The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-24 00:00:00

THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 24) 1851.

LITERATURE.

THE FEMALE JESUIT; or, The Spy in the
Family.
This is one of the most interesting and extraordi-
nary narratives ever presente3 to the public, and is
doubly interesting at the present thee, when the in-
trigues of that most truth despising order, the4esuisfs,
are at length beginning to attract attention. The
author of this work, in his preface, says—
"The starling assertion that truth is stranger than
fiction' has seldom been more fuliy verified than in the
details of this volume. The heroine whose extraordinary
scheme of deception is here recorded, introduced herself
to the Rev.
but a Jesuit uncle and an aunt, also a religeuse.' She
stated that she had been an inmate of various convents
in connexion with the Faithful Companions of Jesus'
for seventeen years. These she represented as an order
of Female Jesuits. She described herself as having been
for two years a postulant in their Order, and as about to
be removed to Paris, there to take upon her vows from
which there could be no escape. Having long been con-
vinced of the errors of the system, and having acciden-
tally heard Mr. L-'s name and character, she had
contrived to get to him in order to throw herself on his
kindness for advice. As will subsequently appear, she
was received into his family, and thence obtained a situa-
tion as a governess. She returned to Mr.
house on account of supposed dangerous illness, and con-
tinued there till the dise..ivery of her plots. She is still
at largo, and has b2en seen in London. Who and whet
she is remain is mystery. Whether she is self-taught
and self-prompted in the art of deception, or whether the
almost supernatural ability she displays, has been ac-
quired in the school of the Jesuits, must be left for the
judgment (f the reader to decide, and the publication of
this volume to elicit.

" The statements in the 'lntroduction' relating to the
laws and mechanism of the' Community' which Marie
had quitted, and to her escape, were
furni-hed by herself. For these and fir her Auto-
biography,' the writer cannot be answerable. All the
remainder of the book is strictly and literally true."
So startling are the events recorded in this work, that
we were at first almost inclined to doubt this last
assertion, that all the remainder of the book is strictly
and literally true; but we have instituted inquiries
which leave no doubt upon our minds of the truth of
every assertion made by the Rev. S. L. That gentle-
man is an excellent and exemplary minister of the
Gospel, whose name, if mentioned, would be to the
world sufficient guarantee of the truthfulness of every
word he asserts; indeed we regret that his kind-
heartedness, and his unwillingness to hurt the
feelings of the relations of the wicked im-
poster whose career of iniquity is recorded in this
volume, should have so far prevailed as to
induce him to adopt the quasi incognito of initials.
The Rev. S. L. has no cause for concealment, for his
own straightforwardness and innate love of truth
enabled him to discover and expose one of the most cun-
ning schemes that it ever entered into the heart of
Jesuit to concoct, whilst, es regards the heroine, Marie
Lucille G., the duty he owes to the public de-
mands that her names and her aliases, so
far as he knows them, should be given
in full length, in order that the public may be placed
on their guard against the machinations of
an impostor, who, to the wickedness of an Eliza-
beth Canning, unites the blasphemous hypocrisy of a
Joanna Southcott, and the unabashable impudence of
a Princes Carraboo. Marie L. G. introduced herself,
as above stated, to the Rev. S. L. towards the close of
the year 1848, or the beginning of 1849.
She said that she was a postulant at the
Convent of 1., in the neighbourhood of Lon-
don, and that she had also been an inmate
of the convent of S. The sister of the Rev. S. L.
went down by the appointment of Marie to the gate
of the convent in a cab, and Marie, saying she had
effected her escape, jumped into it, and became domi-
ciled with the Rev. S. L. and his family. She related
to him her history, and stated thatshe had an uncle, the
Very Reverend Henry Constable Clifford, who was a
Jesuit, and csho was stationed at Manotte, who was
very high in the Church of Rome, and with whom she
at once commenced a correspondence. She stated her
age to be 25, and her health seemed to be very deli-
cate. Soon after she came to reside with the Rev.
S. L. she commenced her autobiography, in which
she relates her experience of 17 years of convent life
in connexion with " the Faithful Companions of Jesus,"
and enlarges upon the reasons which induced her to
quit the Roman Catholic faith. The following is the
account given of Marie's manner of writing her auto-
biography, and we beg particular attention
to it, because, by collating it with some
subsequent passages of the narrative, we
may be enabled to offer at least some conjecture
as to the objects of those, for there were clearly
several parties concerned, who were engaged in this
nefarious transaction :

" Marie determined upon preserving a record of the
principal events in her life, and in particular of her some-
what singular mental history. This was an undertaking
of no small difficulty, for having, as she said, been alto-
gether unused to English composition, except when
writing notes at the dictation of the Very Reverend
Mother, the knew neither how to Corm nor to arrange
her sentences. Her deficiency in habits of order and
method was another obstacle. Her recollections of the
past, as they came to mind, were recorded on sundry
scraps of paper of all sorts and s,zes, in ink or in pencil,
cros,ed and interlined, as the convenience of the moment
dictated. When seated by Mrs. L-- to review her
daily or weekly task, it was often the business of nearly
half an hour to collect and arrange from desk, pocket,
and portfolio, the various parts; and when fairly stitched
together, to prevent the truant pieces from again wan-
dering, they presented an amusing variety of size and
quantity. It was a further exercise of patience to deci-
pher the half rubbed out pencil scrawl, or all but ille-
gible ink crossing; and then each sentence had to be
re-made, and put in its proper place. She frequently
declared that nothing but the hope of doing good would
induce her t persevere, and that as this was her first,
the public might be assured it would be her last, piece
of authorship. As she proceeded, however, the work of
composition became easier, and the latter half of the
narrative required very little correction. The introduc-
tory account of her escape was written for her by Mrs.
L—: all the incidents relating to the convent being sup-
plied by herself; and those which related to her arrival,
by her Protestant friends."
Shortly after the completion of this autobiography,
her friends, procured for her the situation of a
governess in the family of Mr. and Mrs. S., but she
soon becomes ill, and under pretence of ill-health
endeavoured again to reinstate herself in the family
of the Rev. J. L., failing in which, she told a most
transparent falsehood, evidently for the purpose of
securing her dismissal and her consequent return to the
residence of the Rev. S. L. Once again located in
the hospitable mansion of the Reverend Gentleman,
she took care to have periodical returns of vomiting
and spitting blood, so as absolutely to preclude the
idea not only of removing her, but of harassing her
by any allusions to her adventures as a governess.
In the meantime the uncle, the Rev. Herbert C.
Clifford, entered into a correspondence with Mr. L.,
and in the course of it stated that Marie would be en-
titled to a large property in Staffordshire. In the course
of this correspondence he frequently expresses a de-
sire to have her original MS. of her autobiography,
of which it should be observed Mrs. L. had made a
fair copy. But it boots not to pursue the tale of in-
trigue and deceit, proceed we to the discovery. The ill-
ness of Marie was all sham ; she was in the habit of
applying leeches to her gums to produce the appear-
ance of bleeding at the mouth, and the bulk of the
fluid which she had appeared to have vomited up was
bullock's blood, purchased by her from a butcher, and
mixed with warm water ; her pulse she lowered by
taking doses of digitalis, and she never would sub-
mit to be examined by the stethoscope. The letters
she herself acknowledged were forgeries, but we had
better let the author himself relate the events of the
morning of June 18, 1850, the trial morning :
" Tuesday, June 18th, dawned in almost cloudless
beauty. Marie came down to breakfast, little thinking
of the dark cloud which was lowering over her, prepar-
ing in one short hour to burst upon her. She had ar-
ranged to walk across the Park to Mrs. Y---'s, and
Elizabeth was to accompany her. As soon as breakfast
was over, she ran up stairs to get ready. In a few
minutes more she would have been off. A knock was
heard at the door. Elizabeth ran up to her, Marie, a
gentleman wants to speak to you.'
" She turned pale. Who is it?' she asked anxiously.
" It is only Mr. K—.'
" Marie seemed relieved, and went down to the draw-
.

ing-room.
" According to pre-arrangement, while Mr. K-
engaged her in conversation, Mr. S- and Mr. A'B---
arrived. Mr. L-- was watching for them, and he
opened the door before they knocked. Tney ascended
the staircase as noiselessly as possible, and opened the
drawing•room door. There they stood! Mr. S in
whose family she had lived, Mr. L-- whose kindness
she had abu:ed, Mr. A'B-- with whose professional
character she was well acquainted, and Mr. their
confidential friend. Why had they all assembled at
that hour to confront her ? She saw it at a glance. She
bent her head, and there she sat, calm, modest, self-
possessed, without any of the excitement so well feigned
in earlier days. She did not faint, she did not move.
In former days the slightest incident would throw her
into a state of excitement which alarmed her friends.
Now, when any one else would have been agitated, she
sat unmoved. If there was a struggle within, there was
no manifestation of it without. Iler examiners betrayed
more emotion than herself.

"Two of the gentlemen placed their chairs between
Marie and the door, and they all seated themselves in
silence.

" Mr. L-- spoke. He said he had invited these
friends to be present, while ho entered upon matters too
important fur conference with her alone, and wishing
them also to hear any explanation which she might have
to give.

" He then stated that two facts had come to his know-
ledge. Her previous acquaintance with the contents of
Captain Kenyon's letter, and inquiries for it at the post-
office; and her correspondence with Mr. Viall, lull of
mis-statements, which had come into his possession.
Can, you,' he inquired, explain either of these?'
" Marie s(,emeti about to maintain the veracity of her
statements to Mr. Viall, till assured by Mr. K---- that
the whole matter had been thoroughly investigated, and
that such tisseverations were useless. She was silent.
" Mr. repeated the question, whether she could
explain these circumstances.

",k scarcely audiLle no' dropped from her lips.
" 'lt now become: my painful duty,' said Mr. L--,
to tell you that there is tf,n much reason to tear that
you have been an impostor from first to last.'
"Marie raised her eyes, and wi,hout manifesting the
slightest emotion, gently said, 'lt is too true, sir.'
•"I'ne whole party looked at one another in amaze-
ment at her unparalleled self-cintrol.
Well, then,' said Mr. L---, ' it only remains for
you to tell us who you are, where you came from, and
what have been your motives for acting in so extraordi-
a was ?'
" With great firmness Marie replied that there were
some circumstances connected with her early history
which she must decline to communicate. Indeed, she
would rather die than reveal the circumstances under
which she had left her family. Thus much she would
say, that she was a native of M--; that her father
was a surgeon; that he and her mother died when she
was young, leaving her to the care of an only brother:
he treated her unkindly, and she had long since left him.
For two years before coming to London she had had a
situation at
of two little girls. Their mother and father dying, they
wore sent to the care of their guardian. Being again
thrown upon the world, she had had recourse to the ex-
pedient of going into a convent. Growing tired of its
discipline, and having heard of Mr. L— in the north, as
man of benevolence and kindries:!, on coming to London,
she determined to find him out.

"' Well,' said Mr. L—, •if I were to express what I
think of your conduct, it would only givA you pain, and
under present circumstances do little good. I presume
that you have no uncle?'
"'No.'

" How were his letters managed?'
"`I wroto them all myself in your house, andiliad them
translated and rewritten by Mr. --, a teacher of

languages in street.'"
The teacher of languages was applied to, and the
following was his explanation:—

"' I have called on you,' said Mr. L- , 'in refer-
ence to some letters which have been sent to my house,
written by MissG-, and translated here.'

"' Oh:it is Mr. L---- I suppose?'
"'Yes.'

" Well, lam glad to see you. Ia as thinking of call-
ing upon you to know if you can tell me about Miss
Clifford, as she has not been here for some time.'
" It is a Miss G-, not a Miss Clifford,' said Mr.
L-.

" ' No, it was a Mrs. or Miss Clifford who came here,
and tho letters were sent to Miss G----.'

" Mr. and Mrs. L- looked perplexed and puzzled.
" She was a short stout young lady,' said Mr. -,
' and she came to me, and said she wanted some letters
translated for her niece, a Miss G-, at Mr. L-'5,
C- terrace. She asked me if I was a Catholic. I
said, "if you come to me on business I will attend to
you, but if it is about zeligion' I have no time to talk on
that subject." She said it did not matter, only she
thought if I were a Catholic I could better enter into
the feelings with which she wrote these letters.'
":11r. and Mrs. L-- could not yet make it out. Here
was a new character appearing on the stage in the shape
of a Miss Clifford.

" Mr. -- proceeded, She told me that her niece
had apostatized from the Catholic Church, and that she
had been so angry with her at first that she had declared
she would never write to her again, but latterly she had
relented, aed wished to try to bring her back to the true
Church. Her niece did not speak English, so she wished
the letters to be in French; besides which she should
save her word by our writing them.' He then !produced
two packets, one of Marie's English originals, and the
other her orders to him to translate them. did them
up,' he added, in case I might be out, as she said she
was going to call; and I wrote the account outside, 131
pages at is. a page, 61. Us.'
But these letters were from a gentleman, a priest,
said Mr. and Mrs. L--; 'not from a young lady.'
" Mr. - was puzzled in his turn. He rang for his
French assistant, a tall, grave, young man, and they be-
gan to chatter away in French.
"' Those letters, Miss Clifford's letters, were from a
priest,' said -.

" A priest! no,' said the young Frenchman. ' They
were from a lady !'
" Why, how could you translate these letters and
think they were from a lady?' said Mrs. L-; and
she eagerly seized one of Marie's copies to show the im-
possibility of understanding the writer to be a lady.
She ran her eye down a page. There is frequent
mention of the General,' said she, the General of the
Jesuits.'

"' It does not say what 'general,' they replied, it
might be a father or brother, a military general.'
" Here he talks of keeping his retreat,' she said again.
" Ladies have retreats, too,' they replied.
"And true enough, as she looked down page after page,
she saw that they would suit equally with either of
Marie's assumed characters, an aunt or an uncle."

Having thus discovered the imposture, Mr. and Mrs.
L. determined to institute some inquiries at the con-
vents of I. and S. The following is the account of
the interview with the authorities of the two convents.
The first visit was to 1., where the following collo-
quy took place:—
" Mrs. L.—' We called to make some inquiries about a
young person who was educated hero. She was after-
wards a governess in the family of some friends of ours,
and left on account of ill health. It is necessary that
she should find another home ; and as our friends were
not fully satisfied, we thought that, perhaps, you would
favour us with a little information respecting her.'
" S.--'.'What is her name ?'
" Mrs. L.—' M-- L-- G--.'

" Mrs. L.—' Perhaps she was here before you?'
"S.—' Oh, no! I have been Superioress of this con-
vent for a number of years. lam quite sure that we
have had no one here of that name.'
" Mrs. L.—' She states that she was twice hero: on
.one occasion for a period of two years; and that she has
been sevo;:tteeu years in a convent of your order. She
says that she used to write letters for Madame D'll—'
(Very Reverend Mother).
" S.—' That cannot be, for Madame D'H-- never
:has any one but a religious person to write for her. She
cannot speak English, and she never comes to England.'
" Mrs. L.—' It is just possible that this young person
may have changed her name. Perhaps you may recog-
nise the handwriting,' producing a specimen.
" S.—' This is the handwriting taught in our schools,
certainly.'

" Mri L.--' She says that Madame de la R--, who
died last June, awl who joined your Community when
tihe became a widow, was her aunt.'
" 3.--' Madame de la R-- was never married, and she
is rtill living.'
" Mrs. L.--' Perhaps you would know this young per-
son's portrait, I have brought it with me.'
No ; Ido not know this face. I am sure she
was never here.'

" After a pause the Superioress added, "Perhaps you
wilt allow me to take it out of the room fora few
minutes, to see if any one else can recognise it.'
" The lady:left the room—the piano ceased, the voices
in the hall dropped, and a quiet debate appeared to bo
going on. In a few minutes she re-appeared.
"`No, we do not know the person; but we think that
Madame ; (Reverend Mother), who is now at
5--, would be able to tell you. She may have been
brought up there.'
"Mrs. L.—' I did not know that there was any school
at S--, except the poor school.'
".S.—` Oh, yes! there is a very large school for an
inferior class of pupils to those who are brought up
here. Madame will be here to-morrow, or you
could see her at S-- this evening, if more con-
venient.'

" They thanked her, and returned to town by the next
train. They went back to Mr. li-'s, and thence
hastened to S---.

" It was nearly eight o'clock when they entered the
outer gate in the street, by the side of the Catholic
chapel; and pasing through the little court, or garden
to another entrance, they rang the bell. A novice in
her white cap drew bank the little sliding panel, and in-
quired their business.
"' We wish to see Madame . We will not de-
tain her many minutes. We have been to I--, ex-
pecting to find her there, or we would not have come at
so late an hour.'

"The novice withdrew, and presently another came,
unlocked the door, and showed them into a little room
close to the gate. The floor was covered with oil•cloth,
and there were a few wooden chairs.
"Presently a third person appeared, and led them into
another little room adjooining the first. It was carpeted,
and a little better furnished than the other. It looked
out into the large court-yard, where several nuns with
measured steps were passing to and fro. A large range
of buildings surrounded this court; but they had scarcely
observed thus much when another messenger came up
to ask the name of each. The names were given, and
she withdrew.

"Finally Madame --, the Reverend Mother, ap-
peared. Mrs. L-- again stated the case as at I-,
and asked if Madam© - could oblige her with any
particulars respecting Marie.
" 0 yes! She was with us for a month about a year
and a half ago.'
" Only a month ! She says that she was:seventeen
years in convents of your Order, and that she had been
for the two last years a postulant.'
" ' She was not with us longer than a month or fire
weeks. She was introduced` to me by the Reverend
a priest in Liverpool, as a young person who
had become a Catholic, and was very much persecuted
by her Protestant friends. She was obliged to leave
home and wanted an asylum, and he said that it would
be kind if I would take her.'
" She says that she was six weeks in your Liverpool
convent, and two years at I-.'
" She nevor set foot in our Liverpool convent. I
brought her to town with me the same night, and wo
made her up a bed in the little parlour, because the
house was full. She wanted to go to I--, and she was
there for one day, but I sent her buck again, for we have
none' but young ladies there, and we only employ per-
sons of confidence.'
" `She says that she has been in convents of your Order
at Amiens, Manotte, saris, Chateituroux, Carrouge,
Nice, and Limerick.'
" It is very true that we have convents at all these
places, but she has never been in them.'
" I should like to be quite sure that it is the same.
Do you know this portrait?'
" 0 yes! That is she certainly.'
Will you kindly tell me why she left you?'
Yes. After she had beau with us a little while she
became restless, and said that her temporal affairs re.
quired her return to her friends. She showed me some
sort of deed, and a lawyer's letter, and said that she
should lose her property if she did not go.'
" ' And how did she go?'
" She said that a friend of her family lived in
Street, and that if she went to her, she knew that she
could soon get back to her relations in the north. I
sent, but probably the lady had moved, for no such per-

son could be found. She went out another day. and
I Dame back, saying that she had found her friczfi, and
that she would come for her nt halr-p.i.t six o'clock. I
( ffered to send a responsible person to ascertain thit it
wr4s all right; but she said th, re was no occasion. as she
was quite satisfied. A lady in a cab came that niehr,
and she went. As her health was delicate, an a she did
not feel well enough to do am thinp, we were not on the
whole sorry that she decided on leaving.'
"Mrs. L-- thanked Madame ---, and rose to
leave. The lady requested that her name might not be
brought forward, and Mrs. L-- promised that it
should not. 'She was a very well conducted young
person while with us,' added Madame ---, ' I have
nothing to say against her.'
Notwithstanding Marie's confession that she was an
impostor, the Rev. S. L. did not at once abandon her
to her fate, neither did he, as we are inclined to think
he ought to have done, give her into custody ; but
having learned from her that certain ladies at Ghent,
who kept a school, and with whom she said she was
acquainted, would receive her, he shipped her off on
board the Ostend packet, the steward of which saw her
take the train for Ghent Ghent; on visiting Ghent some few
months afterwards, the Rev. S L. made inquiries for
Marie, but no trace could be found either of her or of
the ladies she had mentioned, and since that period she
has been seen in London, and is probably at this moment
a spy in some Protestant family. That Marie is a sp.y
in the hands of the continental Jesuits we think is evi-
dent, and while we state this we at once acquit the
ladies of the establishments at I. and at S. of all com-
plicity in the plot. On the Liverpool priest who intro-
duced her to these ladies much suspicion rests,
but he, we are inclined to believe, was a mere sub •
ordinate ; the concoctors of the plot are to be found
in France, and perhaps the biographer of St. Elizabeth
of Hungary could, if he chose, enlightenus as to the
real history of
.Marie L. G. The letters from the
supposed Mr. Clifford were, it is true, all posted in
London (in almost every letter he states that he has
sent it in the church parcel to he forwarded), but of
the various letters addressed to him at Manotte, at
Marseilles, at Nice, not one was returned ; there must,
therefore, have been accomplices at all these places,
and at all these places the French Jesuits have
large establishments. The objects of the imposture
were various, and it was so cunningly contrived that
one or other of them must inevitably succeed. The
Romish priests boast of the numbers who hare recently
left the Anglican Church for Rome, but, these are far
outnumbered by those who have left the Romish
Church and embraced Protestantism, but who dare
not make open profession of their faith until they
have found refuge in some Protestant household,
where they may be safe from the persecution to
which they would be, by order of the priests, sub-
jected. Now the case of Marie L. G., should her im-
posture be discovered, was the one of all others cal-
culated to induce Protestants to shut their doors
against any proselytes from Rome, and thus to " give
a heavy blow and a great discouragement "to the
progress of these conversions, while, in the mean-
time, the spy was making herself acquainted with the
minutest details of; the history of the Protestant mi-
nister and his flock, which were, no doubt, regularly
transmitted to the Jesuit head-quarters, and there
carefully recorded for future use. But this was not all,
nor near all that the Jesuits hoped to accomplish by
locating the spy in the family of the Rev. S. L. ; the
main and principle object was no doubt to endeavour
to blast the character of an exemplary Protestant
clergyman, and to hold him up to the world as a ca-
lumniator. The pretended autobiography of Marie
was, it appears, fairly copied out from her rough
draft by Mrs. L. Now Marie, after it had been
so copied out, was exceedingly anxious to regain pos-
session of her original MS., and at the same time was
importunately urging the publication of the autobio-
graphy. The autobiography was no doubt so care-
fully compiled as to admit of the production of direct
and indisputable evidence in contradiction to every
essential particular. Had the Rev. S. L., therefore,
acceded to Marie's desire on this point, there cannot
be a doubt that immediately after the pub-
lication Marie and her MSS. would have
disappeared, a cloud of witnesses from all quarters
would have borne testimony to the falsehood of the
statements contained in the autobiography, the Rev.
S. L. would have been challenged to produce the
original MSS., and on his confession of his inability,
to do so, the Holy Fathers would at once have de-
nounced him as an unprincipled fabricator of calum-
nious falsehoods, and John of Tuam would have pro-
bably held him up as a pattern specimen of Protes-
tant " vermin." Fortunately, this cunningly-devised
scheme has been rendered abortive by the straight-
forward truthfulness of the different members of the
family, and by the plain, good common sense of
Mrs. L. It, however, by no means follows that such
will always be the result of these attempts, and it is
a duty the Rev. S. L. owes to society to give the names
and addresses of all the parties concerned at full length;
and, above all, to unkennel the Liverpool priest, whose
evidence would probably lead to a discovery of the
real culprits.