racter, quite incompatible with its natural essence. The archives of
the Spanish tribunals abound with criminal proceedings against friars,
for murders committed on the persons of their unhappy victims or
paramours. There are three celebrated instances of this kind,--one
against the Carmelite of San Lucar, another against the Capuchine of
Cuenca, and the third against the Agonizante of Madrid.

The first of these notorious delinquents was a man of middle age, robust,
strong, and who, until the event now referred to, had not given occasion
for the least suspicion as to his morality. A young lady, of
extraordinary beauty, and held in great esteem by all the towns-people
for the purity of her conduct and the sanctity of her life, used
frequently to attend the confessional of this Carmelite friar. He
conceived for her, secretly, a violent passion, which he kept up and
fostered through the constant interviews which his vocation afforded him
in gaining the unlimited confidence of his penitent. But he contrived,
with incredible command over himself, to suppress his feelings. He never
uttered one word to the young creature which could indicate to her the
risks she was incurring in seeking for his guidance and blessing. One
day, however, she appeared before him on her knees at his confessional,
and, with a simplicity and sweetness, such as innocence alone can
command, informed him that, with the advice and consent of her parents,
she was about to enter into the married state, and now came before him,
as her spiritual father, to prepare herself for so important an ordinance
by the previous sacraments of confession, absolution, and the holy
communion. The friar heard this simple statement, received the child's
confession, little as that amounted to, pronounced upon her the
absolution, and administered to her the eucharist, without betraying the
least perturbation or confusion in his countenance. On rising from her
knees, as pure, as holy, and as fully and freely pardoned from sin as her
fond and simple mind imagined it was in the power of her church and its
minister to make her, the friar said he wished her to go to the vestibule
(_porteria_ {77}), where he would give her some counsel relative to the
new state into which she was about to enter. The unsuspecting girl
blindly obeyed the voice which had often before directed her in the ways
of virtue; she rose, went to the indicated spot, where already stood the
friar, who,