalf, and that he permitted me to quit my dungeon. The words were scarce out of his mouth, before I rose, and rushed out with a shout that electrified him. Emotion is very unusual in convents, and the expression of joy a phenomenon. I had gained the passage before he recovered his surprise; and the convent walls, which I had considered as those of a prison, now appeared the area of emancipation. Had its doors been thrown open to me that moment, I don't think I could have felt a more exquisite sensibility of liberty. I fell on my knees in the passage to thank God. I thanked him for the light, for the air, for the restored power of respiration. As I was uttering these effusions, (certainly not the least sincere that were ever poured forth within those walls), suddenly I became sick, - my head swam round, - I had feasted on the light to excess. I fell to the ground, and remember nothing for many hours afterwards. When I recovered my senses, I was in my cell, which appeared just as I had left it; it was day-light, however; and I am persuaded that circumstance contributed more to my restoration, than the food and cordials with which I was now liberally supplied. All that day I heard nothing, and had time to meditate on the motives of the indulgence with which I had been treated. I conceived that an order might have been issued to the Superior to produce me, or, at all events, that he could not prevent those interviews between the advocate and me, which the former might insist on as necessary while my cause was carrying on. Towards evening some monks entered my cell; they talked of indifferent matters, - affected to consider my absence as the result of indisposition, and I did not undeceive them. They mentioned, as if incidentally, that my father and mother, overwhelmed with grief at the scandal I had brought on religion by appealing against my vows, had quitted Madrid. At this intelligence I felt much more emotion than I showed. I asked them how long I had been ill? They answered, Four days. This confirmed my suspicions with regard to the cause of my liberation, for the advocate's letter had mentioned, that on the fifth day he would require an interview with me on the subject of my appeal. They then departed; but I was soon to receive another visitor. After vespers, (from which I was excused), the Superior entered my cell alone. He approached my bed. I attempted to rise, but he desired me to compose myself, and sat down near me with a calm but penetrating look. He said, 'You have now found we have it in our power to punish.' - 'I never doubted it.' - 'Before you tempt that power to an extremity, which, I warn you, you will not be able to endure, I come to demand of you to resign this desperate appeal against your vows, which can terminate only in dishonouring God, and disappointing yourself.' - 'My father, without entering

e monks hurried in. I was following, when the Superior repelled me, exclaiming, 'You, wretch, you! Remain where you are.' I obeyed; and the whole community entered the church, while I remained at the door. This species of excommunication

nst me, as they entered and returned. I knelt at the door. I did not answer a word. I returned not 'railing for railing,' and lifted up my heart with a trembli

him; and then imagine how that individual can support such a life. I began to dread the preservation of my reason - of my existence, which, miserable as it was, still fed on the hope of my appeal. I will sketch one day of my life for you. Ex uno disce omnes. I went down to matins, and knelt at the door; I did not dare to enter. When I retired to my cell, I found the crucifix taken away. I was about to go to the Superior's apartment to complain of this outrage; in the passage I happened to meet a monk and two boarders. They all shrunk close to the walls; they drew in their garments, as if trembling to encounter the pollution of my touch. I said mildly, 'There is no danger; the passage is wide enough.' The monk replied, 'Apage Satana. My children,' addressing the boarders, 'repeat with me, apage Satana; avoid the approach of that demon, who insults the habit he desecrates.' They did so; and to render the exorcism complete, they spit in my face as they passed. I wiped it off, and thought how little of the spirit of Jesus was to be found in the house of his nominal brethren. I proceeded to the apartment of the Superior, and knocked timidly at the door. I heard the words, 'Enter in peace;' and I prayed that it might be in peace. As I opened the door, I saw several monks assembled with the Superior. The latter uttered an exclamation of horror when he saw me, and threw his robe over his eyes; the monks understood the signal; the door was closed, and I was excluded. That day I waited several hours in my cell before any food was brought me. There is no state of feeling that exempts us from the wants of nature. I had no food for many days requisite for the claims of adolescence, which were then rapidly manifesting themselves in my tall, but att

against the wall, and found what I touched was cold. My recollection returned, and I comprehended, that these were hideous figures scrawled in phosphorous, to terrify me. I then returned to my bed, and as the day-light approached

eal not to your humanity, I call on your authority for protection. Last night, my cell was covered with representations of fiends. I awoke in the midst of flames and spectres.' - 'So you will at the last day!' - 'My punishment will then be enough, it need not commence already.' - 'These are the phantoms of your conscience.' - 'My father, if you will deign to examine my cell, you will find the traces of phosphorous on the walls.' - 'I examine your cell? I enter it?' - 'Am I then to expect no redress? Interpose your authority for the sake of the house over which you preside. Remember that, when my appeal becomes public, all these circumstances will become so to, and you are to judge what degree of credit they will attach to the community.' 'Retire!' I did so, and found my application attended to, at least with regard to food, but my cell still remained in the same dismantled state, and I continued under the same desolating interdiction from all communion, religious or social. I assure you, wit

ppressed. Its thick troubled beatings, seemed like the vibrations o

is time out of hearing. I was less terrified than you will believe, by what I had heard. Those who have suffered much, are always ready to exclaim, with the unfortunate Agag, 'Surely the bitterness of death is past.' They know not, that that is the very moment when the sword is unsheathed to hew them in pieces. That night, I had not been long asleep, when I was awoke by a singular noise in my cell: I started up, and listened. I thought I heard some one hurry away barefooted. I knew I had no lock to my door, and could not prevent the intrusion of any one into my cell who pleased to visit it; but still I believed the discipline of the convent too strict to allow of this. I composed myself again, but was hardly asleep, when I was again awoke by something that touched me. I started up again; a soft voice near me said in whispers, 'Compose yourself; I am your friend.' -

ould not suppress a cry of horror. The voice ceased in a moment, and the same monk, who occupied the cell next to mine, rushed in with the same exclamations as on the preceding night; and, as he entered my cell, the light in his hand shewed a crucifix, and a picture of the blessed Virgin, placed at the foot of my bed. I had sprung up when the monk entered my cell; I saw them, and recognized them to be the very crucifix and picture of the Virgin which had been taken from my cell. All the hypocritical outcries of the monk, at the disturbance I had again caused him, could not efface the impression which this slight circumstance made on me. I believed, and not without reason, they had been left there by the hands of some human tempter. I started, awake to this horrible impositio

completely deprived of sleep; and if I dozed for a moment, the same terrible sounds were re-echoed in my dreams. I became feverish from want of rest. The night was passed in watching for these sounds, or listening to them, and the day in wild conjectures or fearful anticipations. I felt a mixture of terror and impatience inconceivable at the approach of night. I had a consciousness of imposture the whole time, but this gave me no consolation, for there is a point to which human malice and mischief may be carried, that would baffle those of a demon. Every night the persecution was renewed, and every night it became more terrible. At times the voice would suggest to me the most unutterable impurities, - at another, blasphemies that would make a demon shudder. Then it would applaud me in a tone of derision, and assure me of the final success of my appeal, then change to the most appalling menaces. The wretched sleep I obtained, during the intervals of this visitation, was any thing but refreshing. I

of all, the hastily-averted glance of hypocritical commiseration, that dropt its pitying ray on me for a moment, and was then instantly raised to heaven, as if to implore forgiveness for the involuntary crime of compassionating one whom God had renounced. When I encountered any of them in the garden, they would strike into another walk, and cross themselves in my sight. If I met them in the passages of the convent, they drew their garments close, turned their faces to the wall, and told their beads as I went by. If I ventured to dip my hands in the holy water that stood at the door of the church, it was thrown out before my face. Certain extraordinary precautions were adopted by the whole community against the power of the evil one. Forms of exorcism were distributed, and additional prayers were used in the service of matins and vespers. A report was industriously diffused, that Satan was permitted to visit a favoured and devoted servant of his in the convent, and that all the brethren might expect the redoubled malice of his assaults. The effect of this on the young boarders was indescribable. They flew with the speed of lightning from me, whenever they saw me. If accident forced us to be near each other for a moment, they were armed with holy water, which they flung at me in pailfuls; and when that failed, what cries, - what convulsions of terror! They knelt, - they screamed, - they shut their eyes, - they cried, 'Satan have mercy on me, - do not fix your infernal talons on me, - take your victim,' and they mentioned my name. The terror

of this part of the narrative. I have suppressed circu

e, the evil spirit was supposed to perform a mass in derision; and in Beaumont

hich alone reaches him, and prospers in its petition? As they called out, passing my cell, 'Perish, impious wretch, perish, - God will not hear you,' I answered them on my knees with blessings, - which of us had the spirit of prayer? That night was one of trial I could no longer support. My frame was exhausted, my mind excited, and, owing to our frail nature, this battle of the senses and soul is never long carried on without the worst side remaining conqueror. I was no sooner laid down than the voice began to whisper. I began to pray, but my head swam round, my eyes flashed fire, - fire almost tangible, my cell appeared in flames. Recollect my frame worn out with

ecclesiastical history knows, that Tetzel offered indulgences in Germany, even on the condi

rked by the light, which appeared to have deserted me to concentrate itself among them. The most impartial person on earth might have supposed me deranged, or possessed, or both, from the state in which they saw me. Heaven knows, too, what construction might have been put on my wild actions, which the surrounding darkness exaggerated and distorted, or on the prayers which I uttered, as I included in them the horrors of the temptation against which I implored protection. Exhausted at length, I fell to the ground, and remained there, without the power of moving, but able to hear and observe every thing that passed. I heard them debate whether they should leave me there or not, till the Superior commanded them to remove that abomination from the sanctuary; and such was the terror of me into which they had acted themselves, that he had to repeat his orders before he c

reclamation of your vows. You are the Judas among the brethren; a branded Cain amid a primitive family; a scape-goat that struggles to burst from the hands of the congregation into the wilderness. The horrors that your presence is hourly heaping on us here, are not only intolerable to the discipline of a religious house, but to the peace of civilized society. There is not a monk who can sleep within three cells of you. You disturb them by the most horrible cries - you exclaim that the infernal spirit is perpetually beside your bed - that he is whispering in your ears. You fly from cell to cell, supplicating the prayers of the brethren. Your shrieks disturb the holy sleep of the community - that sleep which they snatch only in the intervals of devotion. All order is broken, all discipline subverted, while you remain among us. The imaginations of the younger members are at once polluted and inflamed, by the idea of the infernal and impure orgies which the demon celebrates in your cell; and of which we know not whether your cries, (which all can hear), announce triumph in, or remorse for. You rush at midnight into the church, deface the images, revile the crucifix, spurn at the altar; and when the whole community is forced, by this unparalleled atrocity of blasphemy, to drag you from the spot you are desecrating, you disturb, by your cries, those who are passing to the service of God. In a word; your howls, your distortions, your demoniac language, habits, and gestures, have but too well justified the suspicion entertained when you first entered the convent. You were abominable from your very birth, - you were the offspring of sin - you are conscious of it. Amid the livid paleness, that horrible unnatural white that discolours your very lips, I see a tinge like crimson burning on your cheek at the mention of it. The demon who was presiding at your natal hour - the demon of impurity and antimonasticism - pursues you in the very walls of a convent. The Almighty, in my voice, bids you begone; - depart, and trouble us no more. - Stop,' he added, as he saw I was obeying his directions literally, 'ho

will keep his eyes open to the truth, - he will inquire into facts, - what will become of us? Were it not better that - ' 'What?' - 'You comprehend us.' - 'And if I dared to comprehend you, the time is too short,' - 'We have heard of the death of maniacs being very sudden, of - ' 'What do you dare to hint

nt sure, were it not best to try it first on another?' The Superior nodded, and the party were about to disperse, when the Superior caught the old monk by his habit, and whispered, 'But no murder!' - 'Oh no! only profound sleep. - What matter when he wakes? It must be to suffering in this life or the next. We are not guilty in the business. What signifies a few moments sooner or later?' The Superior was of a timid and passionate character. He still kept hold of the monk's habit; - he whispered, 'But it must not be known.' - 'But who can know it?' At this moment the clock struck, and an old ascetic monk, who occupied a cell adjacent to the Superior's, a

the Bishop was expected. There was an indescribable kind of terrified preparation among the community. This house was the first in Madrid, and the singular circumstance of the son of one of the highest families in Spain having entered it in early youth, - having protested against his vows in a few months, - having been accused of being in a compact with the infernal spirit a few weeks after, - the hope of a scene

rformers, the populace the audience; and whether the piece concludes with a 'Don Giovanni' pl

us agitation. I stood alone in my cell, - stood, for I had no seat left me. I said to myself, 'This event bodes neither good or evil to me. I am not guilty of what they accuse me of. They never can prove it, - an accomplice with Satan! - the victim of diabolical delusion! - Alas! my only crime is my involuntary subjection to the delusions they have practised on me. This man, this Bishop, cannot give me freedom, but he may at least do me justice.' All this time the community were in a fever - the character of the house was at stake - my situation was notorious. They had laboured to represent me as a poss

ost to suffocation with aspersions of h

embling. I knelt. The Bishop, placing his stole on my head, demanded, 'Did I believe in God, and the holy Catholic church?' Instead of answering, I shrieked, flung off the stole, and trampled in agony on the steps of the altar. The Bishop retreated, while the Superior and the rest advanced. I collected courage as I saw them approach; and, without uttering a word, pointed to the pieces of broken glass which had been thrown on the steps where I stood, and which had pierced me through my torn sandals. The Bishop instantly ordered a monk to sweep them away with the sleeve of his tunic. The order was obeyed in a moment, and the next I stood before him without fear or pain. He continued to ask, 'Why do you not pray in the church?' - 'Because its doors are shut against me.' - 'How? what is this? A memorial is in my hands urging many complaints against you, and this among the first, that you do not pray in the church.' - 'I have told you the doors of the church are shut against me. - Alas! I could no more open them, than I could open the hearts of the community - every thing is shut against me here.' He turned to the Superior, who answered, 'The doors of the church are always shut to the enemies of God.' The Bishop said, with his usual stern calmness, 'I am asking a plain question - evasive and circuitous answers will not do. Have the doors of the church been shut against this wretched being? - have you denied him the privilege of addressing God?' - 'I did so, because I thought and believed - ' 'I ask not what you thought or believed; I ask a plain answer to a matter-of-fact question. Did you, or did you not, deny him access to the house of God?' - 'I had reason to believe that - ' 'I warn you, these answers may compel me to make you exchange situations in one moment with the object you accuse. Did you, or did you not shut the doors of the church against him? - answer yes or no.' The Superior, trembling with fear and rage, said, 'I did; and I was justified in doing so.' - 'That is for another tribunal to judge. But it seems you plead guilty to the fact of which you accuse him.' The Superior was dumb. The Bishop then examining his paper, addressed me again, 'How is it that the monks cannot sleep in their cells from the disturbance you cause?' - 'I know not - you must ask them.' - 'Does not the evil spirit visit you nightly? Are not your blasphemies, your execrable impurities, disgorged even in the ears of those who have the misfortune to be placed near you? Are you not the terror and the torment of the whole community?' I answered, 'I am what they have made me. I do not deny there are extraordinary noises in my cell, but they can best account for them. I am assailed by whispers close to my bed-side: It seems these whispers reach the ears of the brethren, for they burst into my cell, and take advantage of the terror with which I am overwhelmed, to put the most incredible constructions on it.' - 'Are there no cries, then, heard in your cell at night?' - 'Yes, cries of terror - cries uttered not by one who is celebrating infernal orgies, but dreading them.' - 'But the blasphemies, the imprecations, the impurities, which proceed from your lips?' - 'Sometimes, in irrepressible terror, I have repeated the sounds that were suggested to my ears; but it was always with an exclamation of horror and aversion, that proved these sounds were not uttered but echoed by me, - as a man may take up a reptile in his hand, and gaze on its hideousness a moment, before he flings it from him. I take the whole community to witness the truth of this. The cries I uttered, the expressions I used, were evidently those of hostility to the infernal suggestions which had been breathed into my ears. Ask the whole community - they must testify, that when they broke into my cell, they found me alone, trembling, convulsed. That I was the victim of those disturbances, they affected to complain of; and though I never was able to guess the means by which this persecution was effected, I am not rash in a

the first time, 'How is it your habit is so scandalously ragged?' At these words I thought I could disclose a scene that would have added to the Superior's humiliation, but I only said, 'It is the consequence of the ill treatment I have experienced.' Several other questions of the same kind, relating to my appearance, which was deplorable enough, followed,

t to my cell. The walls were as bare as I had described them, but, even contrasted with all the splendour and array of the scene in the church, they seemed emblazoned with my triumph. A dazzling vision passed before me for a moment, then all subsided; and, in the solitude of my cell, I knelt and implored the Almighty to touch the Bishop's heart, and impress on him the moderation and simplicity with which

s false,' said the Bishop; 'and even if it was true, it would be your crimination, not your apology. Your duty binds you to visit the cells every day; how could you be ignorant of the shameful state of this cell, without neglecting your own duties?' He took several turns about the cell, followed by the ecclesiastics, shrugging their shoulders, and throwing on each other looks of disgust. The Superior stood dismayed. They went out, and I could hear the Bishop say, in the passage, 'All this disorder must be rectified before I quit the hous

th an impulse like despair, I entered and took my usual place. No opposition was made, - not a word was said. The community separated after dinner. I watched for the toll of the bell for vespers, - I imagined that would be decisive. The bell tolled at last, - the monks assembled. I joined them without opposition, - I took my place in the choir, - my triumph was complete, and I trembled at it. Alas! in what moment of success do we not feel a sensation of terror? Our destiny always acts the part of the ancient slave to us, who was required every morning to remind the monarch that he was a man; and it seldom neglects to fulfil its own predictions before the evening. Two days passed away, - the storm that had so long agitated us, seemed

f. I took the packet, and slowly walked to the Superior's apartment. As I held it in my hand, I considered it, felt every corner, weighed it over and over again in my hand, tried to catch an omen from its very shape. Then a withering thought crossed me, that, if its intelligence was auspicious, the messenger w

nd retired to my cell, making first a profound reverence to the Superior. I then went to my cell, where I sat down with the fatal packet in my hands. I was about to open it, when a voice from within me seemed to say, - It is useless, you must know the contents already. It was some hours before I perused it, - it contained the account of the failure of my appeal. It seemed, from the detail, that the advocate had exerted his abilitie

the unfortunate Spaniard was so much overcome, that