Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

CHAPTER VI.
Oeremonyof taking the vail- The Maniac.
IT was a scene never to be forgotten - and calculated
at once to awaken the tenderest sympathies of
the heart, and arouse all the burning indignation of
the soul! The ceremonies were performed in the convent-chapel-Anna
Maria Gerard and Arabella May,
whose faculties had at last been so manacled, and
whose spirits so crushed by the incubus of papal
superstition, that they were prepared to yield implicitly
to whatever their spiritual guides enjoined, were
now led to the altar of consecration, and meekly kneeling
at the feet of the robed priest, there took the irrevocable
V()WS, that impose a life of poverty, celibacy,
seclusion and penance; and that enjoin obedience to
the priesthood, and bind the recluse never more to
pass the convent gates, unless promoted to the office
of a sister of charity.
Anna Maria never looked more lovely than at that
hour; there was a sweet pensiveness in her expression,
yet a death-like paleness overspread her delicate feetures:
black and glossy as the raven's plume, was
her flowing hair, which fell gracefully upon her slender
shoulders, and hung in unbraided ringlets about
'80' .