; divil a merry visage to be seen, but
plenty of prim airs and graces; but the case of the scholars, though bad
enough, was not half so bad as mine, for they could spake to each other,
whereas I could not have a word of conversation, for the ould thaif of a
rector had ordered them to send me to 'Coventry,' telling them that I was
a gambling cheat, with morals bad enough to corrupt a horse regiment; and
whereas they were allowed to divert themselves with going out, I was kept
reading and singing from morn till night. The only soul who was willing
to exchange a word with me was the cook, and sometimes he and I had a
little bit of discourse in a corner, and we condoled with each other, for
he liked the change in the religious house almost as little as myself;
but he told me that, for all the change below stairs, there was still
card-playing on above, for that the ould thaif of a rector, and the sub-
rector, and the almoner played at cards together, and that the rector won
money from the others--the almoner had told him so--and, moreover, that
the rector was the thaif of the world, and had once been kicked out of a
club-house at Dublin for cheating at cards, and after that circumstance
had apparently reformed and lived decently till the time when I came to
the religious house with my pack, but that the sight of that had brought
him back to his ould gambling. He told the cook, moreover, that the
rector frequently went out at night to the houses of the great clergy and
cheated at cards.

"In this melancholy state, with respect to myself, things continued a
long time, when suddenly there was a report that his Holiness the Pope
intended to pay a visit to the religious house in order to examine into
its discipline. When I heard this I was glad, for I determined after the
Pope had done what he had come to do, to fall upon my knees before him,
and make a regular complaint of the treatment I had received, to tell him
of the cheating at cards of the rector, and to beg him to make the ould
thaif give me back my pack again. So the day of the visit came, and his
Holiness made his appearance with his attendants, and, having looked over
the religious house, he went into the rector's room with the rector, the
sub-rector, and the almoner. I intended to have waited until his
Holiness came out, but finding he stayed a long time I thought I would
e'en go into him, so I went up to the door without anybody observing
me--his attendants being