Within a very short distance of Manilla, I have been in a convento where the priest, his mistress, and family all lived together, the padre being a Mestizo. On the village feast-day, one of the party with whom I was in the country, hired some jugglers who had come down from Bengal to act their wonderful tricks in the theatre at Manilla, and sent them out to Mariquina on the feast-day, there to amuse the people, and to please the padre, as he knew it would do, he being an old acquaintance of his. Accordingly, in the afternoon they exhibited to an immense crowd of natives, just before the open church-door. A platform had been quickly erected for their accommodation, from which they were exhibiting their tricks to the intense astonishment of the Indians, most of whom had never seen anything of the sort before; and in the evening, the padre having asked leave for the jugglers to come to the convento, gave a great party to all the Spaniards, or white men, who were then in the pueblo, in order to watch their tricks more closely than could be done at a public exhibition. Several Spanish ladies were present, and among them, quite as a matter of course, was the mistress of the priest. One or two of the ladies present were wives of high officials at Manilla, and all of them were persons of the best character and standing, yet they did not appear in the least discomposed by her presence, although none of them paid her any attention, or noticed her as the lady of the house; in fact, she appeared to be regarded by them as a sort of privileged housekeeper more than in any other light, although they were perfectly aware of the irregularity of her life. This may give some idea of their modes of thinking of such affairs, for all of them present perfectly understood the relation in which the spiritual adviser of so large a population as that of Mariquina stood to her. Both the priest and she were elderly people, and their intercourse has, I understood, been of long standing; and during the course of it several children have been born. But the most wonderful thing appears to be, how such a man could direct the worship of his parishioners, or lay before them the scripture tenets of his and their faith, while openly violating it before their eyes. But the same thing has taken place in Europe not unfrequently, and quite as openly, without exciting excessive scandal in many places. There is an immense deal more of immorality among the clergy of all denominations and countries than would be believed. Alas, for human nature! CHAPTER XIII.