Did the priests send their baser garments up the hill to the Magdalen Laundry to be mended and scrubbed by the women imprisoned there, in that imposing fortress connected by tunnels to the convent and orphanage and separated by no more than an acre of barren land from the parish school? Would the poor, seduced women ever have been taught how to sew, how to pierce a delicate satin with a sharp needle and leave no mark? Well, escapes were not unheard of and there was talk of people out in the country, hermits even, who sheltered those who had gotten over the wall.