d the Hermit of the Well, as an eccentric
and strange being, who lived an existence of rigid penance, harmless to
others, painful only to himself. This story had been confirmed in the
few conversations I had ever interchanged with my host and hostess, who
seemed to take a peculiar pleasure in talking of the Solitary; and from
them I had heard also many anecdotes of his charity towards the poor and
his attention to the sick. All these circumstances came into my mind as
the good monk indulged his loquacity upon the subject, and my curiosity
became at last somewhat excited respecting my fellow recluse.

I now learned from the monk that the post of Hermit of the Well was an
office of which the present anchorite was by no means the first tenant.
The well was one of those springs, frequent in Catholic countries, to
which a legend and a sanctity are attached; and twice a year--once
in the spring, once in the autumn--the neighbouring peasants flocked
together, on a stated day, to drink, and lose their diseases. As
the spring most probably did possess some medicinal qualities, a few
extraordinary cures had occurred, especially among those pious persons
who took not biennial, but constant draughts; and to doubt its holiness
was downright heresy.

Now, hard by this well was a cavern, which, whether first formed
by nature or art, was now, upon the whole, constructed into a very
commodious abode; and here, for years beyond the memory of man, some
solitary person had fixed his abode to dispense and to bless the water,
to be exceedingly well fed by the surrounding peasants, to wear a long
gown of serge or sackcloth, and to be called the Hermit of the Well.
So fast as each succeeding anchorite died there were enough candidates
eager to supply his place; for it was no bad _metier_ to some penniless
imposter to become the quack and patentee of a holy specific. The choice
of these candidates always rested with the superior of the neighbouring
monastery; and it is not impossible that he made an indifferently good
percentage upon the annual advantages of his protection and choice.

At the time the traveller appeared, the former hermit had just departed
this life, and it was, therefore, to the vacancy thus occasioned that
he had procured himself to be elected. The incumbent appeared quite of a
different mould from the former occupants of the hermitage. He accepted,
it is true, the gifts laid at regular periods upon a huge stone between
the