ALC0BA9A. 89 



fitted up as prisons, to which, amon<>;st eight or nine com- 

 moner felons, several noblemen have just l)een consigned, 

 to await their trial for the foul murder of a rich baron, 

 whose possessions were the envy of the assassins ; and 

 foremost among these was the brother of the murdered 

 man. A strong guard of soldiers encompassed this prison 

 day and night, and beneath its windows, looking towards 

 the street, a double guard was always patrolling, as from 

 the rank and position of the prisoners awaiting their trial 

 an attempt at rescue was apprehended. 



Certain other portions of the building are more worthily 

 employed in preserving the mimicipal archives and docu- 

 ments connected with the province ; but otherwise the 

 great monastery is deserted and empty, — a noble house 

 without a tenant, a promising shell without a kernel, a 

 fair rind without but rottenness and decay within, a 

 magnificent casket with no contents, — a glorious shrine, 

 but unoccupied, hollow and barren. 



