in one
forenoon with a priest, afterwards had the courage to get into the
very centre of a neighbouring building wherein were two and twenty
nuns, and then reciprocated compliments with an amiable young lady
called the "Mother Superior." Terrible places to enter, and most
unworldly people to visit, we fancy some of our Protestant friends
will say; but we saw nothing very agonising or dreadful--not even in
the confessionals. Like other folk we had heard grim tales about,
such places--about trap doors, whips, manacles, and all sorts of
cruel oddities; but in the confessionals visited we beheld nothing
of any of them. Number one is a very small apartment, perhaps two
yards square, with a seat and a couple of sacred pictures in it. In
front there is an aperture filled in with a slender grating and
backed by a curtain which can be removed at pleasure by the priest
who officiates behind. On one side of the grating there is a small
space like a letter-box slip, and through this communications in
writing, of various dimensions, are handed. Everything is plain and
simple where the penitent is located; and the apartment behind,
occupied by the priest who hears confession, is equally simple.
There is no weird paraphernalia, no mysterious contrivances, no
bolts, bars, pullies, or strings for either working miracles, or
making the hair of sinners stand on end. Number two confessional is
similarly arranged and equally plain. We examined this rather more
minutely than the other, and whilst we could find nothing dreadful
in the penitents' apartment, we fancied, on entering the priest's
side, that, we had met with something belonging the realm of
confessional torture as depicted by the Hogans, Murphys, and Maria
Monk showmen, and which the officials had forgot to put by in some
of their secret drawers. It was hung upon a nail, had a semi-
circular, half viperish look, and was cupped at each end as if
intended for some curious business of incision or absorption. We
were relieved on getting nearer it and on being informed that it was
merely an ear trumpet through which questions have to be put to deaf
penitents who now and then turn up for general unravelment and
absolution. The two confessionals described are contiguous to a
passage at the rear of the church; the third we are now coming to is
near one of the subsidiary altars, nod looks specifically snug. It
is a particularly small confessional, and a very stout penitent
would find it a