eligious duties, of which, according to the
regulations, they had accused themselves, and were in consequence
doomed to the above modes of penance.

The refectory was furnished with long wooden tables and benches; each
person was provided with a trencher, a jug of water, and a cup, having
on it the name of the brother to whom it is appropriated, as Frere
Paul, Frere Francois, &c. which name they assume on taking the vow.
Their supper consisted of bread soaked in water, a little salt, and
two raw carrots, placed by each; water alone is their beverage. The
dinner is varied with a little cabbage or other vegetables: they very
rarely have cheese, and never meat, fish, or eggs. The bread is of the
coarsest kind possible.

Their bed is a small truckle, boarded, with a single covering,
generally a blanket, no mattress nor pillow; and, as in the former
time, no fire is allowed but one in the great hall, which they never
approach.

Within these three years a small cabaret has been built near the
Convent for the accommodation of those who may occasionally visit it,
the buildings that remain being but barely sufficient for their own
members, which have been rapidly increasing since its restoration. In
this cabaret I took up my abode for the night, in preference to the
accommodation very kindly offered me by Frere Charle, and retired to
rest, wearied with the day's excursion, and fully satisfied, that all
I had heard, all I had imagined of La Trappe, was infinitely short of
the reality, and that no adequate description could be given of its
awful and dreary solitude;

Monsieur Elzear de Sabran, in a poem called Le Repentir, lately
published, describing this Monastery, says very justly;

Temoins d'une commune et secrete souffrance,
Ces freres de douleur, martyrs de l'esperance,
D'une lente torture epuisant les degres,
Constamment reunis, constamment separes,
L'un a l'autre etrangers, a cote l'un de l'autre,
Joignent tout ce malheur encore a tout le notre,
Jamais, dans ses pareils cherchant un tendre appui,
Un coeur ne s'ouvre aux coeurs qui souffrent comme lui.

The following morning the matin bell summoned me to the Convent,
and Frere Charle attended me to the burial ground; here have been
deposited the remains of two of the brothers, deceased since the
restoration of their order in 1814. Another grave was ready prepared;
as soon as an interment takes place, one being always opened for the
next that may di