St.

Clare. The statue was removed from its pedestal, though how I knew not. The nuns afterwards raised an iron grate till then concealed by the image, and let it fall on the other side with a loud crash. The awful sound, repeated by the vaults above, and caverns below me, roused me from the despondent apathy in which I had been plunged. I looked before me: an abyss presented itself to my affrighted eyes, and a steep and narrow staircase, whither my conductors were leading me. I shrieked, and started back. I implored compassion, rent the air with my cries, and summoned both heaven and earth to my assistance. In vain! I was hurried down the staircase, and forced into one of the cells which lined the cavern’s sides.

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.