222 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



Straggled about the city, which, heard moving at a 

 distance and not answering the challenge, were fired 

 upon without ceremony. 



There was but one paper in Guatimala, and that a 

 ^ weekly, and a mere chronicler of decrees and political 

 movements. City ncAvs passed by word of mouth. 

 Every morning everybody asked his neighbour what 

 was the news. One day it was that an old deaf woman, 

 who could not hear the sentinePs challenge, had been 

 shot ; another, that Asturias, a rich old citizen, had 

 been stabbed ; and another morning the report circu- 

 lated that thirty-three nuns in the convent of Santa 

 Teresa had been poisoned. This was a subject of ex- 

 citement for several days, when the nuns all recovered, 

 and it was ascertained that they had suffered from the 

 unsentimental circumstance of eating food that did not 

 agree with them. 



On Friday, in company with my fair countrywoman, 

 I visited the convent of La Concepcion for the pur- 

 pose of embracing a nun, or rather the nun, who had 

 taken the black veil. The room adjoining the parlato- 

 ria of the convent was crowded, and she was standing 

 in the doorway with the crown on her head and a doll 

 iji her hand. It was the last time her friends could see 

 her face ; but this puerile exhibition of the doll detract- 

 ed from the sentiment. It was an occasion that ad- 

 dressed itself particularly to ladies ; some wondered 

 that one so young should abandon a world to them 

 beaming with bright and beautiful prospects ; others, 

 with whom the dreams of life had passed, looked upon 

 her retirement as the part of wisdom. They embraced 

 her, and retired to make room for others. Before our 

 turn came there was an irruption of those objects of 

 my detestation, the eternal soldiers, who, leaving their 



