Page:Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk (Truslove & Bray).djvu/150

Rh pulse, which encouraged me to what I should hardly at any other moment have thought of undertaking. I had sat hut a short time upon the sofa, however, before I rose with a desperate determination to make the experiment, I therefore walked hastily across the sick-room, passed into the nun's room, walked by in a great hurry, and almost without giving her time to speak or think, said, "A message," and in an instant was through the door, and in the next passage. I think there was another nun with her at the moment; and it is probable that my hurried manner, and prompt intimation that I was sent on a pressing mission to the Superior, prevented them from entertaining any suspicion of my intention. Besides, I had the written orders of the physician in my hand, which may have tended to mislead them; and it was well known to some of the nuns that I had twice left the Convent, and returned from choice, so that I was probably more likely to be trusted to remain than many of the others.

The passage which I had now reached had several doors, with all which I was acquainted; that on the opposite side opened into a community-room, where I should probably have found some of the old nuns at that hour, and they would certainly have stopped me. On the left, however, was a large door, both locked and barred: but I gave the door a sudden swing, that it might creak as little as possible, being of iron. Down the stairs I hurried, and making my way through the door into the yard, stepped across it, unbarred the great gate, and was at liberty!