ather Alcaraz, a capuchin of the padro,
came to attend her; and then she saw him, and had a conversation with
him upon different matters.--That a few days afterwards, she was
called into the visitor's parlour, and found that said father Alcaraz
was there alone; that he addressed her in a solemn tone, as if he was
preaching, and said that St Paul was very urgent on the subject of
penance; {200} and then he took out a little purse which he carried
in his hood, and told her that it contained _a small relic that would
produce a wound if applied to any part of the body_; that this wound
ought to be kept open, so as to occasion suffering and mortification,
that so, by offering to God our pain by way of penance, we might
obtain pardon for sins already committed or future.--That after this
he gave her a most solemn injunction, commanding her to apply the
relic to the palms and the back of her hands, to the soles of her
feet, to the left side, and _all round her head in the manner of a
crown_; and charged her most strictly upon her obedience, and upon
peril of the most terrible punishments in the next world, _not to
disclose to anybody how the wounds had been caused_; and if she was
asked, she must say that _she had found them upon her
supernaturally_.--That being terrified by the threats of eternal
punishment and the divine anger, she obeyed his command, and never
disclosed the matter either to the abbess or to her confessor, or to
any other person whatever.--That it was believed by the community in
all good faith, that it was a miracle; that she never attempted to
apply ordinary medicines for the healing of the wounds, which, though
they closed apparently, broke out again, always being attended with
pain, until she _left the convent and had them cured_."

CONCLUSION.

The picture which we have sketched of the religious state of Spain,
explains all the history, all the peculiarities, and all the vicissitudes
of that great nation, from its conversion to Christianity down to our own
times. It was the religious principle which inspired Spaniards in all
the great actions by which their name has been immortalised during their
sanguinary struggles of six centuries against the Saracenic power; but in
that magnificent epoch of their national existence, there were many
circumstances which concurred in drawing forth the great