hanging out, as the bed is made too short for her, upon
principle. Round her waist she occasionally wears a band with
iron points turning inward; on her breast a cross with nails, of
which the points enter the flesh, of the truth of which I had
melancholy ocular demonstration. Then, after having scourged
herself with a whip covered with iron nails, she lies down for a
few hours on the wooden bars, and rises at four o'clock. All
these instruments of discipline, which each nun keeps in a little
box beside her bed, look as if their fitting place would be in
the dungeons of the Inquisition. They made me try their _bed
and board_, which I told them would give me a very decided
taste for early rising.

"Yet they all seem as cheerful as possible, though it must be
confessed that many of them look pale and unhealthy. It is said
that, when they are strong enough to stand this mode of life,
they live very long; but it frequently happens that girls who
come into this convent are obliged to leave it from sickness long
before the expiration of their novitiate. I met with the girl
whom I had seen take the veil, and can not say that she looked
either well or cheerful, though she assured me that 'of course,
in doing the will of God,' she was both. There was not much
beauty among them generally, though one or two had remains of
great loveliness. My friend, the Madre A----, is handsomer on a
closer view than I had supposed her, and seems an especial
favorite with old and young. But there was one whose face must
have been strikingly beautiful. She was as pale as marble, and,
though still young, seemed in very delicate health; but her eyes
and eyebrows were as black as jet; the eyes so large and soft,
the eyebrows two penciled arches, and her smiles so resigned and
sweet, would have made her the loveliest model imaginable for a
Madonna.

"Again, as in the Incarnation, they had taken the trouble to
prepare an elegant supper for us. The bishop took his place in an
antique velvet chair; the Senora ---- and I were placed on each
side of him. The room was very well lighted, and there was as
great a profusion of custards, jellies, and ices as if we had
been supping at the most profane _cafe_. The nuns did not sit
down, but wa