Given that there was no priest in residence, Josephine added, as Fr. Malesvaux had departed by coach for Saint Louis only a week before and no other priests were scheduled for several more weeks, she thought it only proper that the nuns bury the child themselves, praying for its soul and returning it back to the earth, on the convent’s grounds. The entire incident was even more terrible, she added, than the flood and its aftermath, and the unspeakably bitter winter, and then the heat which now seemed to emanate from the gates of Hell itself, and the problems with her second slave girl, Phèdre — at whose name I moved away from the wall, nearer the speakers, neither of whom appeared to notice me — once so gentle and passive, who had gotten airs and become defiant and begun behaving as if she were in a bilious humor, even engaging in strange rituals, such as drawing crosses on the floor and talking in riddles and murmuring almost as though in a trance, so much so that she and the nuns had had, as Mary Margaret already knew, to remand the girl back to Savannah and request that her parents send her another in her stead. As Mary Margaret also knew, the new girl had not arrived and, this was news, as soon as Mlle. Josephine returned to her room she was going to write her parents a letter entreating them to remove her from the school as quickly as possible, she was not sure she could last another term.
Mary Margaret assented: she did not want to stay any longer either, though both would have to endure the inspection that evening, and then wait till as long as the post would take to travel to their respective homes before they could return, since the nuns would not send them on their way otherwise. I then heard both girls scramble up the stairs, and when there was nothing but the general sound of movement, I ascended the stairs myself on my way to the bedroom.
At the landing, I saw two of the bondswomen who, during my entire stay at the convent, had mostly kept their distances from me, though today, as in recent weeks, they did not bolt but unexpectedly lingered, as if they were gliding into my orbit. Though they still pretended not to want to sit beside me during our brief meals, today, as when we were in the same room undertaking our various tasks, they were drawing closer, closer still, until we sat or stood only fingers apart. We did not exchange a single word, but these two, who had been given the ridiculous names Daisy and Avondale, I had chosen to rename respectively Diejuste, because of her usual genial manner, and Ayidda, because twice while working in the gardens in her presence I had seen garter snakes. Each gave me the hint of a smile, as if I had shared with them some secret that offered a clue to the brouhaha now unfolding, and though I had not, I returned the slightest smile to each of them.
In the bedroom I found Eugénie slowly taking inventory of her personal effects, strewn across her blanket like a market stall. She moved as if performing a masque. I tried to get her attention and pinched her gently on the arm, but Eugénie pushed me away. She went to the door and, using a loose corner floorstone, wedged it shut. As soon as she’d done this, she crawled down under her bed and extracted a small bundle from the corner behind the portion of headboard nearest the wall. The stinking, reddish-brown mass of fabric made me retch, but I knew what she wanted me to do, so as soon as she handed it to me, I slid it under my own cot.
The white girl, still not uttering a word, approached me and, seizing both of my hands, plunged them in one dead swoop between her thighs. I drew them back, but the white girl grabbed ahold of them and again buried them between her thighs, clamping down so they were vised in there, a rosary bundled between the flesh scraping my knuckles. As she did so she mumbled several prayers, though I could not make out what they were. For a while we struggled as an onrushing current surged through my fingertips, my fingers, my hands, my arms, until I was finally able to break free. I settled on the end of my cot farthest away from Eugénie, and looked away.
She appeared satisfied by my actions, and resumed cataloguing the clothes before her. When she had finished, she carefully folded each of them up and stacked them into neat little piles. Then she turned to me and pointed to them, which meant that I was to pack them away in her trunk. She stepped back to watch me work. I carefully placed each of the garments in the trunk, counting as I did so. I tallied combs, wool stockings, bodices, bonnets. There was one petticoat and one pair of small clothes missing: these, I guessed, were the dried carbuncle I had stored beneath my own cot. When I was done, Eugénie gestured for me to open my own sack of garments. I did so. She ordered me to pull everything out.
On my cot lay a long, threadbare linsy-woolsy shift, spangled with patches, that I alternated with the slightly newer one I now wore. There was my other linen head scarf, a faded rose castoff gift from her aunt, Mrs. Francis. There were my mismatched pair of repeatedly darned woolen socks, which I had not worn since the winter. Finally from the bottom of my sack I extracted my several tattered petticoats, which had belonged to Mme. de L’Écart, my own small clothes, and my woman’s garments, all of which, though gray from reuse and repeated washing I kept meticulously clean. Where was my other shift, the gray wool one I, like all the other slave girls, wore during the winter? I was sure she had not removed it from the sack in months.
The white girl pointed to one of the petticoats and one of the pairs of undergarments, and indicated that they be placed in her trunk. When I hesitated, her blue eyes smacked me so hard it was as if I had been struck by an open palm. I folded a petticoat and the small clothes, and layered them atop her pile. I sat back down on my cot without permission and replaced my small menagerie in its storeplace. Then we stared at each other, in silence, until Sr. Ambrose Jeanne appeared at the door to fetch Eugénie for her inspection.
As soon as the door closed I tidied up the room, then returned to my cot. I considering saying my rosary but did not.
Excerpts from a report by Sr. Germain Ruth on the Inspection of the Pupils
On the 25th day of August, 1806, in the convent of the Holy Order of the Most Precious Charity of Our Lady of the Sorrows, in Gethsemane, Kentucky, under the supreme guidance and counsel of the Heavenly Father and our patron, Most Blessed Virgin Mother, Mediatrix of Grace, and in the presence of our Reverend Mother Superior, Sister Louis Marie K., as well as our Associate Superior, Sr. Alphonse Isabelle D., I have, in accordance with the teachings of our faith, the wishes of our reverend leader, and the rules of our order, prepared the following report on the requested examination of the pupils enrolled in the convent’s school concerning the matter that is the case. This activity, extraordinary in light of the habitual occurrences of this house, was conducted to ascertain the possibility of a particular and unspeakable trangression by any of those entrusted to our care and formation. The particular case encompassing, in short, the tragic series of events that unfolded one week prior just across the estuary separating the convent’s grounds from those of the town.
Each of the young gentlewomen was conducted individually into the calefactory. Verily, each was asked to be seated in a chair facing away from the window overlooking the west meadow, and was presented a series of questions concerning the evening under scrutiny. The inquiries also assessed any and all potential associations with any male person the pupils may have had, their behavior in the weeks leading up to the above-cited events, and the general and specific perceptions the reverend sisters may have had about each. With one exception, the alibis provided by the young ladies were in various states of conflict concerning their whereabouts between the evening inspection, conducted by my person, and the morning call. With one exception, that being Miss Eugénie de L’É., none was able to reply to any of the subsequent questions with persuasion. Several of the girls appeared to be in advanced states of agitation, which could have been the result of sin, ill or uncertain humor, or some other cause. Only the aforesaid Miss de L’É. was able to reply with a demonstrable measure of calm. It should be noted that the inquiries were conducted by all three of the sisters present, though the author of this report served as the primary inquisitor.