PENANCE. 



213 



science than his knees to such discipline^ took 

 his own measures on the occasion. What these 

 were, the idle public took the liberty of guessing 

 broadly enough, but no one could say positively. 

 At the end of a week, however, it was announced, 

 that the case had undergone a careful re-examina^ 

 tion, and that it had been deemed proper to com- 

 mute the penance into one week's retirement from 

 the world : that is to say, Don N. was to shut 

 himself up in the Convent of La Cruz, there to 

 fast and pray in solitude and silence for seven 

 days. The manner in which this penance was 

 performed is an appropriate commentary on the 

 whole transaction. The penitent, aided and as- 

 sisted by two or three of the jovial friars of the con- 

 vent, passed the evening in discussing some capital 

 wine, sent out for the occasion by Don N. himself, 

 after eating a dinner, prepared by the cook of the 

 convent, the best in New Galicia. As for silence 

 and solitude, his romping boys and girls were with 

 him during all the morning ; besides a score of 

 visitors, who strolled daily out of town as far as 

 the convent, to keep up the poor man's spirits, by 

 relating all the gossip which was afloat about his 



