96 WANDERINGS IN 



SECOND j.jjg J. QO J these sappers of every public and private 

 virtue wanted. He had the naked sword of power 

 in his own hand, and his heart was hard as flint. 

 He struck a mortal blow, and the Society of 

 Jesus, throughout the Portuguese dominions, was 

 no more. 



One morning all the fathers of the college in 

 Pernambuco, some of them very old and feeble, 

 were suddenly ordered into the refectory. They 

 had notice beforehand of the fatal storm, in pity 

 from the governor, but not one of them abandoned 

 his charge. They had done their duty, and had 

 nothing to fear. They bowed with resignation 

 to the will of heaven. As soon as they had all 

 reached the refectory, they were there locked up, 

 and never more did they see their rooms, their 

 friends, their scholars, or acquaintance. In the 

 dead of the following night, a strong guard of 

 soldiers literally drove them through the streets 

 to the water's edge. They were then conveyed 

 in boats aboard a ship, and steered for Bahia. 

 Those who survived the barbarous treatment they 

 experienced from Pombal's creatures, were at last 

 ordered to Lisbon. The college of Pernambuco 

 was plundered, and some time after an elephant 

 was kept there. 



Thus the arbitrary hand of power, in one night, 

 smote and swept away the sciences; to which 

 succeeded the low vulgar buffoonery of a show- 

 man. Virgil and Cicero made way for a wild 



