 had relinquished her to the chance of meeting with another
charitable meal.
    No tygress robbed of her young was ever exalted to an higher pitch of fury
than this nun, when she found herself abandoned by her lover, and insulted in
this mortifying explanation. She darted upon her antagonist, like a hawk upon a
partridge, and with her nails disfigured that fair face which had defrauded her
of her dearest expectation. Nor did the rival tamely bear the barbarity of her
rage; what she wanted in strength she supplied with spirit, and twisting her
hand in the hair of the aggressor, pulled her head with violence to the ground.
The noise of this contention, increased by the cries of the combatants, whose
tongues were more active than their hands, brought a croud of sisters to the
spot; but so fiercely were they engaged, that they neither minded admonitions
nor threats, nor paid the least regard to their own reputation; but on the
contrary, as if they had not known that they were surrounded by numbers, who
heard every word that proceeded from their mouths, they made no secret of the
cause of their dispute, which, in the precipitancy of their wrath, they divulged
with all its circumstances, to the amazement of the by-standers.
    At length the lady abbess arrived, and what her authority could not
accomplish, was effected by two lay-sisters, who being summoned for the purpose,
separated the rivals, who were by this time quite exhausted with the fatigue of
the battle. Had this mutual detection been made in any company of females, the
secret would have hardly rested among those who heard it, much less in a
convent, where so many old maidens happened to be present. One of these
antiquated devotees accordingly imparted it to the superior, who having examined
into the particulars, and found the information true, from the rash
recrimination of the incensed parties on their trial, considered the affair as a
very serious matter, which affected the good order and reputation of her
convent, assembled all the sisters, and exhorted them to suppress the discovery,
as a circumstance injurious to the character of the house; laid strict
injunctions on the portress, to be very cautious for the future in the discharge
of her office, delivered over the backsliding nun to a severe penance prescribed
by her ghostly father, and that very day sent her boarder back to her relations,
with a hint of what had happened, and an advice to dispose of her in some remote
nunnery, where she would be less exposed to the machinations of her gallant.
    Our lover, utterly ignorant of this unlucky fray
