234 THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book II.

tui’ning from the middle of the street, to where theywere in a great number of layers one over another,heaped high at the angles, like bridges, I crossed bythem and beheld—would I were rather blinded thanever see the like again—long lines of something ofa speckled white, piled up against the wall, and sup-ported by others of the same dirty white, throwntransverse, as if somebody had been opening a pas-sage, but left the sad work not half done; and onapproach those spectral white things, lo! theywere dead females in their gowns and coifs, dabbledthickly with blood and utterly hideous! ‘ 0 mostdesolate old woman, whither are you hurrying, andwho are these ?’ And she hobbling past, ‘ Arewhat you see, but were once a goodly company. Iowed them my existence, but their charity endedthus pitifully. So I may now die. What matterwhere I go? The wildest would scorn to touchme. These were mostly young and. beautifulvirgins—a whole nunnery, nuns, novices, girls ineducation, who all following their mother abbess’example, scarified and furrowed themselves andbreasts and faces frightfully with those greatscissors, that used to be kept with a long chain andpadlock, fixed to the great working table for thewhole community. The abbess unlocked it, and,after wounding herself, handed the steel round, and