side her
sat the Madrina, also in white satin and jewels; all the
relations being likewise decked out in their finest array. The
nun kept laughing every now and then in the most unnatural and
hysterical manner, as I thought, apparently to impress us with
the conviction of her perfect happiness; for it is a great point
of honor among girls similarly situated to look as cheerful and
gay as possible--the same feeling, though in a different degree,
which induces the gallant highwayman to jest in the presence of
the multitude when the hangman's cord is within an inch of his
neck; the same which makes a gallant general, whose life is
forfeited, command his men to fire on him; the same which makes
the Hindoo widow mount the funeral pile without a tear in her eye
or a sigh on her lips. If the robber were to be strangled in the
corner of his dungeon--if the general were to be put to death
privately in his own apartment--if the widow were to be burned
quietly on her own hearth--if the nun were to be secretly
smuggled in at the convent gate like a bale of contraband goods,
we might hear another tale. This girl was very young, but by no
means pretty; on the contrary, rather _disgraciee par la nature_;
and perhaps a knowledge of her own want of attractions may have
caused the world to have few charms for her.

"Suddenly the curtain was withdrawn, and the picturesque beauty
of the scene within baffles all description. Beside the altar,
which was in a blaze of light, was a perfect mass of crimson and
gold drapery; the walls, the antique chairs, the table before
which the priests sat, all hung with the same splendid material.
The Bishop wore his superb mitre, and robes of crimson and gold,
the attendant priests also glittering in crimson and gold
embroidery.

"In contrast to these, five-and-twenty figures, entirely robed in
black from head to foot, were ranged on each side of the room,
prostrate, their faces touching the ground, and in their hands
immense lighted tapers. On the foreground was spread a purple
carpet bordered round with a garland of freshly-gathered flowers,
roses, and carnations, and heliotrope, the only things that
looked real and living in the whole scene; and in the middle of
this knelt the novice