ady, prodigal in the expenditure of
money, and in the employment of faithful and trustworthy agents, procured
a raft to be constructed, by means of which, all other things being
prepared, she ventured through the opening, and was carried down the
stream to the desired spot. The secret was kept. No one had the least
suspicion of this extraordinary voyage, nor was it discovered until many
years afterwards, when the monks observing that this particular one of
their number had not for a length of time been present at any of the
devotional exercises prescribed by the rules of their order, were
desirous of learning the cause of his absence. They entered his cell,
and found to their astonishment, his dead body, a lady, and four
children! The civil power was, at first, about to investigate the
affair, but, in order to avert the scandal that would result from such a
proceeding, all inquiry was suspended, and the fate of that unhappy woman
and her family was never known. The whole account seems romantic. The
facts appear incredible, but they have long been established on
unquestionable authority.

Like the Carthusians, the Hieronimites had their establishments far from
towns and cities. They were very wealthy, but did not cultivate their
own lands; they let them out on hire, and showed great consideration to
their tenants. These fathers devoted themselves, almost entirely, to
teaching, to singing, and to sacred music. From their halls have been
sent forth to the world many vocalists, organists, and composers, of
eminence. When Philip II. built the Escurial, he confided that sumptuous
edifice to the Hieronimites; and so high a position did the prior hold in
the hierarchy and in the state, that he was privileged to enter, at all
times, into the king's apartments without asking leave to do so, and his
coachman and other servants were permitted to wear the royal livery.

General opinion accuses these reverend fathers of too great a propensity
to indulge in gastronomy, and it is related of them that, in prescribing
for themselves, as a rule for their supper rations, one dozen of
mincemeat-balls (_abondigas_), they afterwards, by a supplementary rule,
extended that number to thirteen, from which circumstance the number
thirteen is generally called, in Spain, "_the friars' dozen_."

The inferior section of Monachism, viz., that of the Friars, is composed
of many orders, among which the most important and numerous were the
fo