Language fails to characterise this system of manifold iniquity and refined barbarity. But deeds even worse than these may well be imagined. Mr. Seymour observes, therefore, “But that which concerns our present subject is the veil of secresy that covers all within such establishments as these. There may be--I must not say there is--there may possibly be the most frightful vice--there may be the most ruffian violence--there may possibly be the veriest climax of profligacy--there may possibly be all this, and the public never know it. History has recorded the fact, that in the apartments of the inquisitors of Spain there were found _sixty-two_ young women, who had been corrupted and ruined by the inquisitors, and kept there where the public can never know it. The French soldiery flung open the Inquisition, and revealed the secret.” [See Chapter XIX.] “_There is no security against the same evil in a very large proportion of the nunneries; for every crime of earth and hell may possibly be rife throughout their cloisters, and the cry of innocence and outraged virtue, stifled within the walls, may remain unheard by the world without._ While we were at Rome, an abbess of one of the nunneries rushed forth frantically from the opened gates, plunged into the Tiber, and there sought, in its deep waters, to drown the memory and remorse of the past! We were surprised at the pains taken to deny and conceal this fact, though known and witnessed by hundreds. The ecclesiastics could not bear to hear it mentioned!”--Pp. 188, 189. [Illustration: VIEW OF THE “VIRGIN MARY” OPENED.] [Illustration: FRONT VIEW AND PROFILE OF THE “VIRGIN MARY.”] CHAPTER XXIII. “THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN MARY.” Reality of the Iron Virgin--Researches of Mr. Pearsall in Germany--His discoveries in Austria--Description of the Machine--Its origin in Spain--Victims of the Virgin. Cruelty, as we have seen, is the distinguishing characteristic of the Romish Inquisition. And torture, as employed by that hated court upon its unhappy, helpless victims, was inflicted in various modes. These are described, generally, in Chapter XIII. But there is one particular machine for punishment, referred to in Chapter XIX., as employed by the inquisitors in Spain, of the most horrible kind; and which Colonel Lehmanowsky, who witnessed it in the Inquisition at Madrid, correctly declares, that it “surpassed all others in fiendish ingenuity.” This machine was denominated “THE VIRGIN,” or “THE VIRGIN MARY.”