Still, there is no more chance of her ever inheriting it than
there would be of her flying. As a nun she would naturally have to
renounce all property, and no doubt the law of this priest-ridden country
would decide that she had done so. She tells me--and I am sure,
truly--that she refused to open her lips to say a single word when she was
forced to go through the ceremony; but as, no doubt, a score of witnesses
would be brought forward to swear that she answered all the usual
questions and renounced all worldly possessions, that denial would go for
nothing."
"Besides," Herrara said, "it would never do for her to set foot in
Portugal. She would be seized as an escaped nun immediately, and would
never be heard of again."
"I have no doubt that that would be so, Herrara; and as she has a nice
fortune from her father, you may be sure that she will not trouble about
the estates here, and her mother would be welcome to do as she likes with
them, which is, after all, not unreasonable, as they are her property and
descended to her from her father. Still, I should be glad to learn, if it
does not give any great trouble, whether if, as is almost certain--for the
people from all the country round took refuge there long before the French
arrived--she was in Oporto, and if so, whether she got through the sack of
the town unharmed.
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