piritual memento was introduced by the rap of a
stout oaken-stick upon the table; when instantly, every hand raised to the
mouth was arrested and held still where it was, until a second rap
permitted it to proceed in its carnal office, the interval being employed
in silent ejaculation to the Deity, or perhaps, with some, in "curses not
loud but deep" against the inexorable superior, who so compelled them to
mortify a not unnatural desire.

In the dormitory a similar mortification nightly awaited the unconscious
sleepers, although "upon uneasy pallets stretching them," in the
occasional tinkling of an obtrusive bell, that peremptorily hurried them
from their recumbent position to the cold stones of the chapel, where on
bended knees they were obliged to pray and meditate.

From the refectory and the dormitory we were conducted to the chapel, with
renewed injunctions to ask no questions while there, and to preserve the
strictest silence. Here we found about thirty, I think, of the brethren,
in their coarse black habits and cord belts, with rosary, shaved crowns,
and fixed eyes; some kneeling, and others prostrate upon the stony
floor,--picturesquely grouged, _a la Rembrandt_, about the steps of the
altar and other parts of the chapel. All were silent and motionless, and
regarded our intrusion no more than if they were so many marble statues.
Some of the monks were old and haggard, and others young and better
conditioned than might be conceived of men fed, or rather starved, as they
were represented to be. Their features appeared generally to be coarse and
vulgar. The chapel itself was perfectly plain, and unadorned but by a few
of the customary figures and paintings, representing disgusting situations
of saints and martyrs under voluntary torture and privation. Lamps that
"shed a pale and ineffectual light," crucifixes, and images of the Virgin
and Son, were duly scattered about the niches of the chapel.

From the chapel we were conducted to the superior's room, a small
scantily-furnished apartment, with however an appearance of greater
comfort than elsewhere about the building, from the presence of a plain
chair and table, some religious books, a cot, and a little fire. The
superior himself possessed somewhat more of the aspect of a gentleman than
the rest of the brethren, as well as the dim light of a lamp allowed us to
observe his figure; of which certainly, whatever might have been his mode
of living, rotundity formed