University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.
The Traitress.

`Now what hast thou of fearful import to narrate, reverend father?' asked the
lady superior as they entered the lodge; `for some strange event alone would
have brought your reverence hither at this hour of the night!'

The priest looked around and seeing the portress present bade her depart and
close the vestibule door. He then paced up and down the lodge for two or
three times with thoughtful and troubled looks. The bronzed swinging-lamp
which hung above his head sent the strength of its light aslant upon his massive
intellectually shaped forehead, and defined the bold and noble outline of his
profile with singular effect. He was a man tall in stature, with black hair and
brows, dark complexion and an aquiline nose. His eyes were deep set, vivid
in their glances and full of intelligence. He was dressed in black and over all
wore a plain undress priest's frock, with skirts reaching nearly to his feet and
girded at the waist by a belt of black leather. In one hand he held a broad
brimmed clerical hat, the other was thrust between the folds of the breast of his
frock or cassok.

The lady-superior watched his face with painful interest and expectation.—
Suddenly he paused in his walk and turned fixedly towards her.

`Sister, the tables are turned upon us, he said in a tone of keen irony; `in
Europe we persecuted the Protestant! in America the Protestant persecutes
us! Nay, turn not so pale! All may yet go well and the Church may—aye
will—be the victor. But I must tell you that we must be prepared.'

`What has occurred?'

`I will tell thee what has brought me hither at midnight,' he said, his dark
Milesian countenance lighting up with indignant emotion. `Thou hast no
need to be reminded of those false rumors that have gone abroad and turned
the Protestant world upside down, that we have detained here a novice against
her will. Nor need we speak of the answer we returned to their suspicious and
unauthorized interference?'

`You have no need, brother,' responded the lady-superior in an agitated yet
proud tone. `I have again and again assured those persons who have called
at the gate, that the nun they suppose forcibly detained here, remained voluntarily;
nay, she even went to the grate and told them so in person! Yet what
more is required—for from what I have heard and seen to-night, as well as from
your presence here, I suspect the public rage is working itself to a head to burst
in some shape upon us! What now menaces?'

`The answers given by you are not satisfactory to these jealous protestants
who seek motives for our overthrow.'

`But will they not believe the novice?'

`They whisper that she answered by compulsion! They even dare to say that
she was threatened with torture and a dungeon if she dared answer otherwise.'

`Monstrous calumny.'

`Nay, more, some do say that with regard to this novice it may be true; but
loud and fierce whispers fly that there lies in the convent's dungeons still another
novice whose fate has just come to light, who is secreted here after having
endured foul wrong, lest she should expose the unhallowed doings of your
order to the eye of the world.'

`Dungeons of the Convent! A novice secreted! The unhallowed doings
of our order!' repeated the lady-Superior aghast. `You do but jest with my
fear.'

`This is no time nor occasion for passing jests, sister,' answered the priest.—
`What I say is too true.'

`And such rumors fill men's mouths?'

`They do.'

`And are believed?'

`Most firmly!'

`Then Christ be our defence!'

`Amen!' answered the priest. `I tell thee, these idle rumors are working
upon the masses like winds upon the surface of the ocean; at first it gently stirs
ite bosom, then, by and by, lashes it to foam!'

`God protect us from the surges of a popular fury,' cried the lady-Superior
clasping her hands together. `But what more is on thy mind? I see thou art
yet to speak.'

`Hearing of these fresh whisperings abroad from some faithful sons of the
church, I at first disbelieved them; but as others followed on the heels of these
I resolved to go forth and mingle with the multitude and hear what men said.
I crossed the bridge from the metropolisere I fell in with any concourse of people.
Approaching them, favored by a cloak belonging to a youth who accompanied
me, and who now watches without the convent till I rejoin him, I was enabled
to hear what rumors are rife.'

`And they were these you have named?'

`They were, and idle as they were, they were upheaving the very mass like
an earthquake in its first throes!'

`Tis dreadful. How will all this end? We have no way of convincing the
people but by throwing open the convent to their research; and ere I consent
to this I will let the storm burst and overwhelm me in its vortex.' This resolution
was uttered with dignity and decision.

`You speak as becomes a Catholic daughter of the church and your high position,
sister. What will be the issue is known only to Heaven! Men say that
there will be a popular appeal made to the civil authorities, and that they will
visit you, and, in the name of the law of the common wealth, command you to
open wide your door to this Protestant investigation.'

`Said men so?'

`They did.'

`Never will the gate of a religious house of St. Ursula he opened to be thus
desecrated! The abbess of the convent St. Mari in France a century ago, refusd
to open her doors to the king, and he dared not cross the sacred threshold
by force when he would have taken from its refuge his own brother's child!
In her conduct I have an example, brother,' she continued with an imposing
elevation of manner, `which I shall imitate, if the law of this land, where all
faiths are declared free, dare to invade the sanctuaries of a true church.'

`You will do right, sister,' calmly responded the Priest. `This movement
is agitated by our enemies. The movers of it are those whose hostility to our
religion is deeper than reverence for the laws. It is a movement directed
against the very foundation of our American Roman church and must be resisted
firmly in the outset. Once yield to their infamous outcry, `open your convent
doors to the public eye!' and in a few weeks every religious house in the
land would be desecrated! There is a spirit abroad which we must meet and
overpower, looking to him for strength, who for eighteen centuries has been
with his church.'

`I have no fears of the great issue; but in one or more instances lawless
violence may have the sway: and we brother, may be ordained to fall its martys!'

`The event, as I have said, is in God's hand! But what have you heard to-night
to which you but a little while since alluded? It may relate to that which
particularly brought me hither at this hour?'

The lady superior then briefly detailed to him the conversation she had overheard
without the walls, in connection with the fact that, by some means, the
gate had been left unlocked. She informed him, also, of the entrance of the
fugitive who had providentially turned the key and so prevented the success of

a plan, formed with the agency of some one within the convent, to gain access
to the interior. The priest heard her through and then said,

`It was this very event which brought me here. That fugitive you speak of
is the traitress!'

`A traitress? impossible, brother!'

`Hear me and then judge!'

`But it was through her turning the key which she found in the lock of the
open door that these men were kept out! How could she be both friend and
traitress.

`How know you certainly that she did not first unlock the gate, and discovering
your approach, unlock it and deceive you by an artful ruse.'

`She must have found it unlocked or how could she have entered?'

`Hear me and then judge. After I had gathered all the rumors that were
flying among the people in reference to the convent and this supposed incarcerated
novice, I was leaving the populous part of the town for the purpose of going
home to address you a note to caution you to keep your gates and doors
carefully closed for a few days, neither admitting nor letting any one forth; but
to suspend for the present all communication with the town; which caution I
now give, sister, in person. On my way, my young friend, the lay brother Edmund
suggested that you ought to be notified without delay, and suggested that
instead of waiting until I reached home, as it was already late, that I should
enter a small tavern and call for paper and write the note with a pencil, he at
the same time offering to be the bearer.'

`The peril must have been conceived by him to be very imminent,' said the
lady-superior with emotion

`It doubtless was and is,' answered the priest. `I did as he suggested. The
tap-room was thronged with people, wild, excited and vociferous. The convent
was the theme of their words. To avoid the pressure of the crowd the landlord,
who was a Protestant Irishman, invited me to go behind the bar to a
desk at the extremity. As I took out my pencil he came up to me and said,
in an under tone,

`Please yer reverence, I have a brother and a sister who are Catolics and for
their sake I have a regard for the religion. Please draw your cap [for I had
this cloth cap besides Edmund's cloak to conceal my face and person,' added the
priest, pulling a cap from the folds of his cassock] please draw your cap lower
over your eyes for fear they'll see who ye are; for its a chance but they lay
hands on your reverence, and there'd be blood shed, for there's Catolics in the
house I know as well as Protestants.'

I thanked the man and did as he suggested. While I was waiting I heard
conversation in the room next to the bar. A small wicket window opened from
the position where I stood, directly into it, and as there was a broken pane of
glass, and a curtain only intervening, every word clearly reached my ear, notwithstanding
the confusion of voices and sounds that filled the tap-room.—
Without going into the details of what I listened to, and which induced me to
come in person and see you instead of addressing you a note. I will briefly state
what was said. There were at least five or more men from the various voices,
but as the window was guarded by a curtain I did not see them at all. The facts
I gathered were these. It seems that the novice who has been the cause of so
much popular feeling from the supposition she was detained here, has a lover
who was of the party in the conversation overheard by me. He declared that it
was false that she was here voluntarily, and that she had written the most touching
letters to him to fly to her rescue.'

`Can this be possible?'

`So he said. The novice has doubtless done something of the kind; for I
heard him read extracts from at least two letters which he represented to be
from her.'

`And what were their contents?'

`Such as to confirm and strengthen public rumor.'

`Can it be possible that this novice is thus false?'

`Do you believe she was ever true, sister?'

`How mean you?'

`That novice hath neither part nor parcel with us, nor hath she had from the
beginning.'

`Which do you mean?'

`She who has fanned the present breeze.'

`There are two—nay three whose names are in the world's mouths. Nay you
say it whispers we have a fourth in a dungeon.' This last sentence was uttered
with haughty scorn.

`She of them I mean who wears the silver crucifix. I believe her to have
come here as a spy.'

`A spy?'

`For none other purpose. Such from the beginning has been her character,
and such she will prove to be.'

`I know her to be wilful.'

`She is more than wilful, she is artful. Beware of her. No matter what may
be the consequences in prospect of any developments she may make, by to-morrow's
sun rise send her forth from the convent; and then perhaps this tempest
may be stayed.'

`It shall be done. But she is not the only, nor the chief mover, I fear.'

`I know that well. If the world thunder at the gates and demand them, let
them go.'

`But these are here for an asylum from a stern world!'

`True, and the stern world would have them. It is in vain to try and protect
them. More than this, they may be parties against us! Let them go to the
world, sister; but never suffer the world to cross the consecrated threshold of
this religious abode with its unhallowed footstep! There is more I have yet to
say. I overheard these men swear to each other that this night they would enter
this convent and release the three novices whom rumour says are here unwillingly
detained. They swore by oaths, most solemn and fearful to utter, to
effect this; and I learned that to open the gates they had a partner here!

`A partner in their conspiracy?'

Yes. A young girl who was to seek asylum here in the name of Charity,
and then, while all reposed secure, she was to open wide the gates and let
this band of men in!'

`What terrible danger and imminent peril we have been saved from by this
lovely fugitive entering as she did. It is too true, we must have had a traitor
here who indeed unlocked the gate, but an angel closed it again, ere mischief
came of it!'

`The traitress and your angel were the same, I conceive, sister. Has there
been any other fugitive here of late?'

`No. Yes! there has been another here—a poor young Protestant girl.'

`When?' quickly and eagerly demanded the priest.

Yesterday afternoon A very fair young girl with blue eyes. She came
in rags and offered strawberries to sell through the grate. Touched by her
beauty and pitying her poverty, for her apparel was scarce decent, the nun
Teresa invited her in and while the novices bought her berries, she clad her
with becoming decency. Suddenly in the lodge she fell down ill and was
removed to the sick room by my order. She seemed in great suffering all
night, but this morning appeared better.'

`Is she still ill?'

`She was quite herself at vespers, and—'

`Where is she now?'

`Sleeping in the chamber with the nun Magdalene!'

`Go and see, if you please, for I have my doubts, This girl must be the one
who was to seek asylum here for Charity's sake!'

The suspicions of the lady-superior were now vividly aroused. She hastened
from the v stibule and the priest heard her retiring steps echoing along the distint
corridor. He continued to stand a few moments where she had left him,
his head bent towards the ground, his lips compressed and his whole manner
profoundly thoughtful. He was running over in his mind the series of extraordinary
events which, like an overwhelining tide turned from its natural channel
seemed directing its furious course towards the walls of the ill-fated convent
menacing its ruin.

`The young girl? What of her? Thou hast not found her,' said the priest,
advancing towards the door, as his ear caught the quick returning foottall of
the lady-superier, and thus questioning her as he marked her pale and troubled
countenance.

`She has disappeared. The impress of her figure remains upon the couch
where she lay down, but she is not to be found!'

`Then she it was who opened the gate, I am now persuaded!'

`I could not suspect the lovely fugitive,' said the lady superior relieved, with
all her alarm and trouble at this discovery, rejoiced to clear her young protege
from the suspicion which the priest had fastened upon her. `Brother, these are
dangerous times when treason dares thus to penetrate the sanctuaries of the
Church.'

`Take heed that thy beautiful fugitive is not also a traitor! No one must
be trusted!'

The countenance of the lady superior fell at this caution.

`If she be false then there is no truth in the human expression,' she answered
sadly.

`Let me see this maiden. At such times as this extraordinary precautions
for safety should be taken. I will question her!' and the priest strode with a
positive step towards the door leading from the vestibule.

`Nay, Reverend Father! The maiden has here sought sanctuary and I have
pledged it to her. Her seclusion and privacy must not be intruded on even by
thee! I will be answerable for her good faith!'

`How know you but that to-morrow, ere noon, half the city may not be
knocking at the gates demanding thee to deliver her up, denouncing thee as
having seduced her to this retreat to secure her salvation and jewels—for thus
do these people use there free words of us! How know you that she has not
been sent here as an emissary of the multitude that on the morrow they may
have her name for a watch-word, and her beauty and forced tears to rouse
those who are not in the plot! Cast her forth!' added the priest lifting his voice
and sternly repeating his command.

`No, brother, no! I will see that she does not have the power to do mischief
while here, and I will leave the fearful alternative you hint at to God;
for I have sheltered her in his mercy's name. If ever innocence and truth
were impressed in angelic lines upon a human countenance they are stamped
upon the lovely lineaments of this gentle sufferer!'

`Be it as thou wilt, sister! I pray that it turn out not as I fear. Now having
warned thee I leave thee to guard well with bolts and bars, and what is
stronger than these, with fervent prayer, thy sacred abode! I trust that this
tumultuous upheaving of the waves may subside without overdashing the bulwarks
of the public peace!'

`It is to be hoped so,' answered the lady superior fervently.

`I have now done my duty. After what I heard I hastened hither to give
you information of the tendency of popular feeling and to caution you. There
is no doubt but that the party you heard at the gate was that I overheard in
the inner room of the honest protestant's tavern; for they had time to come
here, as I, on hearing their plan delayed to address a note to the civic magistrate,
and another to the head captain of the Police informing them of the proposed
attempt at violence.'

`To neither of which communications has any attention been paid,' said the
lady-superior in a severe tone of reproach.

`Doubtless these officers, knowing the strength of the feeling against us hesitate
to act!'

`Then God is our trust and the shield of our defence—'

`As he shall, also, be the arm of his Church's vengeance if evil happen
but to a single stone of its foundation,' responded the priest in a tone of decision,
and an expression of elevated faith lighting up his dark intellectual features.

In a few moments he took leave of the lady, who in person closed the
gate and locked and barred it after him; then returning into the lodge, the door
of which she also firmly secured, she hastened to the chamber where she had
left the fugitive, whom she found fast aslee upon the couch, a bright tear,
like two tremulous diamonds, glittering on the long fringes of each eye-lid.