At length the creaking hinges of the door were heard again, and, with an injunction to be sparing of speech, we were bidden to follow the animated shadow which flitted in the owl-light before us, through various winding passages.  Had I been alone, and had that crime which has lately so shocked humanity been then in existence, I think I should have “pulled in resolution,” and told the miserable cicerone that I would call another time.  But, as companionship imparts courage, on we went, filled with vivid recollections of Mrs. Radcliffe’s romances, accompanied with an urgent curiosity also to see, for the first time, living monks and a real monastery.  One of the former passed us in our way, clothed in the dingy habit of his order fastened round the waist with a twisted cord.  He bowed as he passed; and we were told, in a whisper, that he was recently arrived; and from not associating with the rest of the brethren, and having a separate apartment, he was supposed to be a man of rank, known only to the superior, and concerning whom conjecture was rife, but no inquiry permitted.  What this recluse really was my story will hereafter disclose.

The general furniture of the convent appeared to be neat and clean, but of coarse materials and rude construction, while its scantiness evinced either the penury of the institution, or the denial which formed part of the monastic discipline peculiar to the order of La Trappe.  There might be a third explanation of the ill-lighted bareness of the walls and floors, together with the general aspect of privation and devotion, an explanation which occurred to us subsequently—­there might have been studied effect and deception in their display before visiters.

We entered the refectory and the dormitory, neither of which bore any sign of luxury, nor even of ordinary comfort.  The needful repose of man seemed scarcely provided for in the one, nor the “creature comforts” in the other.  Meat was forbidden, except when prescribed for the health of the inmates.  Vegetable broth, bread, and water, formed, we were told, the chief resources of the culinary department of the convent; and, in the very act of enjoying these, around the disconsolate-looking table, the superior was accustomed to remind the brotherhood occasionally during the repast not to indulge the appetite for food, so as to divert their thoughts for an instant from heaven.  This spiritual memento was introduced by the rap of a stout oaken-stick upon the table; when instantly, every hand raised to the mouth was arrested and held still where it was, until a second rap permitted it to proceed in its carnal office, the interval being employed in silent ejaculation to the Deity, or perhaps, with some, in “curses not loud but deep” against the inexorable superior, who so compelled them to mortify a not unnatural desire.

In the dormitory a similar mortification nightly awaited the unconscious sleepers, although “upon uneasy pallets stretching them,” in the occasional tinkling of an obtrusive bell, that peremptorily hurried them from their recumbent position to the cold stones of the chapel, where on bended knees they were obliged to pray and meditate.