BATALHA. 91 



fatigable copyists, as they were busily employed in repro- 

 ducing, with marvellous quickness and dexterity, an exact 

 facsimile of one of their precious manuscripts, or artisti- 

 cally painting in brilliant colours and gold the quaint 

 desiirn Avhich formed some initial letter. Anon we were 

 standing in the great church, admiring the reverence and 

 devotion of that large body of worshippers, all clad in the 

 same dark robes, all moving simultaneously as if actuated 

 by one impulse, all singing the responses in a chorus of 

 deep hoarse voices. Or again, we were passing through 

 the long corridors, no longer deserted, but well filled with 

 the sombre figures of the monks ; or we were partaking 

 of a frugal meal in the refectory, where all voices were 

 hushed save that of the reader, who was chanting out a 

 chapter of the Vulgate in a high key. And again, in my 

 dream I was visiting the kitchen, and beholding those 

 huge appliances for cooking which had so astonished us 

 the previous day, now in full use. And it was not only 

 for one single night that such visions of the good fathers 

 haunted my slumbers, but so impressed had I been with 

 this very spacious and very perfect monastery, and of such 

 absorbing interest were the habits and the daily life of its 

 occupants, vividly brought before my mind on the spot, 

 that for several days and nights, whether awake or dream- 

 ing, I could think of little else but the great abbey and 

 the monks as they were at their most flourishing period. 

 Indeed, there was something singularly touching and sad 

 in the recollection of their past grandeur, the undoubted 

 good they effected in their district, their noble aims and 

 intentions, and their present total abolition, wnile all their 

 vast buildings remain. Never before had I felt such a 

 sympathy for the brethren, and yet I had been their guest 

 on several occasions. I had often encountered them in 

 former years in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy : I had 

 become familiar with all the principal branches — grey. 



