Page:Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk (Truslove & Bray).djvu/200

to the influence of the priests to prevent my accusations against them from being made public. One evening, a lawyer who had been employed for the purpose, accompanied me to a French justice with an affidavit ready prepared in English for his signature, and informed him that he wished him to administer to me the oath. Without any apparent suspicion of me, the justice said, "Have you heard of the nun who ran away from the convent, and has come back to the city, to bear witness against the priests?" "No matter about that now," replied the lawyer hastily; "I have no time to talk with you—will you take this person's oath now or not?" He could not read a word of the document, because it was not in his own language and soon placed his signature at the bottom. It proved, however, that we had gained nothing by this step, for the lawyer afterward informed us that the laws required the affidavit of a nun and a minor to be taken before a superior magistrate.