p along with him, cried out--

"_Patria y Libertad_!"

Country and Liberty! Strange sentiment in such a place, and to be
received with acclaim by such people!

CHAPTER FORTY THREE.

WHAT ARE THEY?

The repast finished, the Holy Brethren, rising from the table together,
forsook the Refectory. Some disappeared into cloisters on the sides of
the great hallway, others strolled out in front, and seating themselves
on benches that were about, commenced rolling and smoking cigarittos.

The Abbot, excusing himself to his stranger guests, on plea of pressing
business, was invisible for a time. So they were permitted to betake
themselves apart. Good manners secured them this. The others naturally
supposed they might want a word in private, so no one offered to intrude
upon them.

Just what they did want, and had been anxiously longing for. They had
mutually to communicate; questions to be asked, and counsel taken
together. Each was burning to know what the other thought of the
company they had fallen into; the character of which was alike
perplexing to both.

After getting hold of their hats they sauntered out by the great door,
through which they had entered on the night before. The sun was now at
meridian height, and his beams fell down upon the patch of open ground
in front of the monastery, for a monastery they supposed it must be. A
glance backward as they walked out from its walls showed its
architecture purely of the conventual style; windows with pointed
arches, the larger ones heavy mullioned, and a campanile upon the roof.
This, however, without bells, and partially broken down, as was much of
the outer mason work everywhere. Here and there were walls crumbling to
decay, others half-hidden under masses of creeping plants and
cryptogams; in short, the whole structure seemed more or less
dilapidated.

Soon they entered under the shadow of the trees; long-leaved evergreen
pines loaded with parasites and epiphytes, among these several species
of orchids--rare phenomenon in the vegetable world, that would have
delighted the eye of a botanist. As they wished to get beyond earshot
of those left lounging by the porch, they continued on along a walk
which had once been gravelled, but was now overgrown with weeds and
grass. It formed a cool arcade, the thick foliage meeting overhead, and
screening it from the rays of the sun. Following it for about a hundred
yards or so, they again had the clear sky b