found one monk, who made great
difficulties as to showing me the library, for he said a Russian had
been there some time ago, and had borrowed a book which he never
returned. However, at last I gained admission by means of that ingenious
silver key which opens so many locks.

In a good-sized square room, filled with shelves all round, I found a
fine, although neglected, collection of books; a great many of them
thrown on the floor in heaps, and covered all over with dust, which the
Russian did not appear to have much disturbed when he borrowed the book
which had occasioned me so much trouble. There were about six or seven
hundred volumes of printed books, two hundred MSS. on paper, and a
hundred and fifty on vellum. I was not permitted to examine this library
at all to my satisfaction. The solitary monk thought I was a Russian,
and would not let me alone, or give me the time I wanted for my
researches. I found a multitude of folios and quartos of the works of
St. Chrysostom, who seems to have been the principal instructor of the
monks of Mount Athos, that is, in the days when they were in the habit
of reading--a tedious custom, which they have long since given up by
general consent. I met also with an Evangelistarium, a quarto in uncial
letters, but not in very fine condition. Two or three other old monks
had by this time crept out of their holes, but they would not part with
any of their books: that unhappy Russian had filled the minds of the
whole brotherhood with suspicion. So we went to the church, which was
curious and quaint, as they all are; and as we went through all the
requisite formalities before various grim pictures, and showed due
respect for the sacred character of a Christian church, they began at
last to believe that I was not a Russian; but if they had seen the
contents of the saddle-bags which were sticking out bravely on each side
of the patient mule at the gate, they would perhaps have considered me
as something far worse.

Coutloumoussi was founded by the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, and, having
been destroyed by "_the Pope of Rome_," was restored by the piety of
various hospodars and waywodes of Bessarabia. It is difficult to
understand what these worthy monks can mean when they affirm that
several of their monasteries have been burned and plundered by the Pope.
Perhaps in the days of the Crusades some of the rapacious and
undisciplined hordes who accompanied the armies of the Cross--not to
rescue