NUN’S FLIGHT FROM CONVENT

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9421, 17 April 1909, Page 2

NUN’S FLIGHT FROM CONVENT

ESCAPES UNDER COVER OP. DARKNESS.

It hag only just become known that one .of the inmates of bt. . Mary’s Abbey, a Roman Catholic . Convent at East Bergholt, Suffolk, ‘escaped a-few weeks ago, and got to her home in London. The esoaped is Miss Madge Moult, a beautiful yonng woman of twentyfour, who, after eight years’ immnrement in the convent, found the life so irksome that she resolved to escape at the first opportunity, The opportunity came when the abbess and the Father Bede Birchby were both absent. The convent is surrounded by beautiful gardens," enclosed by a high wall, and is a very lonely position on a hillside, the nearest, railway station being Manningtree, in Essex, three and ahalf miles away. . , The nuns were allowed to wander about the grounds, but were closely watched, and it was only jander cover of darkness that Sister Madge managed to slip through a door near the stables. ~.. She most have made a pathetic figure as she stood there in the dusk in her sombre habit, two brown paper parcels holding all her possessions, irresolute which way to tarn. She did not pause long, feme had a faint idea as to the direction in which Manningtree-and freedom --lay. and bending her head to the driving rain whioh had began to fall she sped Bssexwards. THE PURSUIT STARTS. Two schoolgirls proceeding along the road were astonished to see a beautiful young woman in conventual garb run panting past them dost by Green’s Mills at the foot of the' long hill leading from the convent. , . , Meanwhile the escape had been discovered. The inmates of the nunnery had gathered for evening service, and Sister Madge was not in her place. A hurried search made it certain that she was not in the convent. Pursuit was decided on, ana the same girls who ,had fseen the dark-robed figure speeding along the road reached the the gates were thrown open, and a waggonette, containing two nuns and drawn by a oonple of horses, came out. ’ . , , After the fugitive had been seen at Green’s Mills she must have lost her way, for it was nearly eight o’clock when, wet, bedraggled, and footsore, she got within sight of the station. Almost at the same moment the pursuers, who had been searching the countryside, arrived, and a porter at the station heard a woman’s voice cry, “Help! Help! Don’t, fiistßr I * * * STRUGGLE AT THE STATION. Taking a lantern the porter went, in the direction Jof the voice, and was astonished to see _ two blackrobed figures endeavouring to tear another from some railings to which she was clinging desperately. It was a strange piotnre that the dim rays of the lantern revealed, for the pursuing nuns, like Miss were wet "through after their long drive in the rain. Just as the porter arrived Miss Moult bad been torn from her hold and was being harried towards the waggonette, declaring sobbingly all the time that she would not go back to the convent; As .tt happened the place where the struggle .was taking place was the private property of the railway company, and the porter pointed this out, saying the lady’s liberty must be respected. He then conducted the dishevelled party to the waitingmom, where, a consultation took place, the sisters trying all they know to get the fugitive to return to them. “Do come back, sister, dear,” they urged, bat Miss Moult answered, “No, no, I will not; I am going to my mother.” The sisters pointed out that she had no money, -and continued, “Gome back with ns to night, and we will send a telegram to your mother in the morning.” Bnt P to all their Sister Madge turned a deaf ear, and the sisters ultimately returned to the abbey. SAFE HOME. When they had gone the kindly sfcationmaster gave Miss Moult some refreshment, and then asked her how she proposed to get to London *without a ticket. She assured him that her mother would pay the fare, and he lent her half a “sovereign, and locked her in the waiting room until the arrival of the midnight mail for London. Boarding this. Miss Moult travelled to town and proceeded to her | friends in St. Paul’s Road, . Oamden Town, arriving there at five in the morning. She is now with her mother. Mrs Moult has returned to the Manningtree sfcationmaster the halfsovereign he advanced, and has explained in a covering letter that Miss Monlt entered the sisterhood with high religions ideals. What caused Miss Moult to_ run away can only ha guessed, but it is known that she had repeatedly asked to see her mother, and had been refused. She stated at the station that she had been planning the escape for two years. Her sister, Miss Hand Modlt, is well-known on the provincial stage as “Vivien Storm.” Their father lives in Paris, and the esoaped girl lias a sister, Dolly, in a Paris convent. This is the third escape from St. Mary’s Abbey. The first took place many jtears ago, when a nun sought the protection of a local shoemaker, who kept her for two days and then sent her home. Fourteen years ago a nun ran out of the building into the home of Arohdeaoon Woolley, who was vicar of East Bergholt, and who sheltered her until he had communicated with her parents.