CHAPTER II.

CONGREGATIONAL NUNNERY.

Story told by a fellow Pupil against a Priest.—Other Stories.—Pretty Mary.—Confess to Father Richards.—My subsequent Confessions.—Instruction in the Catechism.

There was a girl thirteen years old whom I knew in the School, who resided in the neighbourhood of my mother, and with whom I had been familiar. She told me one day at school of the conduct of a priest with her, at confession, at which I was astonished. It was of so criminal and shameful a nature, I could hardly believe it, and yet I had so much confidence that she spoke the truth, that I could not discredit it.

She was partly persuaded by the priest to believe he could not sin, because he was a priest, and that any thing he did to her would sanctify her; and yet she seemed somewhat doubtful how she should act. A priest, she had been told by him, is a holy man, and appointed to a holy office, and therefore what would be wicked in other men, could not be so in him. She told me that she had informed her mother of it, who expressed no anger nor disapprobation; but only enjoined it upon her not to speak of it; and