1808.] Fanaticism : 
eertain what had befallen me. I tried 
to walk as well as my feeble limbs would 
enable me, and I soon perceived that I 
was not far from my native city. Its 
walls and venerable castle were in sight, 
and its cathedral, deprived indeed of a 
beautiful and stately spire which used to 
form its chief ornament, but otherwise 
just as I ever remembered it, furmed a 
conspicuous feature in the landscape. 
The surrounding country lay for the most 
part waste and desolate. ‘The fences 
were broken down, the fields overrun 
with briars, and the roads scarcely pas- 
sable. I hastened towards the town, 
and traversed some of its well-known 
streets as fast as the ruinous state of their 
pavement, never very good, would suffer 
me. I began to feel the cravings of hun- 
ger, nor did my squalid aspect and tat- 
tered garments seem at all to excite at- 
tention, for the few human beings whom 
I met were as abject in their appearance 
as myself. Presently a crowa advanced. 
In the front walked a man carrying a lit- 
tle tinkling bell, as in catholic countries, 
and a procession followed him, in the 
midst of which was borne something like 
a very dirty and ragged shirt. On the 
approach of this curious spectacle, all 
who happened to be in the street fell on 
their knees, with great marks of either 
devotion or fear; and not without reason, 
for the procession was attended by men 
and women, like maniacs, who brandish- 
ed iron maces and scourges, with which 
they dealt very severe. blows around 
them, on all who were remiss in their 
prostrations. Some, indeed, were felled 
to the ground by these monsters, in 
whom I perceived no cause of offence. 
Jt is needless to observe, that I took care 
to be one of the first to prostrate myself 
in the dirt, and this action, with the sur- 
prize and dread impressed on my mind, 
had such an effect on my feeble frame, 
that I fell senseless, half suffocated in the 
mud. When I recovered, I found my- 
self in the hands of many persons, chafing 
my temples, and administering cordials, 
and | heard confused cries of *¢ A’ mar- 
tyr!” A saint!” Money was show- 
ered upon me, chiefly of copper or base 
metal, and at length, finding my strength 
_ recruited, I returned my thanks in the 
“best manner I could, and was allowed 
- to go about my business. 
¢ sought In vain for any face that 
liar to me, or any house that I 
Ycourage to enter. The best 
own were ailin ruins, Many 
ined, and among thei 
No. 168. 
a Weston. 129 
one which I recognized. I enquired of a 
passenger “ whether that was not St. 
Saviour’s church?” ‘“ St. Seamless, you | 
mean,” answered the man, with a look 
of contempt and rancour, that made me 
by no means inclined to say another 
word. His behaviour and his answer 
were riddles which I dreaded, yet wish- 
ed, to have explained. Faint and 
weary, 1 was obliged to take some re- 
freshment of the coarsest kind at one of 
the filthiest hovels imaginable; but it had 
once been an excellent inn, and I knew 
not where to seek for better fare. Du- 
ring my wretched meal, I carefully avoid- 
ed all questions, and indeed every kind 
of conversation. (While I was silent, 
every one seemed too much occupied: 
with their own misery to wonder at mine. 
Many people were engaged in certain 
strange gesticulations, frequently drawing 
rags from their pockets, which I took for 
pocket-handkerchiefs, till I found the 
owners, instead of making the proper 
use of them, were kissing them, and 
mumbling some exclamations of ‘ Glory, 
and honour, and strength, and everlast- 
ing seamless garments,” with other words 
that I could not understand, 
Dejected and bewildered, I wandered 
along towards my former habitation; but 
passing near the cathedral, and finding it 
was prayer time, I sought to soothe my 
mind with devotional exercises. For-' 
mer associations revived in my breast, 
and the dreadful solitude I experienced, 
seemed about to be converted into the 
mest interesting of all sociability. But 
how great was my surprize, as I entered 
the sacred edifice, to hear the noise of 
looms resounding through its ailes and 
cloisters, and to find all the spaccs be- 
tween its venerable pillars occupied b 
oue or more of those machinés! These, 
however, were not all at work; and such 
as were, appeared to be of little use, 
Rags aud tatters hung about them, and 
no regular web was to be seen through- 
out the whoie. Fearful of making any 
enquiries, | hastened to the choir. The ~ 
service was begun; the strains of the 
organ drowned the clatter of the looms, 
and for a while the sublime and solema 
prayers, familiar to my recollection, and 
dear to my memory, effaced all painful 
sensation, and my oppressed heart re- 
lieved itself in a shower of tears. But 
how was I astonished and shocked to 
hear mingled with these well-known 
prayers, and with the most solemn invo- 
cations of God and the Saviour of man- 
kind, strange exclamations of “ blessed 
be 
~th 
