32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 
wine ; we therefore make use of that which we gather 
from our own vines: this wine is very good. Ask the 
prior to let you taste it, when on leaving this you go to 
breakfast with him. For the rest, you can assure your- 
self this instant of the truth of what I say to you.” And 
he presented me the goblet to drink from. I resisted 
strongly, not only because I considered it indecent to 
give this invitation in the middle of the mass, but be- 
cause, besides, I must own I conceived the thought for 
a moment that the monks wished, by poisoning me, to 
revenge themselves on me for M. Biot having insulted 
them. I found that I was mistaken, that my suspicions 
had no foundation; for Father Trivulee went on with 
the interrupted mass, drank, and drank largely, of the 
white wine contained in one of the goblets. But when I 
had got out of the hands of the two monks, and was able 
to breathe the pure air of the country, I experienced a 
lively satisfaction. 
The right of asylum accorded to some churches was 
one of the most obnoxious privileges among those of 
which the revolution of 1789 rid France. In 1807, this 
right still existed in Spain, and belonged, I believe, to all 
the cathedrals. I learnt, during my stay at Barcelona, 
that there was, in a little cloister’contiguous to the largest 
church of the town, a brigand,—a man guilty of several 
assassinations, who lived quietly there, guaranteed against 
all pursuit by the sanctity of the place. I wished to as- 
sure myself with my own eyes of the reality of the fact, 
and I went with my friend Rodriguez into the little 
cloister in question. The assassin was then eating a 
meal which a woman had just brought him. He easily 
guessed the object of our visit, and made immediately 
such demonstrations as convinced us that, if the asylum 
