One day I had incurred the anger of the Superior in a greater degree
than usual, and it was ordered that I should be taken to one of the
cells. I was taken by some of the nuns, bound and gagged, carried down
the stairs in the cellar, and laid upon the floor. Not long afterward I
induced one of the nuns to request the Superior to come down and see
me; and on making some acknowledgment I was released. I will, however,
relate this story rather more in detail.
On that day I had been engaged with Jane Ray, in carrying into effect a
plan of revenge upon another person, when I fell under the vindictive
spirit of some of the old nuns, and suffered severely. The Superior
ordered me to the cells, and a scene of violence commenced which I will
not attempt to describe, nor the precise circumstances which led to it.
Suffice it to say, that after exhausting my strength, by resisting as
long as I could against several nuns, I had my hands drawn behind my
back, a leathern band passed first round my thumbs, then round my
hands, and then round my waist, and fastened. This was drawn so tight
that it cut through the flesh of my thumbs, making wounds, the scars of
which still remain. A gag was then forced into my mouth, not indeed so
violently as it sometimes was, but roughly enough; after which I was
taken by main force, and carried down into the cellar, across it almost
to the opposite extremity, and brought to the last of the second range
of cells on the left hand. The door was opened, and I was thrown in
with violence, and left alone, the door being immediately closed and
bolted on the outside. The bare ground was under me, cold and hard as
if it had been beaten down even. I lay still, in the position in which
I had fallen, as it would have been difficult for me to move, confined
as I was, and exhausted by my exertions; and the shock of my fall, and
my wretched state of desperation and fear, disinclined me from any
further attempt. I was in almost total darkness, there being nothing
perceptible except a slight glimmer of light which came in through the
little window far above me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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