A Milkman--An Irishwoman--Difficulty in having my Affidavit
taken--Legal objection to it when taken.
Another person who expressed a strong wish to see me, was an Irish
milkman. He had heard, what seemed to have been pretty generally
reported, that I blamed none but the Irish priests. He put the
question, whether it was a fact that I accused nobody but Father
Phelan. I told him that it was not so; and this pleased him so well,
that he told me if I would stay in Montreal, I should have milk for
myself and my child as long as I lived. It is well known that strong
antipathies have long existed between the French and Irish Catholics in
the city.
The next day the poor Irishman returned, but in a very different state
of mind. He was present at church in the morning, he said, when Father
Phelan told the congregation that the nun of whom he had spoken before,
had gone to court and accused him; and that he, by the power he
possessed, had struck her powerless as she stood before the judge, so
that she sunk helpless on the floor. He expressed, by the motion of his
hands, the unresisting manner in which she had sunk under the
mysterious influence, and declared that she would have died on the
spot, but that he had chosen to keep her alive that she might retract
her false accusion. This, he said, she did, most humbly, before the
court; acknowledging that she had been paid a hundred pounds as a bribe.
The first words of the poor milkman, on revisiting me, therefore, were
like these: "That's to show you what power the priest has! Didn't he
give it to you in the court? It is to be hoped you will leave the city
now." He then stated what he had heard Father Phelan say, and expressed
his entire conviction of its truth, and the extreme joy he felt on
discovering, as he supposed he had, that his own priest was innocent,
and had gained such a triumph over me.
A talkative Irish woman also made her appearance, among those who
called at the house, and urged for permission to see me. Said she, "I
have heard dreadful things are told by a nun you have here, against the
priests; and I have to convince myself of the truth. I want to see the
nun you have got in your house." When informed that I was unwell, and
not inclined at present to see any more strangers, she still showed
much disposition to obtain an interview. "Well, ain't it too bad," she
asked, "that there should be any reason for people to say such things
against the priests?" At length she obtained admittance to the room
where I was, entered with eagerness, and approached me.
"Arrah," she exclaimed, "God bless you--is this you? Now sit down, and
let me see the child. And is it Father Phelan's, God bless you? But
they say you tell about murders; and I want to know if they are all
committed by the Irish priests." "Oh no," replied I, "by no means."
"Then God bless you," said she. "If you will live in Montreal, you
shall never want. I will see that neither you nor your child ever want,
for putting part of the blame upon the French priests. I am going to
Father Phelan, and I shall tell him about it. But they say you are an
evil spirit. I want to know whether it is so or not." "Come here," said
I, "feel me, and satisfy yourself. Besides, did you ever hear of an
evil spirit having a child?"
I heard from those about me, that there was great difficulty in finding
a magistrate willing to take my affidavit I am perfectly satisfied that
this was owing to the influence of the priests to prevent my
accusations against them from been 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--you will
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 to 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 or minor to be taken before a superior
magistrate.