t, as all its other
materials had to be transported to the place it occupies on the backs of
mules, they are constructed chiefly of the ferruginous, hoary-looking
stones that were quarried from the native rock. The cells of the monks,
the long corridors, refectories for the different classes of travellers,
and suited to the numbers of the guests, as well as those for the canons
and their servants, and lodging rooms of different degrees of magnitude
and convenience, with a chapel of some antiquity and of proper size,
composed then, as now, the internal arrangements. There is no luxury, some
comfort in behalf of those in whom indulgence has become a habit, and much
of the frugal hospitality that is addressed to the personal wants and the
decencies of life. Beyond this, the building, the entertainment, and the
brotherhood, are marked by a severe monastic self-denial, which appears to
have received a character of barren and stern simplicity from the
unvarying nakedness of all that meets the eye in that region of frost and
sterility.

We shall not stop to say much of the little courtesies and the ceremonious
asseverations of mutual good-will and respect that passed between the
Bailiff of Vevey and the Prior of St. Bernard, on the occasion of their
present meeting. Peterchen was known to the brotherhood, and, though a
Protestant, and one too that did not forbear to deliver his jest or his
witticism against Rome and its flock at will, he was sufficiently well
esteemed. In all the quetes, or collections of the convent, the
well-meaning Bernois had really shown himself a man of bowels, and one
that was disposed to favor humanity, even while it helped the cause of his
arch enemy, the Pope. The clavier was always well received, not only in
his bailiwick but in his chateau, and in spite of numberless little
skirmishes on doctrine and practice, they always met with a welcome and
generally parted in peace. This feeling of amity and good-will extended to
the superior and to all the others of the holy community, for in addition
to a certain heartiness of character in the bailiff, there was mutual
interest to maintain it. At the period of which we write, the vast
possessions with which the monks of St. Bernard had formerly been endowed
were already much reduced by sequestrations in different countries, that
of Savoy in particular, and they were reduced then, as now, to seek
supplies to meet the constant demands of travellers in the liber