But
they were the only ones who dared to act so. All my other monks are
pure. You have been able to discover the shame of the guilty, which I
in my ignorance could not, and there is nothing for it but to put them
to death."
The Governor smiled:
"Then it is only the cells which these two women occupied that have
secret passages?"
"There are only those two cells," answered the unblushing Superior.
"We shall question all the other women, and then see."
The female visitors, who had already been wakened by the noise, came
in turns to give their evidence. They were all in agreement: no bonze
had come to trouble them. But the Governor knew that shame would
prevent them from speaking, and therefore had them searched. In the
pocket of each was found a little packet of pills. He asked them
whence these came; but the women, purple in the face and scarlet in
the neck, answered no word.
While this examination was taking place, the husbands of the penitents
came up and took a part in it. And their anger made them tremble like
the hemp-plant or leaves of a tree. When the Governor, who did not
wish to push his questioning too far, had allowed the visitors to
depart, their husbands swallowed their shame and indignation, and led
them away.
The Superior had not yet given up the fight. He asserted that the
pills had been given to the women as they entered the monastery.
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