A Number Of Girls Of My Acquaintance

I Must Be Informed, That One Of My Great Duties Was, To Obey The Priests In All Things; And This I Soon Learnt, To My Utter Astonishment And Horror, Was To Live In The Practice Of Criminal Intercourse With Them.

So Far As I Know, There Were No Pains Taken To Preserve Secrecy On This Subject; That Is, I Saw No Attempt Made To Keep Any Of The Inmates Of The Convent In Ignorance Of The Murder Of Children.

My Parents Were Both From Scotland, But Had Been Resident In Lower Canada Some Time Before Their Marriage, Which Took Place In Montreal; And In That City I Spent Most Of My Life.

All Around Me Insisted That My Doubts Proved Only My Own Ignorance And Sinfulness; That They Knew By Experience They Would Soon Give Place To True Knowledge, And An Advance In Religion; And I Felt Something Like Indecision.

On The Day, Therefore, When I Went To The Church To Be Confirmed, With A Number Of Others, I Suffered Extremely From The Reproaches Of My Conscience.