650 



Mttddme de Stall's Ten Years* Exile. 



may spfeak to strangers. " What do 

 yon want?" said she to me, in a %'oice 

 without modnlalion, as we might sup- 

 pose that of a ghost. " I should wish to 

 see the interior of your convent." — 

 " That is impossible.'' — " But T am very 

 wet, and want to dry myself." — She 

 immediately tonched a spring which 

 opened tlie door of an outer apartment, 

 in which I was allowed to rest myself, 

 but no living creature appeared. I had 

 hardly been seated a few minutes, when 

 becoming impatient at being unable to 

 penetrate into the interior of the house, 

 I rung again ; the same person again 

 appeared, and I asked her if no females 

 were ever admitted into the convent; 

 she answered that it was only in cases 

 when any one had the intention of be- 

 coming a nun. " But," said I to her, 

 ** how can I know if I wish to remain 

 in your house, if I am not permitteil 

 to examine it ?"— " Oh, that is q\iite 

 useless," replied she, "' I am veiy sure 

 that you have no vocation for our state," 

 and with these words immediately shut 

 her wicket. I know not by what signs 

 this nun had satisfied herself of my 

 worldly dispositions; it is possible that 

 a quick manner of speaking, so differ- 

 ent from theirs, is sufficient to make 

 them distinguish travellers who are 

 merely curious. The hour of vespers 

 approaching, I could go into the church 

 to hear the nuns sing; they were be- 

 hind a black close grating, through 

 which nothing could be seen. You only 

 heard the noise of their wooden shoes, 

 and of the wooden benches as they 

 raised them to sit down. Their singing 

 had nothing of sensibility in it, and I 

 tliought I could remark both by their 

 manner of praying, and in the conver- 

 sation which I had afterwards with tlie 

 father Trappist, who directexl them, 

 that it was not religious enthusiasm, 

 such as we conceive it, but severe and 

 grave habits which could support such 

 a kind of life. The tenderness of piety 

 would even exhaust the strength ; a sort 

 of ruggedness of soul is necessary to so 

 rude an existence. 



' The new Father Abbe of the Trap- 

 jblsts, settled in the vallies of the 

 Canton of Fril)ourg, has added to the 

 austerities of the order. One can have 

 no idea of the minute degrees of suffer- 

 ing imposed upon the monks ; they go 

 so fai- as even to forbid them, when 

 they have been standing for some hours 

 in succession, from leaning against the 

 ■\3^1, or wiping the perspiration from 



their forehead ; in short every tnomcnfc 

 of their life is tillefl with snffering, aa 

 the people of the world fill theirs with 

 enjoyment. They rarely live to be old, 

 and those to whom this lot falls, regard 

 it as a punishment from heaven. Such 

 an establishment would be barbarous 

 if any one was compelled to enter it, or 

 if there was the least concealment of 

 what they suffer there. But on the 

 contrary, they distribute to whoever 

 wishes to read it, a printed statement, 

 in which the rigours of the order are 

 rather exaggerated than softened ; and 

 yet there are novices who are willing 

 to take the vow.", and those who arc 

 received never ruu away, althongh 

 they might do it without thele^ast diffi- 

 culty. The whole rests, as it apjiears 

 to me, upon the powerful idea of death; 

 the institutions and amusements of 

 society are destined in the world to turn 

 our thoughts entirely upon life: but 

 when the contemplation of death gets 

 a certain hold of the human heart, 

 joined to a firm belief in the immor* 

 tality of the soul, tliere are no bounds 

 to the disgust which it may take to 

 every thing which forms a subject of 

 interest in the world : and a state of 

 suffering appearing the road to a future 

 life, such minds follow it with avidity, 

 like the traveller, who willingly fa- 

 tigues himself, in order to get sooner 

 over the road which leads him to the 

 object of his wishes. But what equally 

 astonished and grieved me, was to see 

 children brought up with this severity: 

 their poor locks shavetl off, their young 

 countenances already furrowed, that 

 deathly dress with which they were 

 covered before they knew any thing of 

 life, before they had voluntarily re- 

 nounced it, all this made my soul re- 

 volt against the parents who hail placed 

 them there. When sucb a slate is not 

 the adoption of a free and determined 

 choice on the part of the person who 

 professes it, it inspires as much horror 

 as it at first created respect. The monk 

 with whom T conversed, spoke of no- 

 thing but death; all his ideas came 

 from that subject, or connected them- 

 selves with it; death is the sovereign 

 monarch of this residence. As we 

 talked of the temptations of the world, 

 1 expressed to the father Trappist my 

 admiration of his conduct in thus sa- 

 crificing all, to withdraw himself fi-om 

 their influence. " We are cowards," 

 ■said he to me, " who have retired into 

 a fortress, because we feel we want the 

 courage 



