that the two buildings communicated one with the other,
by means of an old door which still exists at the back of a stable, as
well as by other apertures in the garden wall, which show signs of
having been recently closed up. The Jesuit's garden is a most beautiful
one, occupying a space of some 12 acres, laid out with care and
furnished with fruit trees of every description, pruned and trained
after the latest horticultural designs. There are wondrously ingenious
plans, too, for irrigating the beds, forcing pits and hothouses, and
long alleys with vines trained over them. Through the old door above
mentioned we passed into the Sister's garden, equally large and
beautiful, though not kept with the same care. In the centre stands a
gymnasium, I suppose for the use of the children brought up under the
Sisters' care, and further is their cemetery, a lovely spot, where,
under the heavy shade of ancient cypresses, lie bearers of some of the
most ancient names in France--"Prince of Salm-Kyrbourg, immolated under
the Terror, aged 49;" "Rochefoucauld," "De Noailles," "Montmorency,"
"the great Lafayette," the whole family of the Talleyrand-Perigords, and
legions of Princes and Princesses. Some of the vaults have been opened,
and many lead coffins, half-covered with rotting velvet and gold lace,
lie exposed to the light of day, awaiting an examination at the hands of
the Minister of Justice. At the extreme end of the garden, however, are
the three little conical huts, side by side, resembling white ants'
nests, which have been the prime cause of so much excitement and
judicial inquiry. When the Convent was occupied by the National Guards
these little huts were tenanted each by an old woman, enclosed in a
wooden cage, like a chickens' pen, the three buildings being similar in
size and construction, six feet square by seven in height, with a slate
roof, through which daylight was visible, while the three old women
were all of them hopeless idiots. The Lady Superior has kept her lips
resolutely closed up to the present time, but admitted, when first
questioned, that the three sufferers had lived in their hideous prison
for nine years, in an atmosphere of stifling heat throughout the summer
and half frozen with cold throughout the winter; "but," she added, "they
were idiots when they came." The conductor of the inquiry replied that,
if such were the case, it was illegal to have admitted them to the
Convent at all, and that even supposi