CARTHUSIAN MONKS. Si 
sharply the displeasure which this conversation caused 
him ; there were even in his language some words which 
led the monk to suppose that M. Biot took him for a kind 
of spy. As soon as this suspicion had entered -his mind, 
he quitted us without saying a word, and the next morn- 
ing I saw him come up early, armed with a light gun. 
The French monk had preceded him, and had whispered 
in my ear the danger that threatened my companion. 
“Join with me,” he said, “to turn the young Aragonian 
monk from his murderous project.” I need scarcely say 
that 1 employed myself with ardour in this negotiation, 
in which I had the happiness to succeed. ‘There were 
here, as must be seen, the materials for a chief of gueril- 
leros. I should be much astonished if my young monk 
did not play his part in the war of independence. 
The anecdote which I am about to relate will amply 
prove that religion was, with the Carthusian monks of 
the Desierto de las Palmas, not the consequence of ele- 
vated sentiments, but a mere compound of superstitious 
practices. 
The scene with the gun, always present to my mind, 
seemed to make it clear to me that the Aragon monk, if 
actuated by his passions, would be capable of the most 
criminal actions. Hence, I had a very disagreeable im- 
pression when one Sunday, having come down to hear 
mass, I met this monk, who, without saying a word, con- 
ducted me by a series of dark corridors into a chapel 
where the daylight penetrated only by a very small 
window. There I found Father Trivulce, who prepared 
himself to say mass for me alone. The young monk as- 
sisted. All at once, an instant before the consecration, 
Father Trivulce, turning towards me, said these exact 
words: “We have permission to say mass with white 
