Not long afterward, I was informed by the same messenger, that the
priest was again in the building, and repeated his request. I desired
one of the gentlemen connected with the Institution, that a stop might
be put to such messages, as I wished to receive no more of them. A
short time after, however, the woman told me that Mr. Conroy wished to
inquire of me whether my name was not St. Eustace while a nun, and if I
had not confessed to Priest Kelly in Montreal. I answered, that it was
all true; for I had confessed to him a short time while in the nunnery.
I was then told again that the priest wanted to see me, and I sent back
word that I would see him in the presence of Mr. Tappan, or Mr.
Stevens; which, however, was not agreed to; and I was afterwards
informed, that Mr. Conroy, the Roman priest, spent an hour in a room
and a passage where I had frequently been; but through the mercy of
God; I was employed in another place at that time, and had no occasion
to go where I should have met him. I afterwards repeatedly heard, that
Mr. Conroy continued to visit the house, and to ask for me; but I never
saw him. I once had determined to leave the Institution, and go to the
Sisters of Charity; but circumstances occurred which gave me time for
further reflection; and I _was saved from the destruction to which I
should have been exposed_.
As the period of my accouchment approached, I sometimes thought that I
should not survive it; and then the recollection of the dreadful crimes
I had witnessed in the nunnery would come upon me very powerfully, and
I would think it a solemn duty to disclose them before I died. To have
a knowledge of those things, and leave the world without making them
known, appeared to me like a great sin: whenever I could divest myself
of the impression made upon me, by the declarations and arguments of
the Superior, nuns, and priests, of the duty of submitting to every
thing, and the necessary holiness of whatever the latter did or
required.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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