As that carpenter was completely overcome by the recollection of the
Priest's information and caution about his marriage, he desisted from
any further questions; but upon Maria Monk's declaration, that she was
desirous to go into the convent, and prove all her accusations against
the Priests and Nuns, he withdrew. Soon after he returned, and stated,
that he had been to the Convent, to inquire respecting her; and that he
had been informed, that she had once belonged to the Nunnery; but that
they would not any longer own or recognise her. Afterwards he exhibited
the most contradictory emotions, and first cursed Maria Monk; then
reviled the Priests, applying to them all the loathsome epithets in the
Canadian vocabulary. Subsequently, he went to make inquiries at the
Seminary; and after his return to Mr. Johnson's house he declared, that
the persons there had informed him, that Maria Monk had lived in the
Nunnery, but not as a Nun; then he offered to assist her in her
endeavours to expose the Priests; and finally disappeared, swearing
aloud as he was retiring from the house; and apparently thinking over
the conduct of the Priest to his wife before their marriage. "Oh,
sacre!"--he repeated to himself--"c'est trop mechant!"
Similar facts to the above occurred frequently during the time of Maria
Monk's visit to Montreal--in which strangers who called upon her,
cursed and reviled her; then believed her statements and assented to
them--and displayed all the natural excitement which was necessarily
comprised in the working of their own belief and convictions of the
iniquity of the Priests, and the dread resulting from their own
superstitious vassalage, and the certainty of a heavy penance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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