t_ they shew you a letter written to the
Abbe by King Philip the second, who begins, "venerable and devout
_Religieux_," and tells him, he approves of his zeal, of his building a
new church at _Montserrat_, charges him to continue his prayers for him,
and, to shew his zeal for that holy house, informs him, that the bearer
of his letter is _Etienne Jordan_, the most famous sculptor then in
Spain, who is to make the new altar-piece at the King's expence, and
they agreed to pay _Jordan_ ten thousand crowns for the design he laid
before them: the altar was made at _Valladolid_, and was brought to
_Montserrat_ on sixty-six waggons; and as Jordan did much more to the
work than he had engaged to perform, the King gave him four thousand
crowns over and above his agreement, and afterwards gave nine thousand
crowns more, to gild and add further ornaments to it.

At the death of Philip the Second, his son, Philip, the Third, assisted
in person to remove the image of the Virgin from the old to the new
church; which I shall hereafter mention more fully. Before this noble
altar, in which the figure of the Virgin stands in a nitch about the
middle of it, are candlesticks of solid silver, each of which weighs
eighty pounds; they are a yard and a half high; and yet these are mere
trifles, when compared to the gold and jewels which are shewn
occasionally.

The monks observe very religiously their statutes; nor is there a single
hour in the day that you find the church evacuated.--I always heard at
least two voices chanting the service, when the monks retire from the
church, which is not till seven o'clock at night; the pilgrims continue
there in prayer the greater part of the night.

I should have told you, that beside the superior among the hermits,
there are two sorts of them, neither of which can possess a hermitage
till they have spent seven years in the monastery, and given proofs of
their holy disposition, by acts of obedience, humility, and
mortification; during, which they spend most of their time, night as
well as day, in the church, but they never sing or chant. After the
expiration of the seven years, the Abbot takes the advice of his
brethren, and if they think the probationer's manners and life entitle
him to a solitary life above, he is sent,--but not, perhaps, without
being enjoined to wait upon some old hermit, who is past doing the
necessary offices of life for himself.--Their habit, as I said before,
is brown, and th