As she declared from the first that she had been trained to habits of deception in the Convent, and accustomed to witness deceit and criminality, no confidence could be claimed for her mere unsupported declarations; and therefore a course of thorough cross-questioning was pursued, every effort being made to lead her to contradict herself, but without success. She told the same things over and over again in a natural and consistent manner, when brought back to the same point after intervals of weeks or months. In several instances it was thought that contradictions had been traced, but when called on to reconcile her statements, she cleared up all doubt by easy and satisfactory explanations. The course pursued by the priests of Canada and their advocates, was such as greatly to confirm the opinion that she spoke the truth, and that they were exceedingly afraid of it. The following were some of the contradictory grounds which they at different times assumed in their bitter attacks upon her, her friends, and her books: That she had never been in the nunnery. That she had been expelled from it. That she had fabricated everything that she published. That several pages from her book, published in the New York "Sun," were copied verbatim et literatim from a work published in Portugal above a hundred years before, entitled "The Gates of Hell Opened." That there never was a subterranean passage from the seminary to the nunnery. That there was such a passage in that direction, but that it led to the River St. Lawrence. That the drawings and descriptions of the nunnery, and especially of the veiled department, were wholly unlike the reality, but applied to the Magdalen Asylum of Montreal. That several objects described by her were in the nunnery, but not in those parts of it where she had placed them. (This was said by a person who admitted that he had been lost amidst the numerous and extensive apartments when he made his observations.) That the book was fabricated by certain persons in New York who were named, they being gentlemen of the highest character. That the book was her own production, but written under the instigation of the devil. That the author was a layman, and ought to be hung on the first lamp-post. That the nunnery was a sacred place, and ought not to be profaned by the admission of enemies of the church. After a committee had been appointed to examine the nunnery and report, and their demand for admission had been published a year or more, the editor of _L'Ami du Peuple_, a Montreal newspaper, devoted to the priests' cause, offered to admit persons informally, and did admit several Americans, who had been strong partisans against the "Disclosures." Their letters on the subject, though very indefinite, contained several important, though undesigned admissions, strongly corroborating the book.