These ceremonies concluded.  I was taken to a small room, and a woman assisted me to change my clothes again, and put on the Grey Nunnery suit.  This consisted of a grey dress and shoes, and a black cap.  Each nunnery has a peculiar dress which every nun is required to wear.  Thus, on meeting one of them, it is very easy to tell what establishment she belongs to, and a run-away is easily detected.  On leaving the chapel, I was taken to the steamboat, with the other ten girls, accompanied by a priest.  Our coffins were packed in cotton, and placed on the boat with us.  On our arrival at Montreal, we found a priest and two nuns waiting for us to conduct us to the nunnery.

CHAPTER VI.

The grey nunnery.

The Grey Nunnery is situated on St. Paul Street, Montreal.  It is four stories high, besides the basement.  It occupies a large space of ground, I do not know how much, but it is a very extensive building.  The roof is covered with tin, with a railing around it, finished at the top with sharp points that look like silver, about a foot in length, and three feet apart.  Over the front door there is a porch covered with a profusion of climbing plants, which give it a beautiful appearance.  The building stands in a large yard, surrounded on all sides by a high fence, so high indeed, that people who pass along the street can see no part of the nunnery except the silver points on the roof.  The top of this fence is also finished with long iron spikes.  Every thing around the building seems expressly arranged to keep the inmates in, and intruders out.  In fact it would be nearly impossible for any one to gain a forcible or clandestine admittance to any part of the establishment.  There are several gates in the fence, how many I do not know, but the front gate opens on St. Ann Street.  Over each of the gates hangs a bell, connected with the bells in the rooms of the Superior and Abbesses, which ring whenever the gate is opened.  There is always a guard of two men at each gate, who walk up and down with guns upon their shoulders.  While attempting to give a brief description of this building, I may as well say that it is constructed with non-conductors between the walls, so that the ringing of a bell, or the loudest shriek, could not be heard from one room to the other.  The reader will please bear this in mind, as the reason for the precaution will appear in the course of my narrative.

The priest, who met us as we left the boat, conducted us to the front door and rang the bell.  Soon a lady appeared, who drew a slide in the middle of the door, exposing one pane of glass.  Through this she looked, to see who was there, and when satisfied on this point, opened the door.  Here let me remark, that since I left the nunnery, I have heard of another class of people who find it convenient to have a slide in their door; and if I am not very much mistaken,