My blood ran cold, as I gazed upon this melancholy abode. The cold vapours hovering in the air, the walls green with damp, the bed of straw so forlorn and comfortless, the chain destined to bind me forever to my prison, and the reptiles of every description which as the torches advanced towards them, I descried hurrying to their retreats, struck my heart with terrors almost too exquisite for nature to bear. Driven by despair to madness, I burst suddenly from the nuns who held me: I threw myself upon my knees before the prioress, and besought her mercy in the most passionate and frantic terms.

“If not on me,” said I, “look at least with pity on that innocent being, whose life is attached to mine! Great is my crime, but let not my child suffer for it! My baby has committed no fault: oh! spare me for the sake of my unborn offspring, whom ere it tastes life your severity dooms to destruction!”

The prioress drew back haughtily: she forced her habit from my grasp, as if my touch had been contagious.