by Victor Hugo
CHAPTER III.
SEVERITIES.
Any one desirous of joining the community of Martin Verga must beat least two years a postulant, sometimes four, and four years anovice. It is rare for the final vows to be taken before the age oftwenty-three or twenty-four years. The Bernardo-Benedictines of MartinVerga admit no widows into their order. In their cells they undergomany strange macerations, of which they are not allowed to speak. Onthe day when a novice professes, she is dressed in her best clothes,wears a wreath of white roses, has her hair curled, and then prostratesherself; a large black veil is spread over her, and the service for thedead is performed. Then the nuns divide into two files, one of whichpasses her, saying in a plaintive voice, "Our sister is dead," and theother answers triumphantly, "Living in Jesus Christ."
At the period when this story is laid, there was a boarding-schoolattached to the convent, the pupils being young ladies of noble birth,and generally rich. Among them could be noticed Mlles. de SainteAulaire and de Bélissen, and an English girl bearing the illustriousCatholic name of Talbot. These young ladies, educated by the nunsbetween four walls, grew up with a horror of the world and of thecentury; one of them said to us one day, "Seeing the street pavementmade me shudder from head to foot." They were dressed in blue, with awhite cap, and a plated or gilt Holy Ghost on the chest. On certainhigh festivals, especially Saint Martha, they were allowed, as a highfavor and supreme happiness, to dress themselves like nuns, and performthe offices and practices of Saint Benedict for the whole day. At firstthe nuns lent them their black robes, but this was deemed a profanity,and the prioress forbade it; so the novices alone were permitted tomake such loans. It is remarkable that these representations, doubtlesstolerated in the convent through a secret spirit of proselytism, and inorder to give their children some foretaste of the sacred dress, were areal happiness and true recreation for the boarders; they were amusedby them, for "it was a novelty and changed them,"--candid reasons ofchildren, which do not succeed, however, in making us worldly-mindedpeople understand the felicity of holding a holy-water brush in one'shand, and standing for hours before a lectern and singing quartettes.The pupils conformed to all the practices of the convent, though notto all the austerities. We know a young lady who, after returning tothe world and being married for some years, could not break herself ofhastily saying, each time that there was a rap at the door, "Forever!"like the nuns. The boarders only saw their parents in the parlor; theirmothers themselves were not even allowed to kiss them. To show how farthis severity was carried, a young lady was visited one day by hermother, accompanied by a little sister three years of age. The younglady cried, because she would have liked to kiss her sister but it wasimpossible. She implored at least permission for the child to pass herhand through the bars, so that she might kiss it; but it was refusedalmost as a scandal.
