fcandalized it in the groffeft manner, fhe was, according to the ftatutes in force upon fuch cafes, amenable to punishment.

In pursuance of this declaration, the Abbess condemned them both to receive every morning a dozen of ftripes with a difcipline, to be daily repeated while they remained in the convent; telling them, at the fame time, that they had rendered themselves unworthy of any mercy from their parents, who had delivered them up to her difcretion, during the short stay they were to make in the convent; from whence they would foon be removed to a place of much feverer confinement and harder living.

On the next morning, the execution of this inhuman fentence took place: two lay-fifters inflicted it upon them, in the most unfeeling manner.

These lay-fifters are exactly the counter-part of the lay-brothers in the monafteries of monks and friars they are, generally, both men and women of low birth, low education, and confequently, of coarse ideas.

They are employed in the menial offices of the houfes they belong to, and undergo all the drudgery of the meanest domestics, being, in fact, no better than fervants and labourers.

Into fuch hands it was the lot of Narciffa and Louifa now to fall.-Three mornings did the delicate frames of thefe two young ladies endure the infliction of this torture; which, no doubt, was by the direction of their cruel parents: the Abbefs durft never have proceeded to fuch extremities without their moft pofitive injunctions: the father was a man of too much confequence for her to have adopted fuch meafures without them.

The poor young ladies, however, not knowing where all this would end, and being debarred the ufe of pen, ink, and paper, as well as the fight of all vifitors, began to view their condition with horror, and to entertain the most desperate ideas.

Narciffa, who was lefs patient than her fifter, told the nun who prefided at these executions, that if they did not ceafe speedily, fhe knew how to put an end to them herfelf.

This being reported to the Abbess, she defifted from Scourging them: but ordered that they should ftill continue under lock and key, and no perfon whatever be admitted to speak to them.

In this wretched condition they remained some days, when the Abbefs, thinking they were fuffici ently prepared for what fhe proposed, sent an artA a

ful

ful nun to converfe with them, and fift their intentions, and to discover whether the fufferings they had gone through had difpofed them to accept of any alternative, sooner than meet with a repetition.

This crafty woman found them juft in the fituation fhe could wish, drowned in tears, and bewailing themselves in the moft piteous manner: affecting the fincereft forrow for their misfortunes, fhe told them that a letter had that very day been remitted to the Abbefs from their father; wherein he fignified, that fhe fhould not abate in the leaft of the rigorous ufage of his unworthy daughters, as he ftiled them; that he infifted they should be kept apart from each other, fed on bread and water, and locked up in dungeons, if there were any in the

convent.

Such excefs of cruelty threw the unfortunate young ladies into a greater agony of despair than ever; they flung themfelves on the ground before this nun, and befought her to intercede with the Abbefs in their behalf, offering to do implicitly whatever fhe fhould order them.

The nun withdrew, and gave an account to the Abbels of the difpofition fhe left them in, and of the facility there was now to mould them into any form the thought proper.

In truth, the two fifters were now convinced that it was in vain to contend any longer with their destiny cruel as it was, they both agreed to yield to it with as good a grace as they were able.

They fent their humble request to the Abbefs, that fhe would forgive what was paft, and overlook a misdemeanour that was prompted by youth and folly, and which they would endeavour to atone for by a behaviour conformable to what fhould be required of them.

Thus did these unhappy young ladies bow themfelves down before oppreffion, and make a feeming virtue of the dire neceffity they were driven to, of either obeying the tyrannical mandates of their barbarous parents, or of being imprifoned like felons all the reft of their lives.

The Abbess now gloried in the victory fhe had obtained over thefe helpless young women: fhe, informed their parents of the new turn things had taken in confequence of which they defired her to inform their daughters, that when they had fulfilled their promifes, then, but not before, they fhould be forgiven, and received again into favour.

The only remedy to the various evils they had been threatened with, was, therefore, adopted;

they demanded re-admittance into the ftate they had quitted, with a folemn affurance of making the ufual vows, and confecrating themselves to a monaftic life.

They were re-admitted accordingly, and in a few days took the irrevocable oath, and made their profeffion with the ufual formalities.

Narciffa was, at this time, little more than twenty years of age, and though lefs beautiful than Louifa, was allowed to be very handfome.

Whether they were ever vifited, either by their father or their mother, after this dreadful facrifice, I could never learn. Poffibly, the fhame and remorfe of having treated their children with fo much inhumanity, may, when too late, have operated upon their confciences, and made them averfe to behold the innocent and unfortunate objects of their criminal inflexibility.

If, on the contrary, the wifhes of this wicked couple went to a total difcharge of all fort of incumbrance upon account of thefe unhappy children, they were very fpeedily gratified.

Soon after their profeffion, Narciffa, overcome with grief and repentance at having deceived her fifter, loft all peace of mind, and fell into a decline that carried her off about a twelvemonth after.

She