tate
of health, the gravity of which had become so urgent, that on reaching a
town in the south of France she was obliged to suspend her march, and
having been detained there for some months until the expiration of the
time necessary for cure and convalescence after such infirmities, which
was in short the sole object of her journey, instead of pursuing her tour
to the capital of the Roman Catholic world, she was permitted a third
time to return to Spain, where she now lives in obscurity and contempt.

Since the foregoing was written, the following account of her own
confession has appeared before the public, and may very properly conclude
this chapter:--

"But we have one word more yet to say on the subject of these wounds,
to convince our readers of the ridiculous farce that was enacted at
the convent. The medical men were not singular in denying their
supernatural origin. The _saint_ herself, when she found she was in
the power of justice, and out of the hands of nuns and friars, made
the following most curious and decisive statement. Our readers will
imagine that they are perusing a romance of the middle ages.

"'On the 7th of February, the further declaration of Sister
Patrocinio was taken, who, after having made an avowal of _being
truly penitent_, and that she cast herself upon the mercy of her
Majesty the Queen Protectress, declared that from the time of her
taking the veil, down to the 7th July when the convents were
suppressed, her confessor was friar Benito Carrera.--That she
afterwards had for confessor the vicar of the convent; for although
friar Joseph de la Cruz wished to be her confessor, and spoke to her
once or twice to that effect, she did not consent, because from the
first she knew that he was not of very strong understanding, for he
had proposed to her to leave the convent, in order to go to Rome, and
ask permission to found and establish a convent, with many other
extravagant propositions; showing her at the same time a very rare
print, which contained many allegorical devices.--That no doubt her
confessor, friar Benito Carrera, knew what were the ideas of friar
Joseph de la Cruz; and he had told the abbess that she ought not to
permit declarant to go to confess to him; and for that reason she did
not see him again.--That one of the nuns being taken ill during her
(declarant's) noviciate, F