But I was bent on paying to the Nunnery, and accustomed to receive the
doctrine often repeated to me before that time, that when the advantage
of the church was consulted, the steps taken were justifiable, let them
be what they would, I therefore resolved to obtain money on false
pretences, confident that if all were known, I should be far from
displeasing the Superior. I went to the brigade major, and asked him to
give me the money payable to my mother from her pension, which amounted
to about thirty dollars, and without questioning my authority to
receive it in her name, he gave it me.
From several of her friends I obtained small sums under the name of
loans, so that altogether I had soon raised a number of pounds, with
which I hastened to the nunnery, and deposited a part in the hands of
the Superior. She received the money with evident satisfaction, though
she must have known that I could not have obtained it honestly; and I
was at once re-admitted as a novice.
Much to my gratification, not a word fell from the lips of any of my
old associates in relation to my unceremonious departure, nor my
voluntary return. The Superior's orders, I had not a doubt, had been
explicitly laid down, and they certainly were carefully obeyed, for I
never heard an allusion made to that subject during my subsequent stay
in the Convent, except that, when alone, the Superior would herself
sometimes say a little about it.
There were numbers of young ladies who entered awhile as novices, and
became weary or disgusted with some things they observed, and remained
but a short time. One of my cousins, who lived at Lachine, named Reed,
spent about a fortnight in the Convent with me. She, however, conceived
such an antipathy against the priests, that she used expressions which
offended the Superior.
The first day she attended mass, while at dinner with us in full
community, she said before us all: "What a rascal that priest was, to
preach against his best friend!"
All stared at such an unusual exclamation, and some one inquired what
she meant.
"I say," she continued, "he has been preaching against him who gives
him his bread. Do you suppose that if there were no devil, there would
be any priests?"
This bold young novice was immediately dismissed: and in the afternoon
we had a long sermon from the Superior on the subject.
It happened that I one day got a leaf of an English Bible, which had
been brought into the Convent, wrapped round some sewing silk,
purchased at a store in the city. For some reason or other, I
determined to commit to memory a chapter it contained, which I soon
did. It is the only chapter I ever learnt in the Bible, and I can now
repeat it. It is the second of St. Matthew's gospel, "Now when Jesus
was born in Bethlehem of Judea," &c.
It happened that I was observed reading the paper, and when the nature
of it was discovered, I was condemned to do penance for my offence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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