30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 
I have mentioned in the course of my narrative that 
two Carthusians often left their convent in the Deszerto 
de las Palmas, and came, though prohibited, to see me at 
my station, situated about two hundred metres higher. 
A few particulars will give an idea of what certain monks 
were, in the Peninsula, in 1807. 
One of them, Father Trivulce, was old; the other was 
very young. The former, of French origin, had played 
a part at Marseilles, in the counter-revolutionary events 
of which this town was the theatre, at the commence- 
ment of our first revolution. His part had been a very 
active one; one might see the proof of this in the scars 
of sabre cuts which furrowed his breast. It was he who 
was the first to come. When he saw his young comrade 
march up, he hid himself; but as soon as the latter had 
fully entered into conversation with me, Father Trivulce 
showed himself all at once. His appearance had the 
effect of Medusa’s head. “ Reassure yourself,” said he 
to his young compeer; “only let us not denounce each 
other, for our prior is not a man to pardon us for having 
come here and infringed our vow of silence, and we 
should both receive a punishment, the recollection of 
which would long remain.” ‘The treaty was at once 
concluded, and from that day forward the two Carthu- 
sians came very often to converse with me. 
The youngest of our two visitors was an Aragonian, 
his family had made him a monk against his will. He 
related to me one day, before M. Biot, (then returned 
from Tarragon, where he had taken refuge to get cured 
of his fever,) some particulars which, according to him, 
proved that in Spain there was no longer more than the 
ghost of religion. ‘These details were mostly borrowed 
from the secrets of confession. M. Biot manifested 
