I shrieked in the extremity of terror.

[Footnote: Cioui, formerly a Benedictine Monk, giving an
account of his imprisonment at Rome, after his conversion
says:--

"One evening, after listening to a discourse filled with
dark images of death, I returned to my room, and found
the light set upon the ground. I took it up and approached
the table to place it there, but what was my horror and
consternation at beholding spread out upon it, a whitened
skeleton! Before the reader can comprehend my dismay, it
is necessary he should reflect for a moment on the
peculiarities of childhood, especially in a Romish country,
where children are seldom spoken to except in superstitious
language, whether by their parents or teachers: and
domestics adopt the same style to answer their own
purposes, menacing their disobedient charges with
hobgoblins, phantoms and witches. Such images as these
make a profound impression on tender minds, leaving a
panic terror which the reasoning of after years is often
unable entirely to efface. There can be no doubt but that
this pernicious habit, is the fruit of the noxious plant
fostered in the Vatican. Rising generations must be
brought up in superstitious terror, in order to render
them susceptible to every kind of absurdity; for this
terror is the powerful spring, employed by the priests
and friars, to move at their pleasure families, cities,
provinces, nations. Although in families of the higher
order, this method of alarming infancy is much