90 A SPEIXG TOUR IN PORTUGAL. 



CHAPTEK VIII. 



BATALHA. 



The bed-room which I occupied in the little humble esta- 

 lagem of Alcoba^a was not by any means over-luxurious. 

 It measured just seven feet by nine; it had no window 

 whatever, but a large square opening above the door 

 admitted such fresh air as the passage outside could com- 

 mand, but at mid-day it was perfectly dark. It was a 

 mere cupboard of a room, and would have been heartily 

 despised by the most self-denying monk in the monastery: 

 moreover, the bed never pretended to be more than a 

 mere mattrass of straw, and the pillow was a wisp of straw 

 in a calico covering, so that if I chanced to move ever so 

 little, the crackling beneath my head was quite startling 

 and even electrifying, from its novelty. However, it was 

 all beautifully clean, and, thanks to the jolting I had ex- 

 perienced through the previous night, I slept soundly till 

 daylight. Partly perhaps from the cell-like aspect of the 

 room, but doubtless much more from the examination of 

 the various parts of the monastery with which we had 

 been so much interested the previous day, I dreamt that 

 I was on a visit to the Abbot of Alcobapa and his thousand 

 monks, with whom I was peopling the monastery all night 

 long. Now we were wandering in the spacious gardens, 

 where the cowled and tonsured brethren were sauntering 

 two and two, according to the habit of their Order ; now 

 we were in the library, watching the labours of those inde- 



