CHAPTER VII--SOME SILHOUETTES OF THIS DARKNESS

  During the six years which separate 1819 from 1825, the prioress of thePetit-Picpus was Mademoiselle de Blemeur, whose name, in religion,was Mother Innocente. She came of the family of Marguerite de Blemeur,author of _Lives of the Saints of the Order of Saint-Benoît_. She hadbeen re-elected. She was a woman about sixty years of age, short, thick,"singing like a cracked pot," says the letter which we have alreadyquoted; an excellent woman, moreover, and the only merry one in thewhole convent, and for that reason adored. She was learned, erudite,wise, competent, curiously proficient in history, crammed with Latin,stuffed with Greek, full of Hebrew, and more of a Benedictine monk thana Benedictine nun.

  The sub-prioress was an old Spanish nun, Mother Cineres, who was almostblind.

  The most esteemed among the vocal mothers were Mother Sainte-Honorine;the treasurer, Mother Sainte-Gertrude, the chief mistress of thenovices; Mother-Saint-Ange, the assistant mistress; Mother Annonciation,the sacristan; Mother Saint-Augustin, the nurse, the only one in theconvent who was malicious; then Mother Sainte-Mechtilde (MademoiselleGauvain), very young and with a beautiful voice; Mother des Anges(Mademoiselle Drouet), who had been in the convent of the Filles-Dieu,and in the convent du Trésor, between Gisors and Magny; MotherSaint-Joseph (Mademoiselle de Cogolludo), Mother Sainte-Adélaide(Mademoiselle d'Auverney), Mother Miséricorde (Mademoiselle deCifuentes, who could not resist austerities), Mother Compassion(Mademoiselle de la Miltière, received at the age of sixty in defianceof the rule, and very wealthy); Mother Providence (Mademoiselle deLaudinière), Mother Présentation (Mademoiselle de Siguenza), who wasprioress in 1847; and finally, Mother Sainte-Céligne (sister of thesculptor Ceracchi), who went mad; Mother Sainte-Chantal (Mademoiselle deSuzon), who went mad.

  There was also, among the prettiest of them, a charming girl of threeand twenty, who was from the Isle de Bourbon, a descendant of theChevalier Roze, whose name had been Mademoiselle Roze, and who wascalled Mother Assumption.

  Mother Sainte-Mechtilde, intrusted with the singing and the choir, wasfond of making use of the pupils in this quarter. She usually took acomplete scale of them, that is to say, seven, from ten to sixteen yearsof age, inclusive, of assorted voices and sizes, whom she made singstanding, drawn up in a line, side by side, according to age, from thesmallest to the largest. This presented to the eye, something in thenature of a reed-pipe of young girls, a sort of living Pan-pipe made ofangels.

  Those of the lay-sisters whom the scholars loved most were SisterEuphrasie, Sister Sainte-Marguérite, Sister Sainte-Marthe, who was inher dotage, and Sister Sainte-Michel, whose long nose made them laugh.

  All these women were gentle with the children. The nuns were severe onlytowards themselves. No fire was lighted except in the school, and thefood was choice compared to that in the convent. Moreover, they lavisheda thousand cares on their scholars. Only, when a child passed near a nunand addressed her, the nun never replied.

  This rule of silence had had this effect, that throughout the wholeconvent, speech had been withdrawn from human creatures, and bestowedon inanimate objects. Now it was the church-bell which spoke, now it wasthe gardener's bell. A very sonorous bell, placed beside the portress,and which was audible throughout the house, indicated by its variedpeals, which formed a sort of acoustic telegraph, all the actions ofmaterial life which were to be performed, and summoned to the parlor, incase of need, such or such an inhabitant of the house. Each personand each thing had its own peal. The prioress had one and one, thesub-prioress one and two. Six-five announced lessons, so that the pupilsnever said "to go to lessons," but "to go to six-five." Four-four wasMadame de Genlis's signal. It was very often heard. "C'est le diable aquatre,"--it's the very deuce--said the uncharitable. Tennine strokesannounced a great event. It was the opening of _the door of seclusion_,a frightful sheet of iron bristling with bolts which only turned on itshinges in the presence of the archbishop.

  With the exception of the archbishop and the gardener, no man enteredthe convent, as we have already said. The schoolgirls saw two others:one, the chaplain, the Abbé Banés, old and ugly, whom they werepermitted to contemplate in the choir, through a grating; the other thedrawing-master, M. Ansiaux, whom the letter, of which we have peruseda few lines, calls _M. Anciot_, and describes as _a frightful oldhunchback_.

  It will be seen that all these men were carefully chosen.

  Such was this curious house.