tank of water, several feet in diameter, called St. Joseph’s well.  It occupied the whole center of the room leaving a very narrow pathway between that, and the shelves; so narrow, indeed, that I found it impossible to sit down, and exceedingly difficult to walk or even stand still.  I was obliged to hold firmly by the shelves, to avoid slipping into the water which looked dark and deep.  The priest said, when he left me, that if I fell in, I would drown, for no one could take me out.

O, how my heart thrilled with superstitious terror when I heard the key turn in the lock, and realized that I was alone with the dead!  And that was not the worst of it.  They would rise and eat me!  For a few hours I stood as though paralyzed with fear.  A cold perspiration covered my trembling limbs, as I watched those coffins with the most painful and serious apprehension.  Every moment I expected the fearful catastrophe, and even wondered which part they would devour first—­whether one would come alone and thus kill me by inches, or whether they would all rise at once, and quickly make an end of me.  I even imagined I could see the coffins move—­that I heard the dead groan and sigh and even the sound of my own chattering teeth, I fancied to be a movement among the dry bones that lay at my feet.  In the extremity of terror I shrieked aloud.  But this I knew was utterly useless.  Who would hear me?  Or who would care if they did hear?  I was surrounded by walls that no sound could penetrate, and if it could, it would fall upon ears deaf to the agonizing cry for mercy,—­upon hearts that feel no sympathy for human woe.

Some persons may be disposed to smile at this record of absurd and superstitions fear.  But to me it was no laughing affair.  Had not the priest said that the dead would rise and eat me?  And did I not firmly believe that what he said was true?  What!  A priest tell a falsehood?  Impossible.  I thought it could not be; yet as hour after hour passed away, and no harm came to me, I began to exercise my reason a little, and very soon came to the conclusion that the priests are not the immaculate, infallible beings I had been taught to believe.  Cruel and hard hearted, I knew them to be, but I did not suspect them of falsehood.  Hitherto I had supposed it was impossible for them to do wrong, or to err in judgement; all their cruel acts being done for the benefit of the soul, which in some inexplicable way was to be benefited by the sufferings of the body.  Now, however, I began to question the truth of many things I had seen and heard, and ere long I lost all faith in them, or in the terrible system of bigotry, cruelty and fraud, which they call religion.

As the hours passed by and my fears vanished before the calm light of reason, I gradually gained sufficient courage to enable me to examine the tomb, thinking that I might perchance discover the body of my old Superior.  For this purpose I accordingly commenced the circuit of the room, holding on by the shelves, and making my way slowly onward.  One coffin I succeeded in opening, but the sight of the corpse so frightened me, I did not dare to open another.  The room being brilliantly lighted with two large spermaceti candles at one end, and a gas burner at the other, I was enabled to see every feature distinctly.