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Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
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 Duke University Libraries 
 
 littp://www.archive.org/details/recollectionsofeOObeck 
 
RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 EXCURSION TO THE MONASTERIES 
 
 OF 
 
 ALCOBACA AND BATALHA. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, 
 
 Dorset Street, Fleet Street. 
 
M-j. P-jblished bv R. Benclo 
 

 u 1^ 
 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 EXCURSION TO THE MONASTERIES 
 
 ALCOBACA AND BATALHA. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " VATHEK. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
 
 ^ublijJljer in (»9iUinan) to ^.\i Plajcsiti). 
 
 1835. 
 
 / 
 


 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The other day, in examining some 
 papers, I met with very slight notes of 
 this Excursion. Flattering myself that, 
 perhaps, they might not be totally un- 
 worthy of expansion, I invoked the powers 
 of memory — and behold, up rose the 
 whole series of recollections I am now sub- 
 mitting to that indulgent Public, which has 
 shown more favour to my former sketches 
 than they merited. 
 
 London, 
 •O June 1835. 
 
 t 
 
 %- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FIRST DAY. 
 Supreme command given to two distinguished Prelates 
 to visit the Monasteries of Alcoba^a and Batalha, and a 
 royal wish expressed that the Author should accompany 
 them. — Preparations in high style for the Journey. — The 
 general Rendezvous. — Departure. — Nossa Senhora de Luz. 
 — Lumiares. — Domain of the Monks of St. Vincent. — Re- 
 ception there. ...... Page 1 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 A Morning Walk. — Boundless Orchards of Orange and 
 Apricot. — The River Trancao. — Magnificent Bay-tree, 
 — A Fishing-party. — Happy Inclosure. — An Afternoon 
 Ramble to the Palace of the Patriarch, and its immense 
 Parterre. — Musical contest between Frogs and Night- 
 ingales. ......... 12 
 
 THIRD DAY. 
 
 Curious Conversation with an Ex-missionary from China. 
 —Wonders of the Imperial Gardens. — Strange Belief of the 
 Emperor of China. . . . . . . .18 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 FOURTH DAY. 
 
 A first-rate Blessing. — The Duke d'Alafoens' Chateau. 
 — Tlie great Highway to the Caldas. — Extensive Fertility. 
 — Cadufaiz. — Boundless Vineyard. — Eggs of the Sun. — A 
 calm Retirement. — Peaceful State of Portugal compared to 
 other parts of the Continent. . . . Page 26 
 
 FIFTH DAY. 
 A Ramble over the Hills. — Beautiful Grotto. — Remi- 
 niscences of Gil Bias. — Journey resumed. — First Sight of 
 Alcoba^a. — Pompous Reception. — The Three Graces of 
 Holiness. — Gloomy Church. — Sepulchral Chapel of Pedro 
 the Just and Inez. — Interrupted Reveries. — Enormous 
 Kitchen. — Hospitable Preparations. — The Banquet Hall. — 
 The Banquet, — Tiresome Minuets. — Ineffectual Offer. — 
 Ceremonious " Good Nights." . . . . 31 
 
 SIXTH DAY. 
 
 Endless Corridors and a grim-looking Hall. — Portrait of 
 St. Thomas a Becket. — Ancient Cloister. — Venerable Orange- 
 trees. — Sepulchral Inscriptions. — The Refectory Solemn 
 
 Summons to Breakfast. — Sights. — Gorgeous Sacristy. — 
 Antiquities. — Precious Specimen of Early Art. — Hour of 
 Siesta. — A Noon-day Ramble. — Silence and Solitude. — 
 Mysterious Lane. — Irresistible Somnolency of my Conduc- 
 tor. — An unseen Songstress. — A Surprise. — Donna Fran- 
 cisca, her Mother and Confessor. — The World of Alco- 
 ba^a awakened, — Return to the Monastery. — Departure 
 
 for Batalha. — The Field of Aljubarota Solitary Vale. — 
 
 Reception at Batalha. — Enormous Supper. — Ecstasies of 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 an old Monk. — His sentimental Mishap. — Night Scene. — 
 Awful Denunciations Page 44 
 
 SEVENTH DAY. 
 Morning, — The Prior of Batalha. — His Account of the 
 Nocturnal Wanderer. — A Procession. — Grand Facade of 
 the Great Church. — The Nave. — Effect of the golden and 
 ruby light from the windows. — Singularly devout celebra- 
 tion of High Mass, — Mausoleum of John the First and 
 Philippa. — Royal Tombs. — The Royal Cloisters. — Perfect 
 Preservation of this regal Monastery. — Beautiful Chapter- 
 house. — Tombs of Alphonso the Fifth and his Grandson. 
 — Tide of Monks, Sacristans, Novices, &c. — Our Depart- 
 ure. — Wild Road. — Redoubled kindness of my Reception 
 by the Lord Abbot, and why. — Dr. Ehrhart's visit to 
 the Infirmary, and surgical raptures. — A half-crazed Poet 
 and his doleful tragedy. — Senhor Agostinho in the cha- 
 racter of Donna Inez de Castro. — Favouritism, and its 
 reward. ......... 74 
 
 EIGHTH DAY. 
 Too much of a good thing. — My longing for a Ramble. 
 
 — Sage resolves A Gallop. — Pure and elastic Atmo» 
 
 sphere. — Expansive Plain. — Banks of the River.— Majestic 
 Basilica of Batalha. — Ghost-like Anglers. — Retrospections. 
 — The Conventual Bells. — Conversation with the Prior. — 
 A frugal Collation. — Romantic Fancies. — The Dead Stork 
 and his Mourner. — Mausoleum of Don Emanuel. — Perverse 
 Architecture. — Departure from Batalha. — Twilight. — Re- 
 turn to Alcoba9a. . . . . . . .118 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 NINTH DAY. 
 
 Lamentations on our Departure, and on the loss of Mon- 
 sieur Simon. — Mysterious Conference. — A sullen Adieu. — 
 Liveliness of the Prior of St. Vincent's. — Pleasant Surprise. 
 — Vast and dreary Plain. — A consequential Equerry. — An 
 Invitation. — The Bird-Queen. — Fairy Landscape. — The 
 Mansion. — The great Lady's Nephews. — Reception by her 
 Excellency. — Her attendant Hags. — The great Lady's 
 questions about England and dismal ideas of London. — 
 The Cuckoo. — Imitations. — Dismay of her Sublime Lady- 
 ship and her Hags. — Our Departure from the bird-ridden 
 Dominions. — Cultivated Plain. — Happy Peasantry, and 
 their gratitude to the Monks of the Royal Convent. — 
 Their different feelings towards the great Lady. — Female 
 Peasants bearing Offerings to our Lady of Nazare. — Sea 
 
 View. — Pedraneira. — Banquet of Fish. — Endless Ravine 
 
 Alfagirao. — Arrival at the Caldas. — Sickly Population. — 
 Reception of Dr. Ehrhart. — His Visit to the Invalids, and 
 contempt of the Medical Treatment of the place. — A de- 
 termined Bore — His Disaster. . . . Page 141 
 
 TENTH DAY. 
 
 Knavish Provedore. — Leave the Caldas. — Obidos. — Abo- 
 riginal-looking hamlet. — Exquisite Atmosphere. — Pastoral 
 Hymns to St. Anthony. — Bonfires on the Eve of his Fes- 
 tival Reception at Cadafaiz — Delightful change. . 176 
 
 ELEVENTH DAY. 
 
 Excursion to a Franciscan Convent. — A Miracle — Coun- 
 try resembling Palestine. — Innumerable Assemblage of Pea- 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 sants. — Their sincere Devotion. — Sublime Sight. — Obser- 
 vations of the Prior of Aviz. — The Benediction. — Ancient 
 Portuguese Hymn. — Its grand effect on the present occa- 
 sion. — Perilous descent from the Mountain. — A Mandate 
 from the Prince. — Evening. — Music and a Morisco Dance. 
 
 Page 181 
 
 TWELFTH DAY. 
 
 Dreary expanse of Country between Cadafaiz and Que- 
 
 luz. — Arrival at the Palace. — Court Lumber. — Observations 
 
 of the Marquis of Anjeja relative to the Prince-Regent. — 
 
 Promised Audience of his Royal Highness. — Visit to the 
 
 forbidden Gardens Surprise of an African Gardener. — A 
 
 Pavilion. — Night-scene. — Preparations for a Fete. — The 
 Infanta's Nymph-like Attendants. — The young Marquis of 
 Marialva. — Interview with her Royal Highness. — A Race — 
 
 A Dance. — The Prince's Summons Conversation with 
 
 him. — Character of that Sovereign. — Baneful influence of 
 his despotic Consort. — Unhappy Aspirants to Court Benefits. 
 — Private Conference with the Marquis. — The Prince-Re- 
 gent's Afflictions. — His Vision. — Anjeja's urgent Request. — 
 Terrible Cries from the Queen. — Their effect on me. — My 
 Departure from the Palace. 196 
 
ALCOBACA AND BATALHA. 
 
 FIRST DAY. 
 
 Supreme command given to two distinguished Prelates to 
 visit the Monasteries of Alcoba^a and Batalha, and a 
 royal wish expressed that the Author should accompany 
 them. — Preparations in high style for the Journey. — 
 The general Rendezvous. — Departure. — Nossa Senhora 
 de Luz. — Lumiares. — Domain of the Monks of St. Vincent. 
 —Reception there. 
 
 3rd June, 1794. 
 
 The Prince Regent of Portugal, for rea- 
 sons with which I was never entirely ac- 
 quainted, took it into his royal head, one 
 fair morning, to desire I would pay a 
 visit to the monasteries of Alcoba^a and 
 Batalha, and to name my intimate and 
 particular friends, the Grand Prior of Aviz, 
 and the Prior of St. Vincent's, as my con- 
 
 B 
 
2 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 ductors and companions. Nothing could 
 be more gracious, and, in many respects, 
 more agreeable ; still, just at this mo- 
 ment, having what I thought much plea- 
 santer engagements nearer home, I cannot 
 pretend that I felt so much enchanted as 
 I ought to have been. 
 
 Upon communicating the supreme com- 
 mand to the tw^o prelates, they discovered 
 not the smallest token of surprise ; it 
 seemed they were fully prepared for it. 
 The Grand Prior observed that the v^^eather 
 was dreadfully hot, and the roads execra- 
 ble : the other prelate appeared more ani- 
 mated, and quite ready for the expedition. 
 I thought I detected in one corner of his 
 lively, intelligent eye, a sparkle of hope 
 that, when returned from his little cruise 
 of observation, the remarks it was likely 
 enough to inspire might lead to more inti- 
 mate conferences at Queluz, and bring 
 him into more frequent collision with 
 royalty. 
 
ALCOBApA. 3 
 
 As my right reverend companions had 
 arranged not to renounce one atom of their 
 habitual comforts and conveniences, and to 
 take vs^ith them their confidential acolytes 
 and secretaries, as w^ell as some of their 
 favourite quadrupeds, v^^e had in the train 
 of the latter-mentioned animals a rare 
 rabble of grooms, ferradors, and mule- 
 drivers. To these, my usual followers be- 
 ing added, we formed altogether a cara- 
 van w^hich, camels and dromedaries ex- 
 cepted, v^ould have cut no despicable 
 figure even on the route of Mecca or 
 Mesched-Ali ! 
 
 The rallying point, the general rendez- 
 vous for the whole of this heterogeneous 
 assemblage, was my quinta of San Jose, 
 commanding in full prospect the entrance 
 of the Tagus, crowded with vessels arriving 
 from every country under the heavens, 
 messengers of joy to some, of sorrow to 
 others, but all with expanded sails equally 
 brightening in the beams of the cheerful 
 
 B 2 
 
4 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 sun, and scudding along over the blue 
 sparkling waves with equal celerity. 
 
 " Here I am, my dear friend," said the 
 Grand Prior to me as I handed him out of 
 his brother the old Marquis of Marialva's 
 most sleepifying dormeuse, which had been 
 lent to him expressly for this tn/ing occa- 
 sion. " Behold me at last," (at last indeed, 
 this being the third put-off I had experi- 
 enced,) " ever delighted with your com- 
 pany, but not so much so with the expe- 
 dition we are going to undertake." 
 
 " I hope it will not turn out so unplea- 
 sant after all," was my answer : " for my 
 own part, I quite long to see Alcobapa." 
 
 " So do not I," rejoined the Grand Prior ; 
 " but let that pass. Is Ehrhart come ? 
 is Franchi ready ? Has the first secured 
 the medicine-chest he was in such an 
 agony about the other day, and the second 
 the piano-forte he swore he would break 
 to pieces unless it would get into better 
 tune ?" 
 
ALCOBACA. 5 
 
 " All safe — all waiting — and dinner too, 
 my dear Lord Prior ; and after that, let us 
 get off. No easy matter, by the bye, even 
 yet, some of the party being such adepts 
 at dawdling." 
 
 Why the Grand Prior should have dread- 
 ed the journey so much I really could not 
 imagine, every pains having been taken to 
 make it so easy and smooth. It was settled 
 he should loll in his dormeuse or in my, 
 chaise just as he best pleased, and look at 
 nothing calculated to excite the fatigue of 
 reflection ; topographical inquiries were to 
 be waived completely, and no questions 
 asked about who endowed such a church 
 or raised such a palace. We were to pro- 
 ceed, or rather creep along, by short and 
 facile stages ; stopping to dine, and sup, and 
 repose, as delectably as in the most com- 
 modious of homes. Everything that could 
 be thought of, or even dreamed of, for our 
 convenience or relaxation, was to be carried 
 in our train, and nothing left behind but 
 
6 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 Care and Sorrow ; two spectres, who, had 
 they dared to mount on our shoulders, 
 would have been driven off with a high 
 hand by the Prior of St. Vincent's, than 
 whom a more delightful companion never 
 existed since the days of those polished 
 and gifted canons and cardinals who form- 
 ed such a galaxy of talent and facetiousness 
 round Leo the Tenth. 
 
 We were absolutely roused from our re- 
 past, over which the Prior of St. Vincent's 
 gay animated conversation was throwing 
 its usual brilliance, by a racket and hub- 
 bub on the sea-shore that was perfectly 
 distracting. The space between my villa 
 and the sea was entirely blocked up, half 
 the population of Belem having poured 
 forth to witness our departure. The lub- 
 berly drivers of the baggage-carts were 
 fighting and squabbling amongst them- 
 selves for precedence. One of the most 
 lumbering of these ill-constructed vehicles, 
 laden with a large heavy marquee, had its 
 
ALCOBAfA. 7 
 
 hind wheels aheady well buffeted by the 
 waves. At length it moved off; and then 
 burst forth such vociferation and such 
 deafening shouts of "Long live the Prince!" 
 and " Long live the Marialvas, and all their 
 friends into the bargain !" — the English- 
 man of course included — as I expected, 
 would have fixed a headache for life upon 
 the unhappy Grand Prior. 
 
 Amongst other noises which gave him 
 no small annoyance, might be reckoned 
 the outrageous snortings and neighings of 
 both his favourite high-pampered chaise- 
 horses, out of compliment to one of my 
 delicate English mares, who was trying to 
 get through the crowd with a most en- 
 gaging air of sentimental retiring modesty. 
 
 Half laughing and half angry lest some 
 unfortunate kick or plunge might deprive 
 me of her agreeable services, I refrained 
 not from crying out to the Grand Prior, 
 " For pity's sake, let us dawdle and doodle 
 no longer, but drive through this mob if 
 
8 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 it be possible. You see what a disturbance 
 the glorious fuss which has been making 
 about this journey has occasioned ; you 
 see the result of a surfeit of superfluities : 
 really, if we had been setting forth to ex- 
 plore the kingdom of Prester John, or the 
 identical spot where Don Sebastian left 
 his bones, (if true it be that the shores of 
 Africa, and not some pet dungeon of King 
 Philip's, received them,) we could scarcely 
 have gotten together a grander array of 
 incumbrances. At this rate, we shall have 
 occasion to put our tent in requisition this 
 very night, unless we defer our journey 
 again, and sleep under my roof at San 
 Jose." 
 
 " No, no," said the Prior of St. Vincent's ; 
 "we shall sleep at my convent's pleasant 
 quinta of Tojal. I shall set oiFwith my 
 people immediately to prepare for your 
 reception." 
 
 The deed followed the word : his at- 
 tendant muleteers cracked their whips in 
 
ALCOBA^A. 9 
 
 the most imposing style — his ferradors 
 pushed on — the crowd divided — a passage 
 was cleared ; the Grand Prior, ordering his 
 dormeuse to follow, got into my enormous 
 travelling chaise, and by the efforts of six 
 stout mules we soon reached Bemfica. 
 
 Beyond this village, a shady lane over- 
 hung by elms brought us to Nossa Sen- 
 hora de Luz ; a large pile of buildings in 
 the majestic style which prevailed during 
 the Spanish domination in Portugal, but 
 much shattered by the earthquake. From 
 hence we passed on to Lumiares, through 
 intricate paved roads bordered by aloes, 
 sprouting up to the height of ten or twelve 
 feet, in shape and colour not unlike gigan- 
 tic asparagus. 
 
 Lumiares contains a quinta belonging 
 to the Marquess of Anjeja, upon which 
 immense sums have been lavished for the 
 wise purpose of pebbling alleys in quaint 
 mosaic patterns, red, black, and blue ; 
 building colossal reservoirs for gold and 
 
10 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 silver fish, painting their smooth plastered 
 sides with divers flaming colours, and cut- 
 ting a steep hill into a succession of stiff 
 terraces, under the sole pretext, one should 
 think, of establishing flights of awkward 
 narrow marble steps to communicate one 
 with the other, for they did not appear to 
 lead to any other part of the garden. 
 
 The road from Lumiares to Loures is 
 conducted along a valley, between sloping 
 acclivities variegated by fields of grain and 
 wild shrubby pastures. The soft air of the 
 evening was delightful ; and the lowing of 
 herds descending from the hills to slake 
 their thirst after a sultry day, at springs 
 and fountains, full of pastoral charm. 
 
 It grew dark when we passed the village 
 of Toja], and crossing a bridge over the 
 river Trancao, entered the woody domain 
 of the monks of St. Vincent. Lights 
 glimmering at the extremity of an avenue 
 of orange-trees directed us to the house, a 
 low picturesque building, half villa, half 
 
ALCOBAfA. 11 
 
 hermitage. Our reception was so truly 
 exhilarating, so perfectly all in point of 
 comfort and luxury that the heart of man 
 or even churchman could desire, that we 
 willingly promised to pass the whole of 
 tomorrow in this cheerful residence, and 
 defer our further progress till the day 
 following. 
 
12 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 A Morning Walk. — Boundless Orchards of Orange and 
 Apricot. — The River Trancao. — Magnificent Bay-tree. 
 — A Fishing-party. — Happy Inclosure. — An Afternoon 
 Ramble to the Palace of the Patriarch, and its immense 
 Parterre. — Musical contest between Frogs and Night- 
 ingales. 
 
 4th June. 
 
 The sunbeams entering my windows 
 summoned me to enjoy the fresh morn- 
 ing breeze blowing over the uninterrupt- 
 ed mass of foliage which fills up the whole 
 valley belonging to the convent. 
 
 After breakfast we walked amongst well - 
 cultivated vegetables, fields of Indian 
 wheat as healthy and vigorous as any 
 that ever flourished in the islands which 
 float about like rafts on the Lake of 
 
ALCOBA^A. 13 
 
 Mexico, and the most extensive orchards 
 of orange, apricots, and other fruit trees, 
 perhaps in Portugal. Every inch of 
 ground within this enclosure is turned 
 to the most advantageous account : the 
 oranges alone produce from seven to eight 
 thousand cruzados a year. A very active 
 lay-brother has the management of this 
 fortunate spot, and is continually extend- 
 ing its limits over the bare hills in the 
 neighbourhood, many of which are com- 
 prised within the domain of the fathers. 
 
 The river Trancao, which runs through 
 the garden, is diminished to a brook at 
 this season ; but that brook is clear, and 
 flows rapidly. Its rocky edges, worn into 
 irregular shapes by winter torrents, bloom 
 with the rose-coloured flowers of the 
 oleander. Their appearance was strik- 
 ingly beautiful — many of these shrubs 
 had attained the height of fifteen or six- 
 teen feet. 
 
 But one of the grandest objects of the 
 
14 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 vegetable world which ever met my sight 
 is a bay-tree, situated in the thickest part 
 of the orange orchards, above which it 
 towers majestically, clothed with luxu- 
 riant boughs that glisten with health and 
 vigour. It consists of about thirty stems, 
 none less than two feet, and some thirty- 
 eight inches in diameter, springing from 
 one root, and rising to the height of sixty- 
 four feet. I loitered away the sultry 
 hours of mid-day most pleasantly under 
 its deep, fragrant shade. 
 
 The Prior had ordered a fishing-party 
 for our amusement ; — no great amusement, 
 however, for one who detests the sight of 
 wretched animals, inveigled from their 
 cool aquatic homes, and cast on a dry 
 bank, gasping for life and distending their 
 jaws in torment. Full often have I fan- 
 cied what woful grimaces we children of 
 Adam would be compelled to make, should 
 ever the colossal inhabitants of a superior 
 planet be permitted on some dread day of 
 
ALCOBAf A. 1 5 
 
 retribution to drop down on the earth on 
 an angling tour, and fish us out of our 
 element for their dinner or recreation. No 
 want of sport need be apprehended in this 
 case — plenty would bite. Men have in 
 general such wide-open appetites for the 
 objects of their individual pursuit, that, 
 only render the bait sufficiently tempting, 
 and I promise they swallow it, hook and all. 
 So few set any bounds to their voracious- 
 ness, that a shark might be chosen pre- 
 sident of a temperance society with equal 
 justice. Courtesy obliged both the Grand 
 Prior and Doctor Ehrhart, as well as my- 
 self, to remain much longer than we wished 
 on the banks of the river, witnessing the 
 joy of the anglers, and the struggles of 
 the expiring fish. 
 
 About two, we returned home, through 
 shady alleys of curious citron-trees, col- 
 lected from every part of the Portuguese 
 dominions on tliis and on the other side 
 of the ocean, divided by tall canes mantled 
 
IG AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 with vines, which promise, like every plant 
 in this happy enclosure, an abundant pro- 
 duce. The nightingales were singing in 
 the recesses of woods impenetrable to the 
 sun, and at the same time, I am sorry to 
 add, frogs were croaking a deep thorough- 
 bass to this enchanting melody. 
 
 We dined late for the sake of devouring 
 the produce of our fishery, prepared by 
 the fishermen themselves — a sort of ma- 
 telotte, which my famous Simon, the 
 most incomparable of cooks, declared, 
 with a smile of ineffable contempt, was 
 only fit to be placed before persons dying 
 with hunger and cast away on some deso- 
 late island. 
 
 In the cool of the evening we drove 
 through the village of Tojal to a palace 
 of the Patriarch, containing nothing very 
 remarkable, except a vestibule with a tri- 
 bune looking into a church. The walls 
 of this gallery are lined with the richest 
 marbles of Spain and Portugal, disposed 
 
ALCOBACA. 17 
 
 in panels, and ornamented with an over- 
 whelming profusion of doubly and trebly 
 gilt bronze ornaments, in that style of 
 lavish expenditure carried to such tri- 
 umphant excess by that most magnificent 
 of modern Solomons, King John the Fifth. 
 After seeing ourselves reflected on all 
 sides in tablets innumerable, polished like 
 mirrors, we repaired to an immense par- 
 terre — the flattest, the richest in red and 
 yellow flowers, and the most like a Turkey 
 carpet, of any I ever had the vexation of 
 visiting either in Holland or Germany. I 
 was glad to escape from this far-spread 
 expanse of pomposity and dulness, and 
 return to the simple orange thickets of my 
 amiable friend, where I walked till almost 
 midnight, listening to the nightingales, 
 who at length had shamed the frogs to 
 silence. 
 
18 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 THIRD DAY. 
 
 Curious Conversation with an Ex-missionary from China." — 
 Wonders of the Imperial Gardens. — Strange Belief of the 
 Emperor of China. 
 
 5th June. 
 
 The first sounds I heard upon awak- 
 ening this superiorly fine and glowing 
 morning, was not " the charm of early 
 birds," but the obstreperous rattle of a 
 violent altercation, or, in simple truth, 
 a downright squabble which broke out, in 
 the vestibule adjoining my room, between 
 the Grand Prior's secretary and a confi- 
 dential attendant of my good friend of St. 
 Vincent's. 
 
 " You know," said the first-mentioned 
 
ALCOBACA. 19 
 
 shrill-voiced consequential personage, " my 
 master is too lazy to stir from his shady 
 quarters whilst the sun shines out in so 
 fierce a manner." 
 
 " You know," answered the other, " that 
 we have business of urgency at Alcoba^a, 
 and the Prince Regent's command to per- 
 form it with the less delay the better." 
 
 " You do not pretend," rejoined the se- 
 cretary, " do you, to force on his excellency 
 whether he will or not ?" 
 
 " What, does he mean to loiter the whole 
 day in our garden of Eden ? Shall we not 
 advance as far as Cadafaiz in the cool of 
 the evening ?" 
 
 " Not we : his excellency has made up 
 his mind to take his fill of repose, and I am 
 not the man to contradict him." 
 
 " Then you are a rebellious fool for your 
 pains, and have forgotten his royal high- 
 ness's express orders. — Go on drinking the 
 waters of Lethe if you dare." 
 
 c 2 
 
20 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 " Va beber," &c. -" Go, drink the filthi- 
 est puddle in these orchards," rejoined 
 the waspish and irritated secretary. 
 
 Tingle, tingle, tingle, went the Grand 
 Prior's silver bell ; off ran the disputants, 
 and out came I into the vast echoing vesti- 
 bule, opening, by as many glazed doors as 
 there are days in a month, into the orange 
 orchards. 
 
 If ever a decent excuse could be offered 
 for perfect laziness, it was to be found in 
 the warm, enervating atmosphere, loaded 
 with perfume, which universally invested 
 this pleasant umbrageous region. No 
 wonder my Lord of A viz, the most consum- 
 mate professor of" il dolce far niente" in all 
 Portugal, and Algarve to boot, could not 
 be withdrawn from it without infinite re- 
 luctance. He could hardly even be per- 
 suaded to traverse a short avenue which 
 led to a summer pavilion on the banks of 
 the river, where our morning collation was 
 prepared. The Prior of St. Vincent's had a 
 
ALCOBA^A. 21 
 
 sort of romantic scheme of having our re- 
 past spread out on a little remnant of green- 
 sward which the heats had spared, and 
 sitting down to it in the Oriental style ; 
 but his illustrious colleague gently inti- 
 mated a preference to chairs and tables. 
 
 In addition to our usual party I found 
 a certain padre, Machado, or Azevedo, or 
 some such name, who had not been long 
 returned from China — nay, from Pekin it- 
 self. During his residence at Macao, he 
 had learnt sufficient English from one of 
 the padres of our Canton factory — the 
 chaplain, I suppose — to read Sir William 
 Chambers' most florid essay on Chinese 
 gardening. I asked him how many words 
 of truth there might happen to be in all 
 this luxuriant description ? He answered, 
 not in plain English, but in a most delect- 
 able jargon, half Chinese sing-song, half 
 lingua franca — " There be ten-tousand- 
 time-ten -tousand." 
 
 " You don't mean to assure me," said I, 
 
22 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 that our famous architect's most wonder- 
 ful account of the magical splendour of 
 Yven-ming-Yven and Tchang-tchung-Yven 
 is not exaggerated ?" 
 
 " It is not, '' answered the padre in 
 sound Portuguese, having quitted the 
 straits and shallows of very scanty En- 
 glish for the full flow of his vernacular 
 language : — " I have seen greater wonders 
 than he — I have seen in the depth of 
 winter a whole extent of garden warmed 
 by a deliciously mild and scented vapour, 
 and all the trees covered with silken leaves 
 and artificial flowers, and, on a pool of 
 water, as clear and transparent as the sky 
 it reflected, hundreds of gaily-enamelled 
 ducks, formed of metal, swimming by 
 mechanism, and by mechanism opening 
 all their bills and uttering their accus- 
 tomed sound with their usual volubility, 
 and swallowing the food the eunuchs 
 of the palace cast to them, — ay, and re.- 
 
ALCOBAfA. 23 
 
 turning it again, to all appearance most 
 happily digested, the emperor standing by 
 all the while, laughing at my surprise, and 
 believing himself neither more nor less, 
 I am entirely convinced, than an incar- 
 nation of the god Fo !" 
 
 " Dreadful !" exclaimed the Grand Prior: 
 " I wonder he has not shared the fate of 
 Nebuchadnezzar !" 
 
 " He should have been sent to grass 
 at once," observed the Prior of St. Vin- 
 cent's. 
 
 " That would have been a pity," rejoined 
 the ex-missionary ; " for, notwithsj^anding 
 his Tartarian nonsense about incarnations 
 and such like, and the impossibility I 
 experienced of making him comprehend 
 our own ineffable mysteries, I must de- 
 clare him to be a wise monarch and an 
 excellent man." 
 
 " That is more difficult to believe than 
 all you have told us," observed the Grand 
 
24 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 Prior, " when we reflect upon the horrid 
 impiety of believing one's self Fo." 
 
 " There is no lie in the world people will 
 not believe," replied the missionary, " pro- 
 vided they are often told it by flatterers 
 in whom, for the very reason they ought 
 not, they take delight in placing confi- 
 dence ; and when all the princes of the 
 blood, all the courtiers, and all the man- 
 darins of the different tribunals, are con- 
 tinually pouring forth addresses at the 
 foot of the throne, assuring his imperial 
 majesty Kien-Long, that he is the son of 
 heaven, a god upon earth ! what would 
 you have him do ?" 
 
 " Go to the devil his own way, as there is 
 no other remedy," said our hospitable host 
 with a hearty laugh. " We are to conclude, 
 no doubt, you did your best to bring him 
 round : perhaps you may succeed better 
 another time." — (The padre was on the eve 
 of returning to his mission.) — " And now 
 let us go to mass," continued the Prior, 
 
ALCOBA^A. 25 
 
 bowing to his excellency of Aviz, " and 
 pray for the emperor's conversion !" 
 
 So to mass they went, and then a-fish- 
 ing ; an d the evening of this day was like 
 the morning — . all warmth, and chat, and 
 idleness. 
 
26 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 FOURTH DAY. 
 
 A first-rate Blessing. — The Duke d'Alafoens' Chateau. — 
 The great Highway to the Caldas. — Extensive Fertility. 
 — Cadafaiz. — Boundless Vineyard. — Eggs of the Sun. — 
 A calm Retirement. — Peaceful State of Portugal com- 
 pared to other parts of the Continent. 
 
 6th June. 
 
 At length it pleased heaven to inspire 
 the Grand Prior with sufficient resolution 
 to proceed ; the last dregs of excuses for 
 loitering being exhausted. The air had 
 become much cooler ; and the sun being 
 overcast, we experienced a first-rate bless- 
 ing — that of travelling under a canopy of 
 clouds, which had the kindness not to dis- 
 perse till we passed Al Priate, a chateau 
 belonging to the Duke d'Alafoens. 
 
 This sumptuous abode, with pompous 
 
ALCOBA^A. 27 
 
 high roofs, and courts, and avenues, as 
 Frenchified as their illustrious master, is 
 placed in a valley which w^ould have been 
 pleasant enough had any other trees ex- 
 cept the pale leaden-coloured olive hap- 
 pened to predominate. 
 
 After jolting along in rather a convul- 
 sive manner for about a league, and receiv- 
 ing many a pinch from my alarmed and 
 nervous companion, we emerged from a 
 chaos of ruts and sandbanks into the great 
 highway v^^hich leads to the Caldas through 
 Alhandra, Povos, and Villa Franca. 
 
 All these places, not unpleasantly situ- 
 ated on the banks of the Tagus, have 
 quintas, palaces, and fidalgos, as well as 
 their betters ; but the country which sur- 
 rounds them is pretty nearly as flat, and 
 as rich in ditches, sluices, and other means 
 of irrigation, as the environs of Antwerp 
 itself. Her most faithful majesty some- 
 times resorting to the Caldas, the road is 
 kept in tolerable repair. 
 
28 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 At every league, pedestals with vases 
 upon them meet the eye ; and at no very 
 distant intervals, architectural fountains, 
 which have not yet entirely forgotten the 
 purpose for which they were erected, and 
 still contrive to dribble out a scanty and 
 turbid stream. 
 
 As we approached Carregado, scenes of 
 boundless plenty began to expand them- 
 selves ; unlimited fields of Turkish corn, 
 fine barley, and black Sicilian wheat, the 
 ears bending to the ground with their 
 weight. 
 
 We now abandoned the high road in 
 order to reach Cadafaiz, another ample 
 domain under the government of our 
 hospitable friend, where we arrived late 
 in the afternoon. There we found Our- 
 selves in a most comfortable antiquated 
 mansion, perfectly cool and clean ; the 
 floors neatly matted, the tables covered 
 with the finest white linen, and, in bright 
 clear carafFes of Venetian glass, the most 
 
ALCOBAfA. 29 
 
 beautiful carnations I ever met with, even 
 at Genoa in the Durazzo Gardens. 
 
 The wide latticed windows of the apart- 
 ment allotted to me commanded the view 
 of a boundless vineyard in full luxuriant 
 leaf, divided by long broad tracts of thyme 
 and camomile, admirably well kept and 
 nicely weeded. From this immense sea 
 of green leaves rose a number of plum, 
 pear, orange, and apricot trees ; the latter 
 procured by the monks directly from Da- 
 mascus, and bearing, as I can testify, that 
 most delicious fruit of its kind called " eggs 
 of the sun" by the Persians ; — even insects 
 and worms seem to respect it, for no 
 trace could I discover of their having 
 preyed on its smooth glowing rind and 
 surrounding foliage. 
 
 Beyond these truly Hesperian orchards, 
 very lofty hills swell into the most pictu- 
 resque forms, varied by ledges of rock, and 
 completely inclose this calm retirement ; 
 wild healthful spots of delicate herbage, 
 
30 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 which the goats and sheep, whose bells I 
 heard tinkling in the distance, are scarcely 
 more partial to than myself. 
 
 How often, contrasting my present situ- 
 ation with the horrid disturbed state of 
 almost every part of the Continent, did I 
 bless the hour when my steps were direct- 
 ed to Portugal ! As I sat in the nook of 
 my retired window, I looked with compla- 
 cency on a roof which sheltered no schem- 
 ing hypocrites, — on tables, on which per- 
 haps no newspaper had ever been thrown, 
 and on neat white pillows, guiltless of 
 propping up the heads of those assassins 
 of real prosperity — political adventurers. 
 The very air which kept playing around 
 my temples seemed to breathe content- 
 ment ; it was genially warm, not oppres- 
 sive, and brought with it the intermingled 
 fragrance of mountain herbs and native 
 flowers. 
 
ALCOBAfA. 31 
 
 FIFTH DAY. 
 
 A Ramble over the Hills. — Beautiful Grotto. — Reminis- 
 cences of Gil Bias. — Journey resumed. — First Sight of 
 Alcoba^a. — Pompous Reception. — The Three Graces of 
 Holiness. — Gloomy Church. — Sepulchral Chapel of Pedro 
 the Just and Inez. — Interrupted Reveries. — Enormous 
 Kitchen. — Hospitable Preparations. — The Banquet Hall. 
 — The Banquet. — Tiresome Minuets. — Ineffectual Offer. 
 — Ceremonious " Good Nights." 
 
 7 th June. 
 
 Not long after daybreak, whilst all the 
 dews of the morning were still waiting to 
 be dried up, I took a ramble over the hills, 
 and, on one of their level summits, dis- 
 covered an irregular opening with rude 
 steps leading down to a little cavern hewn 
 out of a pumice rock, blessed with a tink- 
 
32 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 ling spring, and mantled all over with the 
 deliciously-scented flowers of the Lonicera 
 tribe in wild luxuriant profusion, — exactly 
 the sort of grotto described in Gil Bias 
 as the resort of Algerine pirates. There 
 I proposed reading my favourite pocket- 
 companions Monteiro and Manoel Maria 
 Bocage, in total solitude, and sharing the 
 deep reveries of these intellectual and 
 Cowley-like poets : but fate denied me 
 the enjoyment of such dreamy happiness. 
 The sober reality of proceeding on our 
 expedition, and particularly of paying a 
 visit to the Caldas, was enforced by my 
 right reverend conductors. 
 
 Having a presentiment that the said 
 Caldas were as hot as the suburbs at 
 least of the infernal regions, I begged and 
 intreated we might not stop at such a 
 close, stifling, unpoetical place, but, after 
 taking refreshment under our tent in the 
 open country, make the best of our way 
 boldly and resolutely to Alcoba^'a. 
 
ALCOBACA. 33 
 
 "Impossible!" said the Grand Prior. 
 " Possible !" exclaimed the Prior of St. 
 Vincent. The vote of the latter carried 
 it, and we got on three or four leagues at 
 a good round pace ; the bells of our mules 
 sounding cheerily, and their drivers singing 
 in chorus, to the surprise, if not delight, 
 of my English grooms and attendants. 
 
 Thus far all had gone on, as to road, 
 pretty tolerably ; but we had scarcely left 
 the Caldas in arrear about two miles on 
 the right, before " the way was all before us 
 where to choose ;" no distinct track for such 
 lumbering carriages as we were burthened 
 with being visible. In attempting to ad- 
 vance, we stuck fast : both the mules and 
 their drivers seemed so sincerely alarmed 
 at the prospect before them, and reduced 
 to such utter despair, that my right re- 
 verend fellow-travellers, who most fully 
 sympathised in these not unfounded ter- 
 rors, determined to call the posse comitatus 
 to our aid. A messenger was despatched 
 
 D 
 
34 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 for that purpose to a neighbouring village, 
 of which I never suspected the existence, it 
 being completely buried in a deep narrow 
 ravine, not unlike one of those enormous 
 ruts which many people fancy they have 
 discovered in the moon. The messenger 
 soon returned with a very efficient magis- 
 trate, and thirty or forty stout well-clothed 
 peasants. 
 
 A village Hercules putting his shoulder 
 to the wheel, we got out of this scrape ; 
 but it was only to fall into another, and 
 so on from bad to worse till patience itself 
 was exhausted. The day was wearing 
 apace ; we had not advanced upon our 
 voyage of discovery at the rate of above 
 three miles in two hours. The carriages 
 laboured and rolled like vessels on a 
 swelling sea after a storm. At length 
 ropes were applied to steady them, deafen- 
 ing shouts of encouragement addressed to 
 men and mules, and in an hour more we 
 were approaching Alcoba^a. 
 
ALCOBACA. 35 
 
 The first sight of this regal monastery 
 is very imposing ; and the picturesque, 
 well-wooded and well-watered village, out 
 of the quiet bosom of which it appears to 
 rise, relieves the mind from a sense of 
 oppression the huge domineering bulk of 
 the conventual buildings inspire. 
 
 We had no sooner hove in sight, and we 
 loomed large, than a most tremendous ring 
 of bells of extraordinary power announced 
 our speedy arrival. A special aviso, or 
 broad hint from the secretary of state, 
 recommending these magnificent monks to 
 receive the Grand Prior and his compani- 
 ons with peculiar graciousness, the whole 
 community, including fathers, friars, and 
 subordinates, at least four hundred strong, 
 were drawn up in grand spiritual array on 
 the vast platform before the monastery to 
 bid us welcome. At their head the Abbot 
 himself, in his costume of High Almoner 
 of Portugal, advanced to give us a cordial 
 embrace. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 It was quite delectable to witness with 
 what cooings and comfortings the Lord 
 Abbot of Alcobaca greeted his right re- 
 verend brethren of Aviz and St. Vincent's 
 — turtle-doves were never more fondle- 
 some, at least in outward appearance. 
 Preceded by these three graces of holiness, 
 I entered the spacious, massive, and some- 
 what austere Saxon-looking church. All 
 was gloom, except where the perpetual 
 lamps burning before the high altar dif- 
 fused a light most solemn and religious — 
 (inferior twinkles from side chapels and 
 chantries are not worth mentioning). To 
 this altar my high clerical conductors re- 
 paired, whilst the full harmonious tones 
 of several stately organs, accompanied by 
 the choir, proclaimed that they were in 
 the act of adoring the real Presence. 
 
 Whilst these devout prostrations were 
 performing, I lost not a moment in visiting 
 the sepulchral chapel, where lie interred 
 Pedro the Just and his beloved Inez. 
 
ALCOBAfA. 37 
 
 The light which reached this solemn recess 
 of a most solemn edifice was so subdued 
 and hazy, that I could hardly distinguish 
 the elaborate sculpture of the tomb, 
 which reminded me, both as to design 
 and execution, of the Beauchamp monu- 
 ment at Warwick, so rich in fretwork and 
 imagery. 
 
 Just as I was giving way to the aflfecting 
 reveries which such an object could not 
 fail of exciting in a bosom the least suscep- 
 tible of romantic impressions, in came the 
 Grand Priors hand in hand, all three to- 
 gether. " To the kitchen," said they in 
 perfect unison, — " to the kitchen, and that 
 immediately; you will then judge whether 
 we have been wanting in zeal to regale 
 you." 
 
 Such a summons, so conveyed, was irre- 
 sistible ; the three prelates led the way to, 
 I verily believe, the most distinguished 
 temple of gluttony in all Europe. What 
 Glastonbury may have been in its palmy 
 
38 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 state, I cannot answer ; but my eyes never 
 beheld in any modern convent of France, 
 Italy, or Germany, such an enormous space 
 dedicated to culinary purposes. Through 
 the centre of the immense and nobly- 
 groined hall, not less than sixty feet in 
 diameter, ran a brisk rivulet of the clear- 
 est water, flowing through pierced wooden 
 reservoirs, containing every sort and size 
 of the finest river-fish. On one side, loads 
 of game and venison were heaped up ; 
 on the other, vegetables and fruit in end- 
 less variety. Beyond a long line of stoves 
 extended a row of ovens, and close to 
 them hillocks of wheaten flour whiter 
 than snow, rocks of sugar, jars of the 
 purest oil, and pastry in vast abundance, 
 which a numerous tribe of lay brothers 
 and their attendants were rolling out and 
 puffing up into an hundred different shapes, 
 singing all the while as blithely as larks in 
 a corn-field. 
 
 My servants, and those of their reve- 
 
ALCOBA^A. 39 
 
 rend excellencies the two Priors, were 
 standing by in the full glee of witness- 
 ing these hospitable preparations, as well 
 pleased, and as much flushed, as if they 
 had been just returned from assisting at 
 the marriage at Cana in Galilee. " There," 
 said the Lord Abbot, — " we shall not 
 starve : God's bounties are great, it is fit 
 we should enjoy them." — (By the bye, I 
 thought this allegro, contrasted with the 
 penseroso of scarecrow convents, quite 
 delightful.)—" An hour hence supper will 
 be ready," continued the Lord Abbot, " in 
 the meanwhile, let me conduct you to your 
 apartment ; it has only bare walls, for we 
 learnt of your arrival too late this morn- 
 ing to put up our fine hangings." 
 
 I found the apartment, which was 
 composed of an ante-room, saloon, and 
 bedchamber, lofty and rather pleasant. 
 Though the walls were naked, the ceil- 
 ing was gilt and painted, the floor spread 
 with Persian carpets of the finest texture, 
 
40 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 and the tables in rich velvet petticoats, 
 decked out with superb ewers and basins 
 of chased silver, and towels bordered with 
 point-lace of a curious antique pattern, 
 — a strange mixture of simplicity and 
 magnificence. I had my own bed pitched 
 in one of the spacious alcoves, to the ap- 
 parent surprise, if not displeasure, of the 
 monk appointed to give me attendance. 
 However, I made myself very comfortable ; 
 took a foot-bath as serenely as if I had 
 been at Abraham's tent-door, and waited 
 in a perfect refreshing calm till three 
 thundering knocks at the outward portal 
 announced the Abbot himself coming to 
 lead me to the banquet-hall. 
 
 We passed through a succession of clois- 
 ters and galleries, which the shades of 
 evening rendered dimly visible, till we 
 entered a saloon, superb indeed, covered 
 with pictures, and lighted up by a pro- 
 fusion of wax tapers in sconces of silver. 
 Right in the centre of this stately room 
 
ALCOBA^rA. 41 
 
 stood a most ample table, covered with 
 fringed embroidered linen, and round it 
 four ponderous fauteuils for the guest and 
 the three prelates ; so we formed a very 
 comfortable partie quarree. 
 
 The banquet itself consisted of not only 
 the most excellent usual fare, but rarities 
 and delicacies of past seasons and distant 
 countries ; exquisite sausages, potted lam- 
 preys, strange messes from the Brazils, 
 and others still stranger from China (edi- 
 ble birds' nests and sharks' fins), dressed 
 after the latest mode of Macao by a Chi- 
 nese lay brother. Confectionery and fruits 
 were out of the question here ; they await- 
 ed us in an adjoining still more spacious 
 and sumptuous apartment, to which we re- 
 tired from the effluvia of viands and sauces. 
 
 In this apartment we found Franchi 
 and the Grand Prior of Aviz's secretary, 
 the Prior of St. Vincent's acolyte, and 
 ten or twelve principal personages of the 
 neighbourhood, most eager to enjoy a 
 
42 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 stare at the stranger whom their lordly 
 abbot delighted to honour. The table 
 being removed, four good-looking novices, 
 lads of fifteen or sixteen, demure even 
 to primness, came in, bearing cassolettes 
 of Goa filigree, steaming with a fragrant 
 vapour of Calambac, the finest quality 
 of wood of aloes. 
 
 This pleasing ceremony performed, the 
 saloon was cleared out as if for dan- 
 cing. I flattered myself we were going 
 to be favoured with a bolero, fandango, 
 or perhaps the fofa itself, — a dance as 
 decent as the ballets exhibited for the 
 recreation of Muley Liezit, his most ex- 
 emplary Marocchese majesty. A crowd of 
 clarionet and guitar players, dressed in 
 silk dominoes like the serenaders in Italian 
 burlettas, followed by a posse of young 
 monks and young gentlemen in secular 
 dresses as stiff as buckram, began an end- 
 less succession of the most decorous and 
 tiresome minuets I ever witnessed, ten 
 
ALCOBA^A. 4S 
 
 times longer, and alas ! ten times less ri- 
 diculous, than even the long minuet at 
 Bath. 
 
 Tired to death of remaining motionless, 
 and desirous of exhibiting something a 
 little out of the common way, I gently 
 hinted a wish to dance, and that I should 
 have no objection were one of the three 
 right reverend Priors to take me out. 
 It would not do — they kept their state. 
 Yawning piteously, I longed for the hour 
 when it should become lawful to retire 
 to bed ; which I did right gladly when 
 the blessed hour came, after good-night- 
 ing, and being good-nigh ted with another 
 round of ceremony. 
 
44 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 SIXTH DAY. 
 
 Endless Corridors and a grim-looking Hall. — Portrait of St. 
 Thomas a Becket. — Ancient Cloister. — Venerable Orange- 
 trees. — Sepulchral Inscriptions. — The Refectory. — So- 
 lemn Summons to Breakfast. — Sights. — Gorgeous Sacristy. 
 — Antiquities. — Precious Specimen of Early Art. — Hour 
 of Siesta. — A Noon-day Ramble. — Silence and Solitude. — 
 Mysterious Lane. — Irresistible Somnolency of my Conduc- 
 tor. — An unseen Songstress. — A Surprise. — Donna Fran- 
 cisca, her Mother and Confessor. — The World of Alco- 
 ba^a awakened. — Return to the Monastery. — Departure 
 for Batalha. — The Field of Aljubarota. — Solitary Vale. — 
 Reception at Batalha. — Enormous Supper. — Ecstasies of 
 an old Monk. — His sentimental Mishap. — Night Scene. — 
 Awful Denunciations. 
 
 8th June. 
 
 I ROSE early, slipped out of my pompous 
 apartment, strayed about endless corri- 
 dors — not a soul stirring. Looked into a 
 
ALCORAfA. 45 
 
 gloomy hall, much encumbered with gild- 
 ed ornaments, and grim with the ill-sculp- 
 tured effigies of kings; and another im- 
 mense chamber, with white walls covered 
 with pictures in black lacquered frames, 
 most hideously unharmonious. 
 
 One portrait, the full size of life, by 
 a very ancient Portuguese artist named 
 Vasquez, attracted my minute attention. 
 It represented no less interesting a per- 
 sonage than St. Thomas a Becket, and 
 looked the character in perfection ; — lofty 
 in stature and expression of countenance ; 
 pale, but resolute, like one devoted to 
 death in his great cause ; the very being 
 Dr. Lingard has portrayed in his ad- 
 mirable History. 
 
 From this chamber I wandered down 
 several flights of stairs to a cloister of 
 the earliest Norman architecture, having 
 in the centre a fountain of very primitive 
 form, spouting forth clear water abund- 
 antly into a marble basin. Twisting 
 
46 THE MONASTlillY OF 
 
 I 
 
 and straggling over this uncouth mass 
 of sculpture are several orange-trees, 
 gnarled and crabbed, but covered with 
 fruit and flowers, their branches grotesque 
 and fantastic, exactly such as a Japanese 
 would delight in, and copy on his caskets 
 and screens ; their age most venerable, 
 for the traditions of the convent assured 
 me that they were the very first import- 
 ed from China into Portugal. There 
 was som.e comfort in these objects ; every 
 other in the place looked dingy and dis- 
 mal, and steeped in a green and yellow 
 melancholy. 
 
 On the damp, stained and mossy walls, 
 I noticed vast numbers of sepulchral in- 
 scriptions (some nearly effaced) to the 
 memory of the knights slain at the battle 
 of Aljubarota : I gave myself no trouble 
 to make them out, but continuing my 
 solitary ramble, visited the refectory, a 
 square of seventy or eighty feet, be- 
 gloomed by dark-coloured painted windows, 
 
ALCOBAfA. 47 
 
 and disgraced by tables covered with not 
 the cleanest or least unctuous linen in 
 the world. 
 
 I had proceeded thus far, when three 
 venerable fathers, of most grave and so- 
 lemn aspect, made their appearance; to 
 whom having bowed as lowly as Abraham 
 did to his angelic visitors, I received as 
 many profound obeisances in return, and 
 a summons to breakfast. This I readily 
 obeyed : it wanted three-quarters of eight, 
 and I was as hungry as a stripling novice. 
 The Prior of Aviz having supped too 
 amply the night before, did not appear; 
 but he of St. Vincent's, all kindness and 
 good digestion, did the honours with cor- 
 dial grace, and made tea as skilfully as 
 the most complete old dowager in Chris- 
 tendom. My Lord of Alcoba^a was ab- 
 sent, — engaged, as I was told, and readily 
 believed, upon conventual affairs of urgent 
 importance. 
 
 The repast finished, and not soon, our 
 
48 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 whole morning was taken up with seeing 
 sights, though not exactly the sights I 
 most wished to see. Some MSS. of the 
 fourteenth century, containing, I have 
 been assured, traditional records of Pedro 
 the Just and the Severe, were what I 
 wished for ; but they either could not or 
 would not be found ; and instead of being- 
 allowed to make this interesting research, 
 or having it made for me, we were con- 
 ducted to a most gorgeous and glistening- 
 sacristy, worthy of Versailles itself, adorn- 
 ed with furbelows of gilt bronze, flaunting 
 over panels of jasper and porphyry : 
 copes and vestments, some almost as 
 ancient as the reign of Alfonzo Henriquez, 
 and others embroidered at Rome with 
 gold and pearl, by no means barbaric, were 
 displayed before us in endless succession. 
 
 One of the sacristans or treasurers who 
 happened to have a spice of antiquarianism, 
 guessing the bent of my wishes, produced, 
 from a press or ambery elaborately carved, 
 
ALCOBAfA. 49 
 
 the identical candlesticks of rock-crystal, 
 and a cross of the same material, studded 
 with the most delicately -tinted sapphires, 
 which were taken by the victorious John 
 the First from the King of Castile's port- 
 able chapel, after the hard-fought conflict 
 of Aljubarota ; and several golden reli- 
 quaries, as minutely chased and sculptured 
 as any I ever saw at St. Denis, though 
 wrought by St. Eloy's holy hands : one in 
 particular, the model of a cathedral in the 
 style of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, struck 
 me as being admirable. Ten times at 
 least did I examine and almost worship 
 this highly-wrought precious specimen of 
 early art, and as many times did my ex- 
 cellent friend the Prior of St. Vincent's, 
 who had come in search of me, express a 
 wish that I should not absolutely wear 
 out my eyes or his patience. 
 
 " It is growing insufferably warm," said 
 he, " and the hour of siesta is arrived; and 
 I cannot help thinking that perhaps it 
 
 E 
 
50 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 would not be unpleasant for you to retire 
 to your shady chamber : for my part, I 
 can hardly keep my eyes open any longer. 
 But I see this proposal does not suit you — 
 you English are strangely given to loco- 
 motion, and I know full well that of all 
 English you are not the least nimble. 
 Here," continued he, calling a young 
 monk, who was sitting by in a nook of the 
 sacristy peeling walnuts, " suspend that 
 important occupation, and be pleased to 
 accompany this fidalgo to any part of 
 your domain he likes to ramble to." 
 
 " Right willingly," answered this sprout 
 of holiness : " whither shall we go ?" 
 
 " Through the village, into the open 
 country, if you have no objection," answer- 
 ed I ; " to any point, in short, where I may 
 enjoy rural scenery, trees, and rocks, and 
 running waters." 
 
 " Trees, and rocks, and running waters !" 
 re-echoed the monk with a vacant stare. 
 " Had you not better visit our rabbit- war- 
 
ALCODA^A. 51 
 
 ren — the finest in this world ? Though, to 
 be sure, the rabbits, poor things ! are all 
 asleep at this time of day, and it would 
 be cruel to disturb even them." 
 
 This was a broad hint, but I would 
 not take it. The monk, finding I was 
 bent on he could not imagine what pur- 
 suit, and that there was no diverting me 
 from it, tucked up his upper garments, 
 shadowed his sleek round face with an 
 enormous straw hat, offered me another 
 of equal size quite new and glossy, and, 
 with staves in our hands, we set forth 
 like the disciples journeying to Emmaus in 
 some of Poelemburg's smooth landscapes. 
 
 We passed through quadrangles after 
 quadrangles, and courts after courts, till, 
 opening a sly door in an obscure corner, 
 which had proved a convenient sally-port, 
 no doubt, for many an agreeable excursion, 
 we found ourselves in a winding alley, 
 bordered by sheds and cottages, with irre- 
 gular steps leading up to rustic porches 
 
 E 2 
 
52 TOE iMONASTERY OF 
 
 and many a vine-bower and many a trel- 
 lised walk. No human being was to be 
 heard or seen ; no poultry were parading 
 about ; and except a beautiful white ma- 
 caw perched on a broken wall, and nest- 
 ling his bill under his feathers, not a 
 single member of the feathered creation 
 was visible. There was a holy calm in 
 this mid-day silence — a sacredness, as if 
 all nature had been fearful to disturb the 
 slumbers of universal Pan. 
 
 I kept, however, straggling on — im- 
 piously, it would have been thought in 
 Pagan times — between long stretches of 
 garden-walls overhung by fig-trees, the 
 air so profoundly tranquil that I actually 
 \ heard a fruit drop from a bough. Some- 
 
 times I was enticed down a mysterious 
 lane by the prospect of a crag and a Moor- 
 ish castle which offered itself to view at 
 its termination, and sometimes under ruin- 
 ed arches which crossed my path in the 
 most picturesque manner. So I still con- 
 
ALCOBAfA. 5S 
 
 tinued my devious course with a perti- 
 nacity that annoyed my lazy conductor — 
 past utterance, it seems ; for during our 
 whole excursion we scarcely exchanged 
 a syllable. 
 
 At length, he could bear with my ro- 
 manceishness no longer ; an irresistible 
 somnolency came over him ; and, stretch- 
 ing himself out on the bare ground, in the 
 deep shadow of some tall cypress, he gave 
 way to repose most delectably. I was 
 now abandoned entirely to myself, un- 
 subdued by the quiet of the place, and as 
 active as ever. Some tokens of animation, 
 however, in other beings besides myself 
 would not have been displeasing — the 
 dead silence which prevailed began to 
 oppress me. 
 
 At length, a faint musical murmur stole 
 upon my ear: I advanced towards the 
 spot whence it seemed to come — a retired 
 garden-house at the end of a pleasant 
 avenue, which, to add to its pleasantness, 
 
54 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 had been lately watered. Drawing nearer 
 and nearer, my heart beating quickly all 
 the while, I distinguished the thrilling 
 cadences of a delightful Brasileira (sinha 
 che* vem da Bahia), — well-known sounds. 
 I looked up to a latticed window just 
 thrown open by a lovely arm — a well- 
 known arm : — " Gracious heavens ! Donna 
 Francisca, is it you ? What brought you 
 here ? What inspired you to exchange 
 Queluz and the Ajuda for this obscure 
 retirement?" 
 
 "Ascend these steps, and I will tell 
 you : but your stay must not exceed ten 
 minutes — not a second more." 
 
 " Brief indeed," answered I : "I see 
 there is no time to lose." 
 
 Up I sprung — and who should re- 
 ceive me ? Not the fascinating songstress 
 — not the lady of the lovely arm, but her 
 sedate though very indulgent mother. 
 
 " I know whom you are looking for," said 
 the matron ; "but it is in vain. You have 
 
ALCOBAfA. 55 
 
 heard, but are not to see, Francisca, who 
 is no longer the giddy girl you used to 
 dance with ; her heart is turned, — nay, 
 do not look so wild, — turned, I tell you, 
 but turned to God. A most holy man, 
 a saint, the very mirror of piety for his 
 years — he is not yet forty, only think ! — 
 operated this blessed change. You know 
 how light-hearted, and almost indiscreetly 
 so, my poor dear heart's comfort was. 
 You recollect hearing, and you were terri- 
 bly angry, I remember, that the English 
 Padre told the Inviada it was shameful how 
 very rapturously my poor dear girl rattled 
 her castanets, and threw back her head, and 
 put forward every other part of her dear 
 little person, at the Factory ball — Shame 
 ON HIM, scandalous old crabbed heretic ? 
 Well, it so happened that my Lord High 
 Almoner came to court upon state affairs, 
 accompanied by the precious man I have 
 been talking of, — the most exemplary 
 monk in that noble convent, and its right 
 
56 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 hand. One day at Queluz he saw my 
 daughter dancing divinely, as you know 
 she did ; he heard her sing, — you know 
 how she warbles — she still warbles; he 
 said, (and he has such an eye,) that under 
 the veil of all this levity were lurking 
 the seeds of grace. ' I will develope them,' 
 exclaimed this saint upon earth, in a trans- 
 port of holy fervour. So he set about it, 
 — and a miraculous metamorphosis did he 
 perform : my gay, my dissipated child, 
 became an example of serious piety ; no 
 flirting, no racketing, nothing but pious 
 discourse with this best of discoursers. 
 Two months passed away in this exem- 
 plary manner. When the time came for 
 my Lord High Almoner to return, our 
 holy friend was in duty bound to accom- 
 pany him. What was to be done ? Fran- 
 cisca had forgotten everything and every- 
 body else in this sinful world ; she existed 
 but for this devout personage ; she lived 
 but in his holy smiles when he approved 
 
ALCOBAfA. 57 
 
 her conduct, and almost died under his re- 
 proof when any transient little fault of hers 
 occasioned his enjoining her severe pe- 
 nances : and I shudder to think how se- 
 vere they sometimes were ; for, would you 
 believe it ? he has made her submit to fla- 
 gellation — and, more than once, to goad- 
 ings with sharp points. In due course, 
 the hour of departure arrived. ' We must 
 all die,' said Francisca ; ' my hour is come.' 
 She looked all she said : she pined and 
 languished, and, I am convinced, would 
 have kept her word, if I had not said, 
 ' Dearest child, there is but one remedy : 
 it is the will of God we should go to 
 Alcoba^a ; and to Alcoba^a we will go, 
 let all your uncles, cousins, and adorers 
 say what they choose to the contrary.' 
 So we took this house and this garden — 
 a nice little garden — only look at these 
 pretty yellow carnations ! — and we are very 
 happy in our little way, entirely given up 
 to devotion, under the gjLiidancc of our 
 
58 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 incomparable spiritual director, who allows 
 us to want for nothing, even in this world. 
 See what fruit ! what fine sweetmeats ! what 
 a relishing Melg^^o ham ! look at these 
 baskets !" 
 
 She was just lifting up the rich damask 
 covers thrown over them, when a most 
 vigorous " Hem ! hem ! ! hem ! ! !" in the 
 rustic street snapped short the thread of 
 her eloquence, by calling her to the bal- 
 cony with the utmost precipitation — " Jesu 
 Maria Jose !— he comes ! he comes !" Had 
 she seen a ghost instead of a very sub- 
 stantial friar, she could not have started 
 with greater abruptness : her scared looks 
 showed me the door so intelligibly that I 
 was off in a twinkling; it would have 
 been most indiscreet — nay, sacrilegious, to 
 remain a moment longer. 
 
 It was now half-past one, and the world 
 of Alcobapa was alive again — the peasant 
 had resumed her distaff, the monk his 
 breviary, the ox his labour, and the sound 
 
ALCOBAfA. 59 
 
 of the nora, or water-wheel, was heard in 
 the land. The important hour of dinner 
 at the convent I knew was approaching : 
 I wished to scale the crag above the vil- 
 lage, and visit the Moorish castle, which 
 looked most invitingly picturesque, with 
 its varied outline of wall and tower ; but 
 I saw a posse of monks and novices ad- 
 vancing from the convent, bowing and 
 beckoning me to return. 
 
 So I returned, — and 'twas well I did, as 
 it turned out. Fourteen or fifteen sleek 
 well-fed mules, laden with paniers of 
 neat wicker-work, partially covered with 
 scarlet cloth, were standing about the 
 grand platform before the convent ; and 
 the reverend father, one of the prime dig- 
 nitaries of the chapter, who was waiting 
 at the entrance of the apartment assigned 
 to me, pointing to them, put me in mind 
 that last night I had expressed a vehement 
 wish to visit Batalha ; adding most gra- 
 ciously, that the wishes of a person so 
 
60 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 strongly recommended to them as I had 
 been by the good and great Marquis of 
 Ponte de Lima were laws. 
 
 " This very night, if it so please you," 
 said his reverence, " we sleep at Batalha. 
 The convent is poor and destitute, un- 
 worthy — nay, incapable of accommodating 
 such guests as my lords the Grand Priors, 
 and yourself ; but I hope we have provided 
 against the chill of a meagre reception. 
 These mules will carry with them what- 
 ever may be required for your comfort. 
 To-morrow, I hope, you will return to us ; 
 and the following day, should you inflict 
 upon us the misfortune of losing your 
 delightful society, myself and two of my 
 comrades will have the honour of accom- 
 panying you as far back as one of our 
 farms called Pedraneira, on your return to 
 Lisbon." 
 
 There was nothing on my part to object 
 to in this arrangement ; I fancied too I 
 could discern in it a lurking wish to be 
 
ALCOBAfA. 61 
 
 quit of our most delightful society, and 
 the turmoil and half-partial restraint it 
 occasioned. Putting on the sweetest smiles 
 of grateful acquiescence, to hear was to 
 obey ; everything relating to movements 
 being confirmed by the terzetto of Grand 
 Priors during our repast — copious and 
 splendid as usual. 
 
 The carriages drew up very soon after 
 it was ended ; my riding horses were 
 brought out, all our respective attendants 
 mustered, and, preceded by a long string 
 of sumpter-mules and baggage-carts, with 
 all their bells in full jingle and all their 
 drivers in full cry, off we set in most for- 
 midable ai'ray, taking the route of Alju- 
 barota. 
 
 Our road, not half so rough as I ex- 
 pected, led us up most picturesquely- 
 shaped steep acclivities, shaded by ches- 
 nuts, with here and there a branching 
 pine, for about a league. We then found 
 ourselves on a sort of table-land ; and, a 
 
62 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 mile or two further, in the midst of a 
 straggling village. There was no temp- 
 tation to leave the snug corner of our 
 comfortable chaises ; so we contented our- 
 selves with surveying at our perfect ease 
 the prospect of the famous plain, which 
 formed the termination of a long per- 
 spective of antiquated houses. 
 
 Here, on this very plain, was fought in 
 1385 the fierce battle which placed the 
 diadem of Portugal on the brow of the 
 glorious and intrepid bastard. It was 
 down that ravine the Castilian cavalry 
 poured along in utter confusion, so hotly 
 pursued that three thousand were slain. 
 On yonder mound stood the King of Cas- 
 tile's tent and temporary chapel, which he 
 abandoned, with all its rich and jewelled 
 furniture, to the conquerors, and scam- 
 pered off in such alarm that he scarcely 
 knew whether he had preserved his head 
 on his shoulders, till safe within the walls 
 of Santarem, where he tore his hair and 
 
BATALIIA. 63 
 
 plucked off his beard by handfuls, and 
 raved and ranted like a maniac. — The 
 details of this frantic pluckage are to be 
 found in a letter from the Constable Nuno 
 Alvarez Pereira to the Abbot of Alcoba^a. 
 
 I tried to inspire my right reverend 
 fellow-travellers with patriotic enthusiasm, 
 and to engage them to cast a retrospective 
 glance upon the days of Lusitanian glory. 
 Times present, and a few flasks of most 
 exquisite wine, the produce of a neigh- 
 bouring vineyard, engrossed their whole 
 attention. "Muito bom — primoroso— ex- 
 cellente," were the only words that escaped 
 their most grateful lips. 
 
 The Juiz de Fora of the village, a dab- 
 bler in history — for he told us he had read 
 the Chronicles, and who stood courteously 
 and obsequiously on the step of our car- 
 riage-door, handing us the precious be- 
 verage — made some attempts to edge in 
 a word about the battle, and particularly 
 about a certain valiant English knight, 
 
64 AN EXCURSION TO 
 
 whose name he did not even pretend to 
 remember, but who might have been a 
 relation of mine for aught he knew to 
 the contrary. Well, this valiant knight, 
 who had vanquished all the chivalry of 
 France and England, had the honour of 
 being vanquished in his turn by the flower 
 of warriors, the renowned Magrico : a great 
 honour too, for Magrico had excellent 
 taste in the choice of his antagonists, and 
 would only fight with the bravest of the 
 brave. *' Even so," continued the worthy 
 magistrate, bowing to the earth, " as our 
 great Camoens testifies." — No answer to 
 all this flourish except " Ten thousand 
 thanks for your excellent wine : drive 
 on." And drive on we did with redou- 
 bled briskness. 
 
 The highest exhilaration prevailed 
 throughout our whole caravan. All my 
 English servants were in raptures, ready 
 to turn Catholics. My famous French 
 cook, in the glow of the moment, unpa- 
 
BATALHA. 65 
 
 triotically declared Clos de Vougeot, pud- 
 dle compared to Aljubarota, — divine, per- 
 fumed, ethereal Alj ubarota ! Dr. Ehrhart 
 protested no country under the sun equal- 
 ed Portugal for curiosities in mineralogy, 
 theology, and wineology — which ology 
 he was now convinced was the best of 
 them all. Franchi mounted one of my 
 swiftest coursers — he had never ventured 
 to mount before — and galloped away like 
 the King of Castile on his flight to San- 
 tarem. The Grand Prior and all his 
 ecclesiastical cortege fell fast asleep ; and 
 it would have been most irreverend not to 
 have followed so respectable an example. 
 I can therefore describe nothing of the 
 remainder of our route. 
 
 The sun had sunk and the moon risen, 
 when a tremendous jolt and a loud 
 scream awakened the whole party. Poor 
 Franchi lay sprawling upon the ground ; 
 whilst my Arabian, his glossy sides stream- 
 ing with blood, was darting along like one 
 
 F 
 
G6 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 of the steeds in the Apocalypse ; happily 
 his cast-off rider escaped with a slight 
 contusion. 
 
 My eyes being fairly open, I beheld a 
 quiet solitary vale, bordered by shrubby 
 hills ; a few huts, and but a few, peeping 
 out of dense masses of foliage ; and high 
 above their almost level surface, the great 
 church, with its rich cluster of abbatial 
 buildings, buttresses, and pinnacles, and 
 fretted spires, towering in all their pride, 
 and marking the ground with deep sha- 
 dows that appeared interminable, so far 
 and so wide were they stretched along. 
 Lights glimmered here and there in va- 
 rious parts of the edifice ; but a strong 
 glare of torches pointed out its principal 
 entrance, where stood the whole com- 
 munity waiting to receive us. 
 
 Whilst our sumpter-mules were un- 
 lading, and ham and pies and sausages 
 were rolling out of plethoric hampers, 
 I thought these poor monks looked on 
 
BATALIIA. 67 
 
 rather enviously. My more fortunate com- 
 panions — 'Uo wretched cadets of the mor- 
 tification family, but the true elder sons 
 of fat mother church — could hardly con- 
 ceal their sneers of conscious superiority. 
 A contrast so strongly marked amused me 
 not a little. 
 
 The space before the entrance being 
 narrow, there was some difficulty in thread- 
 ing our way through a labyrinth of pan- 
 niers, and coffers, and baggage, — and mules, 
 as obstinate as their drunken drivers, which 
 is saying a great deal, — and all our grooms, 
 lackeys, and attendants, half asleep, half 
 muddled. 
 
 The Batalha Prior and his assistants 
 looked quite astounded when they saw 
 a gauze-curtained bed, and the Grand 
 Prior's fringed pillow, and the Prior of 
 St. Vincent's superb coverlid, and basins, 
 and ewers, and other utensils of glittering 
 silver, being carried in. Poor souls ! they 
 hardly knew what to do, to say, or be at — 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 one running to tlie riglit, another to the 
 left — one tucking up his flowing garments 
 to run faster, and another rebuking him 
 for such a deviation from monastic de- 
 corum. 
 
 At length, order being somewhat re- 
 established, and some fine painted wax 
 tapers, which were just unpacked, lighted, 
 we were ushered into a large plain cham- 
 ber, and the heads of the order presented 
 by the humble Prior of Batalha to their 
 superior mightinesses of San Vicente and 
 Aviz. Then followed a good deal of gos- 
 siping chat, endless compliments, still 
 longer litanies, and an enormous supper. 
 
 One of the monks who partook of it, 
 though almost bent double with age, play- 
 ed his part in excellent style. Animated 
 by ample potations of the very best Alju- 
 barota that ever grew, and which we 
 had taken the provident care to bring 
 with us, he exclaimed lustily, " Well, 
 this is as it should be — rare doings ! such 
 
BATALHA. 69 
 
 as have not been witnessed at Batalha 
 since a certain progress that great King 
 John the Fifth, made hither more than 
 half a century ago. I remember every 
 circumstance attending it as clearly as 
 though it had only taken place last week. 
 But only think of the atrocious impudence 
 of the gout ! His blessed Majesty had 
 hardly set down to a banquet ten times 
 finer than this, before that accursed ma- 
 lady, patronized by all the devils in hell, 
 thrust its fangs into his toe. I was at 
 that period in the commencement of my 
 noviciate, a handsome lad enough, and 
 had the much-envied honour of laying 
 a cloth of gold cushion under the august 
 feet of our glorious sovereign. No sooner 
 had the extremities of his royal person 
 come in contact with the stiff embroidery, 
 than he roared out as a mere mortal 
 would have done, and looked as black 
 as a thunder-storm ; but soon recovering 
 his most happy benign temper, gave me 
 
70 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 a rouleau of fine, bright, golden coin, 
 and a tap on the head, — ay, on this once 
 comely, now poor old shrivelled head. 
 Oh, he was a gracious, open-hearted, glo- 
 rious monarch — the very King of Diamonds 
 and Lord of Hearts ! Oh, he is in Heaven, 
 in Heaven above ! as sure — ay, as sure 
 as I drink your health, most esteemed 
 stranger." 
 
 So saying, he drained a huge silver 
 goblet to the last drop, and falling back 
 in his chair, was carried out, chair and 
 all, weeping, puling, and worse than dri- 
 velling, with such maudlin tenderness 
 that he actually marked his track with a 
 flow of liquid sorrows. 
 
 As soon as an act of oblivion had been 
 passed over this little sentimental mishap 
 by effacing every trace of it, we all rose 
 up and retired to rest : but little rest, 
 however, was in store for me ; the heat 
 of my mid-day ramble, and perhaps some 
 baneful effect from our moon-lit journey, 
 
BATALHA. 71 
 
 the rays of our cold satellite having fallen 
 whilst I was asleep too directly on my 
 head, had disordered me ; I felt disturb- 
 ed and feverish, a strange jumble of ideas 
 and recollections fermented in my brain — 
 springing in part from the indignant feel- 
 ings which Donna Francisca's fervour for 
 her monk, and coldness for me, had in- 
 spired. I had no wish to sleep, and yet 
 my pleasant retired chamber, with clean 
 white walls, chequered with the reflection 
 of waving boughs, and the sound of a 
 rivulet softened by distance, invited it 
 soothingly. Seating myself in the deep 
 -recess of a capacious window which was 
 wide open, I suffered the balsamic air and 
 serene moonlight to quiet my agitated 
 spirits. One lonely nightingale had taken 
 possession of a bay-tree just beneath me, 
 and was pouring forth its ecstatic notes 
 at distant intervals. 
 
 In one of those long pauses, when si- 
 lence itself, enhanced by contrast, seemed 
 
72 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 to become still deeper, a far different 
 sound than the last I had been listening 
 to caught my ear, — the sound of a loud 
 but melancholy voice echoing through the 
 arched avenues of a vast garden, pro- 
 nouncing distinctly these appalling words 
 — " Judgment ! judgment ! tremble at the 
 anger of an offended God ! Woe to Por- 
 tugal ! woe ! woe !" 
 
 My hair stood on end — I felt as if a 
 spirit were about to pass before me ; but 
 instead of some fearful shape — some hor- 
 rid shadow, such as appeared in vision to 
 Eliphaz, there issued forth from a dark 
 thicket, a tall, majestic, deadly-pale old 
 man : he neither looked about nor above 
 him ; he moved slowly on, his eye fixed 
 as stone, sighing profoundly; and at the 
 distance of some fifty paces from the spot 
 where I was stationed, renewed his dole- 
 ful cry, his fatal proclamation : — '' Woe ! 
 woe ! " resounded through the still at- 
 mosphere, repeated by the echoes of vaults 
 
BATALHA. 73 
 
 and arches ; and the sounds died away, 
 and the spectre-like form that seemed to 
 emit them retired, I know not how nor 
 whither. Shall I confess that my blood ran 
 cold — that all idle, all wanton thoughts left 
 my bosom, and that I passed an hour or 
 two at my window fixed and immovable ? 
 
 Just as day dawned, I crept to bed and 
 fell into a profound sleep, uninterrupted, 
 I thank Heaven, by dreams. 
 
74 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 Morning. — The Prior of Batalha. — His Account of the Noc- 
 turnal Wanderer. — A Procession. — Grand Facade of the 
 Great Church. — The Nave. — Effect of the golden and 
 ruby light from the windows.— Singularly devout celebra- 
 tion of High Mass. — Mausoleum of John the First and 
 Philippa. — Royal Tombs. — The Royal Cloisters. — Perfect 
 Preservation of this regal Monastery. — Beautiful Chap- 
 ter-house. — Tombs of Alphonso the Fifth and his Grand- 
 son. — Tide of Monks, Sacristans, Novices, &c. — Our De- 
 parture — Wild Road. — Redoubled kindness of my Re- 
 ception by the Lord Abbot, and why. — Dr. Ehrhart's 
 visit to the Infirmary, and surgical raptures. — A half- 
 crazed Poet and his doleful tragedy. — Senhor Agostinho 
 in the character of Donna Inez de Castro. — Favouritism, 
 and its reward. 
 
 9th June. 
 
 A DELIGHTFUL moming sun was shining 
 in all its splendour, when I awoke, and 
 ran to the balcony, to look at the garden 
 and wild hills, and to ask myself ten 
 times over, whether the form I had seen. 
 
BATALHA. 75 
 
 and the voice I had heard, were real or 
 imaginary. I had scarcely dressed, and 
 was preparing to sally forth, when a dis- 
 tinct tap at my door, gentle but impera- 
 tive, startled me. 
 
 The door opened, and the Prior of 
 Batalha stood before me. " You were dis- 
 turbed, I fear," said he, " in the dead of the 
 night, by a wailful voice, loudly proclaiming 
 severe impending judgments. I heard it 
 also, and I shuddered, as I always do when 
 I hear it. Do not, however, imagine that 
 it proceeds from another world. The 
 being who uttered these dire sounds is 
 still upon the earth, a member of our con- 
 vent — an exemplary, a most holy man — a 
 scion of one of our greatest families, and a 
 near relative of the Duke of Aveiro, of 
 whose dreadful, agonizing fate you must 
 have heard. He was then in the pride of 
 youth and comeliness, gay as sunshine, 
 volatile as you now appear to be. He had 
 accompanied the devoted duke to a sump- 
 
76 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 tuous ball given by your nation to our 
 high nobility : — at the very moment when 
 splendour, triumph, and merriment were 
 at their highest pitch, the executioners of 
 Pombal's decrees, soldiers and ruffians, 
 pounced down upon their prey ; he too 
 was of the number arrested — he too was 
 thrown into a deep, cold dungeon : his 
 life was spared ; and, in the course of 
 years and events, the slender, lovely youth, 
 now become a wasted, care-worn man, 
 emerged to sorrow and loneliness. 
 
 " The blood of his dearest relatives seem- 
 ed sprinkled upon every object that met 
 his eyes ; he never passed Belem without 
 fancying he beheld, as in a sort of fright- 
 ful dream, the scaffold, the wheels on which 
 those he best loved had expired in torture. 
 The current of his young, hot blood was 
 frozen ; he felt benumbed and paralysed ; 
 the world, the court, had no charms for 
 him ; there was for him no longer warmth 
 in the sun, or smiles on the human coun- 
 
BATALHA. 77 
 
 tenance : a stranger to love or fear, or any 
 interest on this side the grave, he gave up 
 his entire soul to prayer ; and, to follow 
 that sacred occupation with greater in- 
 tenseness, renounced every prospect of 
 worldly comfort or greatness, and em- 
 braced our order. 
 
 " Full eight-and-twenty years has he 
 remained within these walls, so deeply im- 
 pressed with the conviction of the Duke of 
 Aveiro's innocence, the atrocious falsehood 
 of that pretended conspiracy, and the con- 
 sequent unjust tyrannical expulsion of the 
 order of St. Ignatius, that he believes — and 
 the belief of so pure and so devout a man 
 is always venerable — that the horrors now 
 perpetrating in France are the direct con- 
 sequence of that event, and certain of 
 being brought home to Portugal ; which 
 kingdom he declares is foredoomed to de- 
 solation, and its royal house to punish- 
 ments worse than death. 
 
 " He seldom speaks ; he loathes conver- 
 
78 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 sation, he spurns news of any kind, he 
 shrinks from strangers ; he is constant at 
 his duty in the choir — most severe in his 
 fasts, vigils, and devout observances ; he 
 pays me canonical obedience — nothing 
 more : he is a living grave, a walking 
 sepulchre. I dread to see or hear him ; for 
 every time he crosses my path, beyond the 
 immediate precincts of our basilica, he 
 makes a dead pause, and repeats the same 
 terrible words you heard last night, with 
 an astounding earnestness, as if commis- 
 sioned by God himself to deliver them. 
 And, do you know, my lord stranger, there 
 are moments of my existence, when I firm- 
 ly believe he speaks the words of pro- 
 phetic truth : and who, indeed, can reflect 
 upon the unheard-of crimes committing in 
 France — the massacres, the desecrations, 
 the frantic blasphemies, and not believe 
 them ? Yes, the arm of an avenging God is 
 stretched out — and the weight of impend- 
 ing judgment is most terrible. 
 
BATALHA. 79 
 
 "But what am I saying ? — why should I 
 fill your youthful bosom with such appre- 
 hensions ? I came here to pray your for- 
 giveness for last night's annoyance; which 
 would not have taken place, had not the 
 bustle of our preparations to receive your 
 illustrious and revered companions, the 
 Lord Priors, in the best manner our hum- 
 ble means afford, impeded such precau- 
 tions as might have induced our reverend 
 brother to forego, for once, his dreary noc- 
 turnal walk. I have tried by persuasion 
 to prevent it several times before. To 
 have absolutely forbidden it, would have 
 been harsh — nay, cruel — he gasps so pite- 
 ously for air : besides, it might have been 
 impious to do so. I have taken opinions 
 in chapter upon this matter, which unani- 
 mously strengthen my conviction that the 
 spirit of the Most High moves within him ; 
 nor dare we impede its utterance." 
 
 I listened with profound seriousness 
 to this remarkable communication; — the 
 
80 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 Prior read in my countenance that I did 
 so, and was well pleased. Leading the 
 way, he conducted me to a large shady 
 apartment, in which the plash of a neigh- 
 bouring fountain was distinctly heard. 
 In the centre of this lofty and curiously- 
 groined vaulted hall, resting on a smooth 
 Indian mat, an ample table was spread 
 out with viands and fruits, and liquors 
 cooled in snow. The two Prelates, with 
 the monks deputed from Alcoba^a to at- 
 tend them, were sitting round it. They 
 received me with looks that bespoke the 
 utmost kindness, and at the same time 
 suppressed curiosity ; but not a word was 
 breathed of the occurrence of last night, 
 — with which, however, I have not the 
 smallest doubt they were perfectly well 
 acquainted. 
 
 I cannot say our repast was lively or 
 convivial ; a mysterious gloom seemed 
 brooding over us, and to penetrate the 
 very atmosphere — and yet that atmosphere 
 
BATALHA. 81 
 
 was all loveliness. A sky of intense azure, 
 tempered by fleecy clouds, discovered itself 
 between the tracery of innumerable arches ; 
 the summer airs {aure estive) fanned us 
 as we sat ; the fountain bubbled on ; the 
 perfume of orange and citron flowers was 
 wafted to us from an orchard not far off: 
 but, in spite of all these soft appliances, 
 we remained silent and abstracted. 
 
 A sacristan, who came to announce 
 that high mass was on the point of cele- 
 bration, interrupted our reveries. We all 
 rose up — a solemn grace was said, and 
 the Prior of Batalha taking me most be- 
 nignantly by the hand, the prelates and 
 their attendants followed. We advanced 
 in procession through courts and cloisters 
 and porches, all constructed with admi- 
 rable skill, of a beautiful grey stone, ap- 
 proaching in fineness of texture and ap- 
 parent durability to marble. Young boys 
 of dusky complexions, in long white tu- 
 nics and with shaven heads, were busily 
 
 G 
 
82 TIIK MONASTERY OF 
 
 employed dispelling every particle of dust. 
 A stork and a flamingo seemed to keep 
 most amicable company with them, fol- 
 lowing them wherever they went, and 
 reminding me strongly of Egypt and the 
 rites of Isis. 
 
 We passed the refectory, a plain solid 
 building, with a pierced parapet of the 
 purest Gothic design and most precise 
 execution, and traversing a garden- court 
 divided into compartments, where grew 
 the orange trees whose fragrance we had 
 enjoyed, shading the fountain by whose 
 murmurs we had been lulled, passed 
 through a sculptured gateway into an 
 irregular open space before the grand 
 western facade of the great church — 
 grand indeed — the portal full fifty feet 
 in height, surmounted by a window of 
 perforated marble of nearly the same 
 lofty dimensions, deep as a cavern, and 
 eilriched with canopies and imagery in a 
 style that would have done honour to 
 
BATALIIA. 83 
 
 William of Wykeham, some of whose dis- 
 ciples or co-disciples in the train of the 
 founder's consort, Philippa of Lancaster, 
 had probably designed it. 
 
 As soon as we drew near, the valves of a 
 huge oaken door were thrown open, and 
 we entered the nave, which reminded me 
 of Winchester in form of arches and 
 mouldings, and of Amiens in loftiness. 
 There is a greater plainness in the walls, 
 less panelling, and fewer intersections in 
 the vaulted roof; but the utmost richness 
 of hue, at this time of day at least, was 
 not wanting. No tapestry, however rich — 
 no painting, however vivid, could equal 
 the gorgeousness of tint, the splendour 
 of the golden and ruby light which 
 streamed forth from the long series of 
 stained windows : it played flickering 
 about in all directions, on pavement and 
 on roof, casting over every object myriads 
 of glowing mellow shadows ever in un- 
 dulating motion, like the reflection of 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 branches swayed to and fro by the breeze. 
 We all partook of these gorgeous tints — 
 the white monastic garments of my con- 
 ductors seemed as it were embroidered 
 with the brightest flowers of paradise, and 
 our whole procession kept advancing in- 
 vested with celestial colours. 
 
 Mass began as soon as the high prelatic 
 powers had taken their stations. It was 
 celebrated with no particular pomp, no 
 glittering splendour ; but the countenance 
 and gestures of the officiating priests were 
 characterised by a profound religious awe. 
 The voices of the monks, clear but deep- 
 toned, rose pealing through vast and echo- 
 ing spaces. The chant was grave and 
 simple — its austerity mitigated in some 
 parts by the treble of very young 
 choristers. These sweet and innocent 
 sounds found their way to my heart — 
 they recalled to my memory our own 
 beautiful cathedral service, and — I wept ! 
 My companions, too, appeared unusually 
 
BATALHA. 85 
 
 affected; their thoughts still dwelling, no 
 doubt, on that prophetic voice which never 
 failed to impress its hearers with a sen- 
 sation of mysterious dread. 
 
 It Avas in this tone of mind, so well 
 calculated to nourish solemn and melan- 
 choly impressions, that we visited the 
 mausoleum where lie extended on their 
 cold sepulchres the effigies of John the 
 First, and the generous-hearted, noble- 
 minded Philippa ; linked hand in hand 
 in death as fondly they were in life. — 
 This tomb is placed in the centre of the 
 chapel. 
 
 Under a row of arches on the right, 
 fretted and pinnacled and crocketed in 
 the best style of Gothic at its best pe- 
 riod, lie, sleeping the last sleep, their 
 justly renowned progeny, the Regent Pe- 
 dro Duke of Coimbra, whose wise admi- 
 nistration of government, during the mi- 
 nority of his nephew and son-in-law Al- 
 fonso the Fifth, rendered Portugal so 
 
86 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 prosperous, and whose death, by the vilest 
 treachery, on the field of Alfarubeira, was 
 the fatal consequence of bitter feud and 
 civil jealousies; the Infante, Dom John, 
 a man of pure and blameless life ; Fer- 
 nando, whose protracted captivity in 
 Africa was a long agony, endured with 
 the resigned and pious fortitude of a 
 Christian martyr ; and Henry, to whom 
 his country is beholden for those triumph- 
 ant maritime discoveries, the result of 
 his scientific researches unwearyingly pur- 
 sued in calm and studious retirement. 
 
 All these princes, in whom the high 
 bearing of their intrepid father, and the 
 exemplary virtues and strong sense of their 
 mother, the grand-daughter of our Edward 
 the Third, were united, repose, after their 
 toils and suffering, in this secluded chapel, 
 which looks indeed a place of rest and 
 holy quietude ; the light, equably diffused, 
 forms as it were a tranquil atmosphere, 
 such as might be imagined worthy to sur- 
 
BATALUA. 87 
 
 round the predestined to happiness in a 
 future world. 
 
 I withdrew from the contemplation of 
 these tombs with reluctance ; every object 
 in the chapel which contains them being 
 so pure in taste, so harmonious in colour; 
 every armorial device, every mottoed 1am- 
 bel, so tersely and correctly sculptured, 
 associated also so closely with historical 
 and English recollections — the garter, the 
 leopards, the fleur-de-lis, " from haughty 
 Gallia torn ;" the Plantagenet cast of the 
 whole chamber conveyed home to my bo- 
 som a feeling so interesting, so congenial, 
 that I could hardly persuade myself to 
 move away, though my reverend conduc- 
 tors began to show evident signs of impa- 
 tience. 
 
 The Prior of St. Vincent's observed to 
 me, that as my Lord High Almoner ex- 
 pected us back to dinner, and had set his 
 heart upon an omelette a la provencale, 
 which he eagerly desired might be tossed 
 
88 THE MONASTERY Or 
 
 up by my divine (as he was pleased to call 
 him) French cook, we had no time to lose. 
 We were therefore hurried unmercifully 
 through the royal cloisters, a glorious 
 square of nearly two hundred feet, sur- 
 rounded by most beautifully-proportioned 
 arches, filled up with a tracery as quaint 
 as any of the ornaments of Roslin chapel, 
 but infinitely more elegant : it is impossi- 
 ble to praise too warmly their tasteful and 
 delicate ramifications. 
 
 I could not fail observing the admirable 
 order in which every — the minutest nook 
 and corner of this truly regal monastery 
 is preserved : not a weed in any crevice, 
 not a lichen on any stone, not a stain on 
 the warm-coloured apparently marble walls, 
 not a floating cress on the unsullied waters 
 of the numerous fountains. The ventila- 
 tion of all these spaces was most admir- 
 able ; it was a luxury to breathe the tem- 
 perate delicious air, blowing over the fresh 
 herbs and flowers, which filled the com- 
 
BATALIIA. 80 
 
 partments of a parterre in the centre of 
 the cloister, from which you ascend by a 
 few expansive steps to the chapter-house, 
 a square of seventy feet, and the most 
 strikingly beautiful apartment I ever be- 
 held. The graceful arching of the roof, 
 unsupported by console or column, is un- 
 equalled ; it seems suspended by magic ; 
 indeed, human means failed twice in con- 
 structing this bold unembarrassed space. 
 Perseverance, and the animating encou- 
 ragement of the sovereign founder, at 
 length conquered every difficulty, and the 
 work remains to this hour secure and per- 
 fect. 
 
 This stately hall, though appropriated 
 to the official resort of the living, is also a 
 consecrated abode of the dead. On a rais- 
 ed platform in the centre, covered with 
 rich palls, are placed the tombs of Alfonso 
 the Fifth, and his grandson, a gallant, 
 blooming youth, torn from life, and his 
 newly-married consort, the Infiinta of 
 
90 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 Castile, and its fairest flower, at the early 
 age of seventeen : with him expired the 
 best hopes of Portugal, and of his father, 
 the great John the Second. 
 
 My conductors, a great deal less affected 
 than myself, would not allow me even one 
 moment to ruminate and moralize upon 
 vicissitudes and bereavements — they quite 
 urged me along ; and, to aid their active 
 intentions, a tide of monks, sacristans, no- 
 vices, seminarists, and the Lord knows who 
 beside, appeared all of a sudden flowing 
 forth from every cell and cloister : they 
 had been all congregated, it seems, to do 
 us honour and bid us adieu. The Prior, 
 with his hands crossed on his breast, made 
 me a low obeisance, and then opening his 
 arms, gave me a cordial embrace. 
 
 Our army of attendants, mules, horses, 
 and carriages, were all in waiting, ready 
 drawn up at the same portal by which we 
 had entered the night before. A grand 
 interchange of salutations having taken 
 
RATALHA. 91 
 
 place, we departed, the fatal voice, I verily 
 believe, sounding in the ears of most of 
 us — it certainly did in mine. 
 
 To dissipate impressions which hung 
 heavily upon me, I asked permission of 
 my illustrious companions to mount my 
 horse, and to leave them to the ease 
 and comfort of their capacious chaise ; 
 they of course returning by Aljubarota, 
 and I by a short cut, over some of the 
 wildest be- pined, and be-rosemaryed, and 
 be-lavendered country I ever met with. 
 Franchi, who was perfectly well acquaint- 
 ed with this wilderness, steered my course 
 through all its mazes and straggling paths 
 of sand and turf, alternately, bordered 
 by the gum-cistus in full flaring flower, 
 so strongly scented as almost to command 
 me to go to sleep. 
 
 Dr. Ehrhart had taken his departure 
 several hours before, charged with the im- 
 portant mission of conveying my culinary 
 artist, the incomparable Monsieur Simon, 
 
92 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 to the longing arms of My Lord High 
 Ahnoner ; and, above all, by a vehement 
 impulse to visit the infirmary of the con- 
 vent, which he had been told contained 
 an unusual number of patients, many of 
 whom were afflicted with unusual dis- 
 orders. This was attraction for him in 
 an irresistible shape, and he most gladly 
 left Batalha, and all its historical glories, 
 (tombs, altars, and chapels, finished or 
 unfinished,) to enjoy it. 
 
 I cannot describe in too glowing colours 
 the increased jubilation with which I had 
 the glory of being received by my Lord 
 Abbot upon my return ; for not only did 
 he pass the threshold of his majestic por- 
 tals to bid me welcome, but his principal 
 confidant and factotum, the Sub-Prior, 
 (whose strongly marked features were 
 quite in the style of some of the finest 
 studies of Masaccio,) assisted me to dis- 
 mount, and condescendingly held my 
 stirrup. From all these redoubled atten- 
 
ALCOBACA. 93 
 
 tions, I plainly perceived that the wind 
 had changed in my favour several points 
 since yesterday : and what do you think 
 had produced this agreeable alteration ? 
 — the omelette a la provencale. 
 
 " Oh, my dear, most excellent stranger!" 
 — (my name for the time being had totally 
 escaped him,) exclaimed his right re- 
 verence, " what a treasure you possess in 
 that admirable artist — o grande Simao! 
 he has had the kindness to cast a new 
 light over my stoves, — he is liberality 
 itself; for, instead of locking up his know- 
 ledge, he has diffused it throughout my 
 whole kitchen. Here — " continued he, 
 pulling out some scrawls which Franchi had 
 translated from the original French into 
 very aboriginal Portuguese — " Here are 
 receipts, with marginal notes and illus- 
 trations, I mean to preserve, as carefully 
 as I would a string of pearls, till my 
 last hour. But, is it true, is it f)ossible, 
 you can be meditating to leave us so 
 
94 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 soon ? Some bird of evil note whispered 
 in my ear that you were determined to 
 leave us to-morrow morning. Let me con- 
 jure you not to think of it : one day 
 more, at least, do I pray and beseech you 
 to bestow on us. My revered lords the 
 Priors of Aviz and St. Vincent's have 
 consented to comply with my request, 
 subject to your approval — Oh do not re- 
 fuse them and me !" 
 
 " Whatever your right reverence and 
 my illustrious friends so earnestly desire 
 cannot meet on my part with the slightest 
 impediment," answered I with a reveren- 
 tial obeisance. 
 
 " Now then," rejoined the Prior, clap- 
 ping his hands in ecstasy, " we shall 
 have that famous dish the admirable Simon 
 promised me, — a macedoine, worthy of 
 Alexander the Great ; most happy, most 
 grateful do I feel myself. But time is on 
 the wing — let us profit whilst we can. 
 I see you wish to refresh yourself by a 
 
ALCOBApA. 95 
 
 change of dress in your own apartment : 
 be it so — but don't be long ; dinner shall 
 be on table the moment you are ready ; 
 and you know, good becomes bad, in 
 the case of dishes at least, if we wait a 
 second beyond the auspicious time.'* 
 
 Such logic was irresistible ; I made all 
 the haste required, and we sat down, I 
 can truly say, to one of the most delicious 
 banquets ever vouchsafed a mortal on this 
 side Mahomet's paradise. The macedoine 
 was perfection, the ortolans and quails 
 lumps of celestial fatness, and the sautes 
 and bechamels beyond praise ; and a cer- 
 tain truffle cream so exquisite, that my 
 Lord Abbot forestalled the usual grace 
 at the termination of repasts, most piously 
 to give thanks for it. 
 
 The dinner was about half over, when in 
 came Dr. Ehrhart in high spirits, rubbing 
 his hands with triumphant glee, and talk- 
 ing to himself, as he was often wont, in the 
 purest Alsatian. He had passed a couple 
 
96 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 of hours in the infirmary, and had visited 
 all its closets of vials and gallipots. The 
 drugs were not such (he informed us) 
 either in quantity or quality as he could 
 warmly commend ; but the stock of ma- 
 ladies, to the alleviation of which they 
 were destined, most ample. He had found 
 a pretty sprinkling of complicated cases, — 
 some highly curious, and, no doubt, piquant: 
 one in particular, an ulcer of tremendous 
 size, exhibited every freak dame Nature 
 was capable of playing upon such an 
 occasion, — suppuration in one corner, cal- 
 losity in another. He spoke of it in 
 raptures, and regretted our stay was too 
 limited to allow his committing to paper 
 an exact delineation of this magnificent 
 object in all its glow of colouring. He 
 spoke handsomely also of the compound 
 fracture of somebody's left leg. But when 
 he came to the description of a sweet, sim- 
 ple perennial sore (simplex immunditiis), 
 which had continued during a series of 
 
ALCOBAfA. 97 
 
 years to ebb and flow as regularly as the 
 ocean, his enthusiasm knew no bounds. 
 He said it was a most singular case . — a 
 beautiful case ; a case so remarkable, so 
 unprecedented, that he was determined all 
 Europe should ring of it from side to side. 
 He would throw his thoughts upon it into 
 a dissertation of the length of at least 
 sixty pages- that he would — and dedicate 
 it to his native university. Then, bursting 
 forth into a torrent of Latin, rendered 
 unintelligible to all but the frequenters 
 of Strasbourg or Colmar by the most vil- 
 lanous Alsatian twang, addressed himself 
 point-blank to my Lord Abbot. 
 
 His right reverence, by no means pleased 
 at being roused from the joys of the table 
 by such an appeal and upon such a sub- 
 ject, very coolly replied, "that he made it 
 a rule never to speak or hear the Latin 
 language out of the choir, if he could pos- 
 sibly help it." This so palpable a rebuff 
 silenced the good doctor, who had recourse 
 
 II 
 
98 THE MONASTER V OV 
 
 to copious libations of generous wine to 
 dispel the disappointment it occasioned ; 
 for he saw plainly that neither the fierce 
 ulcer nor the gentle sore would meet with 
 that attention from tlie supreme disposer 
 of all things at Alcobaca, he was convinced 
 they deserved so richly. 
 
 Notwithstanding the plastic effects of 
 good cheer and flowing cups, my inesti- 
 mable physician continued growling in an 
 under tone during the whole remainder 
 of our repast. And now the fulness of 
 time for removing from the banquet-hall 
 to the adjoining saloon being come, we 
 repaired to another table, where all the 
 delights of fruit and confectionary awaited 
 us. Observing a good deal of whispering 
 and message-sending between the Priors 
 and their confidential attendants going 
 forward, accompanied by nods and winks, 
 I thought something particular for our 
 special amusement was in contemplation ; 
 
ALCOBA^'A. 99 
 
 nor was I deceived: the agreeable little 
 mystery was soon cleared up by the en- 
 trance of a tall, hook-nosed, sallow-corn- 
 plexioned personage, in a tarnished court 
 suit ; who advanced with measured strides, 
 beating with one hand a slow and solemn 
 tattoo upon a roll of parchment which he 
 carried in the other. 
 
 I could not conceive what patent or 
 document was about to be unfolded, when 
 the personage giving the parchment a 
 quick twirl with his bird-claw-like fingers, 
 it displayed itself in the shape of a thea- 
 trical bill, engrossed in large characters 
 flaming with vermilion and gold. On 
 this scroll I read most distinctly that — 
 this night, by the grace of God and the 
 especial permission of the Abbot of Alco- 
 bapa. High Almoner of Portugal, &c. &c. 
 &c. would be enacted the excruciating 
 tragedy of Donna Inez de Castro, and the 
 cruel murder of that lovely lady and her 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 two innocent royal infants, represented on 
 the stage : the part of Donna Inez by 
 Senhor Agostinho Jose. 
 
 " The murder of the two royal infants !" 
 exclaimed I ; " what means this ? We 
 know too well, alas ! how the Lady Inez 
 was disposed of ; but her two sweet babes 
 escaped from the fangs of the tyrant — did 
 they not, my good Lord Abbot ?" 
 
 " To be sure they did," replied his 
 right reverence : " but this fine drama is 
 not the production of one of our national 
 bards ; — an Italian gentleman, who has 
 done us the honour of partaking of our 
 hospitality for several years, and acquired 
 in perfection our language, is the author ; 
 and, being a stranger, cannot be expected 
 to feel so acutely for those precious infants 
 as we Portuguese do : he therefore asked 
 my leave to have them murdered, in order 
 to add to the effect of the catastrophe. 
 Rather than thwart a person of such 
 transcendent abilities, and my very par- 
 
ALCOBAfA. 101 
 
 ticular friend, I consented. He had half 
 a mind to make them fall by their mo- 
 ther's own poniard in a fit of frenzy : 
 but I could not allow of that ; it would 
 have been stretching a little too far — don't 
 you think so ?" 
 
 Recollecting the stretches I had often 
 met with at home in historical novels — 
 witness Miss Lee's " Recess" and many 
 others — I made no objection, and turning 
 to the bard, who was standing by wrapt 
 into future murders, praised his sublime 
 efforts in the tragic vein — the terribile via — 
 in the most glowing terms I could muster. 
 Animated by these grateful eulogies, 
 he vociferated with dreadful vehemence, 
 " Let me but live a few years longer, and 
 I will be the death of half the regal 
 personages in the Portuguese history, after 
 my own fashion and no other. I will 
 slay them magnificently on the battle- 
 field, though they died in their brocad- 
 ed beds with all their courtiers puling 
 
102 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 around them ; I will sink them in the 
 ocean, though they expired on dry land ; — 
 their agonies in the act of drowning shall 
 be horrible ; — nay, more, I will call upon 
 the Prince of the Morning, upon Lucifer 
 himself, to bear them away for some secret 
 sin or compact, though the prayers of the 
 church had been exhausted to avert such 
 a direful calamity." 
 
 I thought this was a stretch with a ven- 
 geance : the Abbot, I plainly saw by his 
 countenance, was of the same opinion ; but, 
 giving his ample shoulders a kind com- 
 miserating shrug, (for the bard was a 
 special favourite,) contented himself with 
 whispering to me — " Sta doedo — sta doedo ; 
 the man 's mad — all poets are." 
 
 The Grand Prior of Aviz, who seemed 
 to have no doubt of the truth of this ob- 
 servation in the present instance, looked 
 at the bard with an expression of alarm 
 that was almost ludicrous, and shrinking 
 back in his chair, exclaimed piteously — 
 
ALCOBA^A. 1 03 
 
 " What, Donna Inez and her children 
 butchered upon the stage ? I shall never 
 be able to stand this ; my eyes would 
 become fountains, and we have had weep- 
 ing enough lately," (alluding perhaps to 
 the liquefaction scene of last night :) " tra- 
 gedies of so deep a dye as this we are 
 promised, affect my nerves in the most 
 painful manner/' So saying, he retired 
 without further ceremony, accompanied 
 by two reverend fathers, dignitaries of the 
 convent, who professed the same clerical 
 aversion to scenes of bloodshed. 
 
 As soon as they had departed to a quiet 
 game of voltarete in their own snug 
 quarters, the Lord Abbot, observing it was 
 growing late, (for we had passed a most 
 unconscionable time at table,) invited me 
 to repair, under his Sub-Prior's guidance, 
 to a theatre which had been temporarily 
 fitted up in the most distant part of this 
 immense edifice, of the extent of which, 
 as well as of the endless variety of its 
 
104 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 cloistered galleries, cells, chapels, and 
 chambers, I had not till this moment 
 an adequate idea. Our peregrinations, 
 therefore, were none of the shortest or 
 least intricate. We passed through se- 
 veral galleries but feebly lighted, disturb- 
 ing, I fear, the devotions of some aged 
 monks, who were putting up their orisons 
 before a lugubrious image of our Lady of 
 the Seven Dolours, placed under a most 
 sumptuously fringed and furbelowed ca- 
 nopy of purple velvet. 
 
 Farther on, another vast corridor branch- 
 ed off to that part of the convent allotted 
 to scholars and novices. Not a few of 
 these gentle youths were pursuing the 
 study of the Jew's harp, and twanging 
 away most proficiently. All these scudded 
 off upon our approach, — the whole party 
 had been at high romps, I suspect, from 
 their flushed and blowzy appearance, — 
 wishing us, I dare say, in purgatory, or 
 
ALCOBA^A. 105 
 
 a worse place, for having intruded upon 
 their recreations. 
 
 Advancing with due gravity, the valves 
 of a lofty architectural door, with a pom- 
 pous inscription on the pediment in gold- 
 en characters, were unfolded, and we en- 
 tered an extraordinarily spacious, coved 
 saloon, which appeared to have been as- 
 signed to holier purposes, for there was 
 an organ in a recess on one side of it. 
 Across the whole end of this apartment was 
 extended an immense green curtain, with 
 the insignia of the convent emblazoned 
 upon it in vivid colours ; the centre of the 
 saloon was occupied, as might have been 
 expected, with many a row of polished 
 oaken benches ; but what I did not ex- 
 pect was an assemblage of more than one 
 hundred venerable fathers, sitting in so- 
 lemn ranks, as if they had been assisting 
 at an ecumenical council, some wiping 
 their spectacles, and some telling their 
 
106 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 beads. An effluvia, neither of jasmine nor 
 roses — in short, that species of high conven- 
 tual frowziness w^hich monastic habits and 
 garments are not a little apt to engender, 
 affected my lay nerves most disagreeably. 
 
 The Prior of St. Vincent's, perceiving 
 the uneasy curl up of my nose, w^hispered 
 his neighbour, vs^ho whispered a second, 
 v^ho whispered a third, and presently a 
 most grateful vapour of fragrant herbs 
 and burnt lavender filled the room. 
 Through its medium appeared descend- 
 ing from a portal, by a flight of most 
 spacious steps, the Lord Abbot himself 
 in grand costume. He insisted, with a 
 positiveness which I could not avoid 
 obeying, that I should take his abbatial 
 chair next the orchestra, and placed him- 
 self on another equally ponderous, con- 
 ceding the one on my right hand to the 
 Prior of St. Vincent's. 
 
 We were no sooner settled, than half- 
 a-dozen sharp-toned fiddles, a growling 
 
ALCOBAfA. 107 
 
 bass, two overgrown mandolineSj (lutes 
 I suppose I ought to style them), and a 
 pair of flutes most nauseously tweedled 
 upon by two wanton-looking, blear-eyed 
 young monks, who it would be charit- 
 able to suppose had caught cold at some 
 midnight choral service, struck up a most 
 singular and original species of antiquated 
 overture. It was full of jerking passages 
 in the style of " Les Folies d'Espagne," 
 and ended with a fugue that was catch- 
 who-can in perfection. 
 
 Instead of the curtains drawing up at 
 the conclusion of this strange musical 
 farrago, there was a tedious pause, and 
 I had full time to look round on the 
 audience. Not five monks off my fauteuil, 
 I caught the evil eye of Donna Francisca's 
 director, sitting apart from the rest of the 
 assembly, and looking more terrifically 
 glum than any saint I ever beheld on 
 an Italian sign-post, or in a German 
 prayer-book. 
 
108 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 I was trying to account for the delay 
 of the performance, when sounds not un- 
 like those which often proceed from a 
 disturbed hen-roost became audible. Fran- 
 chi's voice sounded predominant in this 
 strange hubbub ; and I found out after- 
 wards that he had been fruitlessly at- 
 tempting to persuade the Lady Inez (one of 
 the most ungain hobbledehoys I ever met 
 with) to abjure an enormous pair of jing- 
 ling ear-rings, and to reduce a sweeping 
 train he kept floundering over at every 
 step, to the proportion of those in fashion 
 amongst the tragedy queens of the Salitri 
 theatre. Anything in the shape of metro- 
 politan criticism wounded the awkward 
 stripling's provincial amour-propre so 
 deeply, that he threatened hysterics and 
 an appeal to the Lord Abbot. This was 
 conclusive ; Franchi gave way, the Lady 
 Inez retained her overflowing robes and 
 her ear-rings, and the curtain rose. 
 
 Said his right reverence, whispering to 
 
ALCOBACA. 109 
 
 me over the arm of my ponderous chair, 
 " If you had heard Agostinho's decla- 
 mation only two months ago, you would 
 have been enchanted — his tones were so 
 touching, so pathetic : his voice is now a 
 little broken down ; but you, who have 
 an ear, will soon discover that it is on 
 the high road of becoming a grand bari- 
 tone : and as for his action, I am con- 
 vinced you will soon allow nothing was 
 ever more sublime." 
 
 Just as I was on the point of replying to 
 this warm encomium in a strain of corre- 
 spondent eulogy, my Lord Abbot gently 
 murmured, " Hush, hush ! don't you hear 
 the Lady Inez ?" I certainly did — and 
 well I might, for a louder bellow was 
 never given by the flower of any dairy. 
 No cow bereaved of her last-dropped young 
 one ever uttered sounds more doleful : they 
 increased in depth and dismality, till the 
 forlorn damsel, advancing to the lights on 
 the stage, cried out, " Cru-el, cru-el!" ad- 
 
110 THK MONASTERY OF 
 
 dressing, I suppose, the phantom of her 
 redoubted father-in-law, — " and wouldst 
 thou slay my innocents ? Hast thou dis- 
 covered my peaceful retirement ? Where 
 fly — where run ?" She then continued, in 
 a flow of at least one hundred lines, to 
 picture her agonising fears, her dire pre- 
 sentiments, her frightful dreams ; and, 
 with looks that were meant to tear our 
 feelings to the last tatter, she thus de- 
 scribed her most terrific vision : 
 
 On thy wan disk, O pale and ghastly moon ! 
 I saw portray'd a vengeful countenance ; 
 And whilst upon it I did wildly gaze, 
 Methought it wore the semblance of the King — 
 (Now gelid horror claini'd me for her own.) 
 I tried to fly — I fled, but all in vain, 
 The dreaded face pursued me. 
 If I turn'd back, 'twas there ; if I advanced, 
 The stern, cold image seem'd to freeze my soul, 
 Changing the genial current of my blood 
 Into a substance more severe than stone. 
 Avaunt, my hapless babes ! approach me not, 
 Lest by some fatal petrifying power 
 Your limbs be fix'd in durance. 
 
ALCOBAf A. 1 1 1 
 
 Donna Inez, by good luck, declaimed 
 this magnificent piece of nonsense in a 
 tolerably even key, and with really so just 
 an emphasis, that the enraptured bard, 
 laying aside his prompting-book, could not 
 resist exclaiming, " What do you think of 
 that ?"— « E boa, e boa !" replied the Lord 
 Abbot. And the whole assembly, both be- 
 fore and behind the scenes, re-echoed with 
 one accord this favourable sentiment, and 
 nothing but " E boa, e boa !" was heard 
 from one end of the saloon to the other. 
 
 Such universal encouragement did not 
 fail to produce its effect upon Donna 
 Inez, — rather too much so ; for the higher 
 notes of her semi-soprano voice having re- 
 gained the ascendant, she squalled out of 
 all mercy. My sense of hearing is pain- 
 fully acute, and I hardly know what I 
 would not have given for cotton to stop 
 my ears with. However, they had soon a 
 respite, Heaven be praised ' the second act 
 being totally employed by the plots and 
 
112 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 contrivances of the King and his coun- 
 sellors, — quiet, chatty people, as loyal and 
 complaisant as King Arthur's courtiers, 
 Noodle, Doodle, and Foodie, in the incom- 
 parable tragedy of Tom Thumb. 
 
 In act the third, to my infinite astonish- 
 ment, I found his majesty totally unac- 
 quainted with the little circumstance of 
 Donna Inez having favoured his recreant 
 son with a brace of children : he more than 
 suspected espousals had taken place be- 
 tween them, but he little thought any 
 fruits from the degrading match were in 
 existence. Upon his prime counsellor's 
 disclosing the fact, he asks with a perfi- 
 dious coolness, " What are they like ?" — 
 " Doves, my dread lord," answers the 
 counsellor with infinite suavity : to which 
 the infuriated monarch replies with a 
 voice of thunder, 
 
 " It matters not, I'll tear their felon hearts — 
 Pbrish they shall !" 
 
 And with this horrid menace quits the 
 
ALCOBA^A. 113 
 
 stage in a paroxysm of ungovernable fury, 
 still repeating behind the scenes " Perish 
 they shall !" which was repeated again and 
 again from the top of a ladder, by an old 
 dignified monk, a passionate lover of the 
 drama, but who being decorously shy of 
 appearing on the open boards, had taken 
 the part of Echo, which he performed to 
 admiration. 
 
 Act the fourth offered nothing very loud 
 or remarkable ; but in act the fifth, horror 
 and terror were working up to the highest 
 pitch ; two determined assassins had been 
 procured — their looks most murderous — 
 the children ran off — the assassins pur- 
 sued — shrill and bitter squeakings were 
 heard at the farthest extremity of the 
 stage, such as a desperate conflict between 
 rats or mice often produces behind old 
 walls or wainscotings. The audience ap- 
 peared prodigiously affected ; most of them 
 stood up, stretching out their necks like a 
 flock of alarmed turkeys. This dreadful 
 
 k 
 
114 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 hurry-skurry ended by the first assassin's 
 seizing the eldest infant by its beautiful 
 hair, and tossing it apparently dead upon 
 the stage. Three or four drops of pigeon's 
 blood, squeezed out of some invisible re- 
 ceptacle, added a horrible appearance of 
 reality to the foul deed. 
 
 It was now the other infant's turn to be 
 murdered; and murdered it was, in a style 
 that would not have disgraced one of 
 Herod's best practitioners. The poor help- 
 less innocent, who appeared to be most 
 dreadfully frightened in right earnest, de- 
 livered its little dying speech with so 
 much artlessness, that I was not surprised 
 to see tears fall and hear sobs heave all 
 around me. In short, affliction was almost 
 exhausted to the last drop before Donna 
 Inez was driven in, who, after calling to 
 the sun, moon, and stars for vengeance, in 
 accents at times most deep, at others most 
 piercing, was immolated, by three distinct 
 stabs of a poniard, upon the bodies of her 
 children. 
 
ALCOBA^A. 115 
 
 The deed so completely done, his most 
 revengeful majesty, gloomier than Dis, and 
 looking more truculent than ever the King 
 of Judea was supposed to have done, en- 
 tered with royal and stately step — stood 
 gloating a minute or two over the horrid 
 spectacle, and then, with the hoarse note of 
 a carrion crow, croaked forth, " I am sa- 
 tisfied." The curtain fell ; and putting 
 aside its folds with a withered hand trem- 
 bling with agitation, out issued the bard 
 himself to speak an epilogue in his own 
 character. It was tiresome and pompous 
 enough, God knows, and concluded with a 
 tirade, not exactly a la Camoens, pretty 
 nearly as follows : 
 
 Lord of the firmament, couldst thou blaze on, 
 Urging thy coursers through the plains of light. 
 And not start back, affrighted at the deed ! 
 Moon, veil thy orb — be quench'd, ye conscious stars, 
 Never again to sparkle as before ! 
 
 Every soul in the assembly seemed to 
 stand aghast, imprecating vengeance on 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 the ruthless monarch, and feeling for the 
 murdered innocents to their heart's core. 
 Donna Inez was called for by my Lord 
 Abbot, and embraced by his right reve- 
 rence most blubberingly. The kind- 
 hearted Prior of St. Vincent's wept aloud, 
 — I tried my best, though in a lower key, 
 to imitate him ; the Poet was lauded to 
 the skies, and received from the fountain- 
 head of all good within these precincts 
 something more solid than praise — a 
 richly embroidered purse, heavy and 
 chinking, which he deposited in one of 
 his lank pockets, after making a grateful 
 profound genuflexion. 
 
 " And now," said my Lord Abbot, " let 
 us dry our tears and go to supper ; and in 
 order to give merit its just due, the Poet 
 and Agostinho shall be of the party. 
 "Why not?" said the Prior of St. Vin- 
 cent's. " Why not ?" echoed I, — " pro- 
 vided we have neither the king nor the 
 murderers." 
 
ALCOBAfA. 117 
 
 As sunshine so frequently follows dark 
 and drizzling weather, nothing could be 
 more blithe or even frolicksome than our 
 repast. The Grand Prior of Aviz, whom 
 we found already placed near the hospit- 
 able board with his two card companions, 
 talking over their game, congratulated 
 himself warmly upon having escaped such 
 a severe assault upon the pathetic feelings, 
 and enjoyed the festivity of the moment 
 without alloy. So we all did ; and it was 
 at a very late hour of one of the blandest 
 summer nights I ever experienced that 
 we retired to our apartments. 
 
1J8 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 EIGHTH DAY. 
 
 Too much of a good thing. — My longing for a Ramble. — 
 Sage resolves — A Gallop. — Pure and elastic Atmo- 
 sphere. — Expansive Plain. — Banks of the River. — Ma- 
 jestic Basilica ofBatalha. — Ghost-like Anglers. — Retro- 
 spections. — The Conventual Bells. — Conversation with 
 the Prior. — A frugal Collation. — Romantic Fancies. — The 
 Dead Stork and his Mourner. — Mausoleum of Don Ema- 
 nuel. — Perverse Architecture. — Departure from Batalha. 
 — Twilight. — Return to Alcoba^a. 
 
 June 10. 
 
 One may have too much of the good 
 and grand things of this wicked world 
 after all. I began to be tired of such per- 
 petual gormandizing — the fumes of ban- 
 quets and incense — the repetition of pom- 
 pous rites — the splendour of illuminated 
 altars and saints and madonnas, in fusty sa- 
 loons, under still fustier canopies. My soul 
 longed for an opener expanse — the canopy 
 of the heavens. So I said to myself, " Dr. 
 
ALCOBAfA. 119 
 
 Ehrhart may enjoy his infirmary; Franchi, 
 his endeavours to introduce a purer taste 
 of costume on the ruler of Alcobaca's 
 temporary theatre ; the Priors, their cards 
 and their devotions ; I will place the in- 
 comparable Simon at my Lord Almoner's 
 uninterrupted disposal — they may toss 
 omelets and season matelottes to their 
 hearts' content, and, this being a day by 
 courtesy entitled meagre, select the finest 
 fish from their choicest reservoirs, if they so 
 fancy. I pant like a hart for living waters : 
 I am determined to follow the course of 
 the river I noticed yesterday, winding 
 its fresh sparkling stream between aro- 
 matic thickets ; and should it lead me 
 along its banks all the way to Batalha, so 
 much the better. I have not seen half I 
 wanted to see in that holy spot ; and what 
 little I did see floated before me like the 
 shadows of a dream. I must be more in- 
 timately acquainted with the unfinished 
 mausoleum of Don Emanuel, of which I 
 
120 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 have heard and read so much ; — in short, 
 I must breathe, which I can hardly be said 
 to do in this too rich, too luxurious, too 
 heavy atmosphere." 
 
 These sage resolves being taken and 
 communicated in due form to my right 
 reverend companions, and by them to the 
 ruling power of Alcobapa, (for I did not 
 wish to disturb my Lord Abbot's slumbers, 
 even with the good news of my having 
 given up Monsieur Simon to his guidance,) 
 I mounted my Arabian, patted his glossy 
 neck, and whispering in his ear, " Now 
 we will repair to the desert — you will 
 think of your native wilds, and I of mine,'* 
 off I galloped. 
 
 The fertile meadows and enclosures im- 
 mediately round the convent were soon 
 passed, and so were the chesnut woods 
 hanging on the steeps crowned by the 
 Moorish castle. My courser in full proof, 
 pampered by the rich provender he had 
 been so abundantly supplied with, set no 
 bounds to his exertions, and I had hardly 
 
ALCOBA^A. 121 
 
 gained the level on the summit of the 
 hills towards Aljubarota, before he fairly 
 ran away with me. The country people, 
 who, to do them justice, appeared very 
 industriously employed, could not, how- 
 ever, help leaving their work to stare at 
 the velocity of my scamper, distending 
 their eyes as wide as they could possibly be 
 distended when they beheld my Arabian 
 on full stretch 
 
 " With flying speed outstrip the rapid wind, 
 And leave the breezes of the morn behind." 
 
 The morn itself was most exhilarating : 
 1 never breathed in any atmosphere so pure 
 or so elastic — it seemed to sparkle with 
 life and light. The azure bloom investing 
 the line of mountains which shelter Leiria 
 was most beautiful. I longed to transfer 
 their picturesquely-varied outline to the 
 leaves of my sketch-book ; but it was in 
 vain I wished to stop for that purpose — 
 neither snaffle nor curb could arrest the 
 speed of my courser. 
 
122 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 At length, after a most inveterate gallop 
 of at least five miles right a-head, per- 
 suasion effected what force was completely 
 unequal to. He gave a lively, good-hu- 
 moured, playful neigh, obeyed my much- 
 loved voice, and halted. We were stand- 
 ing on an expanse of the smoothest sand, 
 as firmly bound together as the nicest 
 rolled walks of a regal garden ; here and 
 there patches of anemones and fragrant 
 brushwood, cistus, lavender, and rosemary, 
 varied the surface in irregular forms, like 
 those of islands and continents distinctly 
 defined on a map. No object afforded 
 the smallest indication of human exist- 
 ence — neither the pointed roof of a shep- 
 herd's hovel, nor even a curling smoke. 
 As far as the eye could reach, one uniform 
 waste of level shrubs extended itself, 
 bathed in the same equal purple light, 
 and fanned by the same delightful air, 
 impregnated with the same balsamic odour ; 
 an elysium without inhabitants, — unless, 
 
ALCOBAfA. 123 
 
 indeed, the souls of the departed were 
 hovering about this serene and tranquil 
 region, invisible to mortal eye. 
 
 Perhaps my Arabian beheld objects we 
 are forbidden to gaze at ; for he started 
 and pawed the ground, and snorted with 
 such vehemence that I almost expected 
 every moment to see fire flash from his 
 nostrils. By degrees this violent ferment 
 subsided, and he became calm ; what we 
 superciliously call instinct seemed to point 
 out to him that the region into which 
 he had been pleased to carry me was 
 totally barren of refreshment, and upon 
 loosening his bridle, and allowing him to 
 take what route he pleased, most pru- 
 dently did he trace back his steps be- 
 tween entangled bushes, till I found my- 
 self under the shade of a forest of pine 
 and chesnut, through which I descended 
 to the margin of the river I so particularly 
 wished to explore : and twenty times did 
 I bless myself for having determined to 
 
124 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 follow the banks of this beautiful stream, 
 the scenery they presented having a cast 
 so novel and uncommon. 
 
 A broad path, or rather causeway, per- 
 fectly hard and dry, led me between a 
 gigantic growth of canes, knotted like 
 the bamboo ; bulrushes of enormous size, 
 and osiers, the tallest I had ever seen, 
 waving their fresh green leaves high above 
 my head, which they completely screened 
 from the sun. The coolness they diffused, 
 their incessant whispers, and the clear 
 current of the river rippling among their 
 stems, was so grateful both to the eye 
 and ear, that I kept listening and lin- 
 gering on, unwilling to emerge from this 
 strange wilderness, and almost fancying 
 I beheld one of those forests of weeds 
 and grasses which, some five or six hun- 
 dred thousand years ago, afforded refuge 
 to a stupendous variety of monsters. 
 Happily no icthyosaurus— no tortoise fifty 
 feet in diameter, with paddles thrice as 
 
ALCOBA^A. 125 
 
 large as the helm of a first-rate man-of- 
 war, oppressed me with their presence. I 
 saw no living objects, except a shoal of 
 fish, with scales as bright as silver, swiftly 
 darting under the low arches formed by 
 the luxuriant vegetation ; and lizards as 
 green as emeralds, ascending the sides of 
 the causeway, and looking at me, I 
 thought, with kind and friendly eyes. 
 
 For more than half a league did I 
 continue along the path, hemmed in by 
 aquatic plants of extraordinary vigour, 
 springing from the richest alluvial soil. 
 At length, just as I was beginning to think 
 this w^orld of reeds and osiers had no ter- 
 mination, the stream took a sudden bend, 
 which I followed, and making the best 
 of my way through every obstacle, escaped 
 into an open space and open daylight. 
 Right before me, at the extremity of an 
 assemblage of hillocks, some bare, some 
 covered with flowering heaths, but des- 
 titute of human or animal inhabitants, 
 
126 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 stood the lofty majestic basilica of Ba- 
 tallia, surrounded by its glorious huddle 
 of buildings, from this point most pic- 
 turesquely foreshortened. I could hardly 
 believe so considerable and striking a group 
 of richly parapeted walls, roofs, and 
 towers, detached chapels, and insulated 
 spires, formed parts of one and the same 
 edifice : in appearance it was not merely 
 a church or a palace I was looking at, 
 but some fair city of romance, such as 
 an imagination glowing with the fancies 
 of Ariosto might have pictured to itself 
 under the illusion of a dream. 
 
 Keeping my eyes fixed on a prospect 
 which I tried to persuade myself partook 
 less of the real than the visionary, I tra- 
 versed an extensive level of sunburnt turf, 
 and, on the other side of the hillocks 
 bounding the lawn, again found myself 
 on the banks of the river, which here 
 presented the loveliest of mirrors — so calm, 
 so pellucid, that I thought it a thousand 
 
BATALHA. 127 
 
 pities no pleasanter objects were reflected 
 from its surface, than a long line of ghost- 
 like fathers, each with a fishing-rod pro- 
 jecting from his piebald drapery, angling 
 on with pale and patient countenances. I 
 did not perceive the melancholy prophet in 
 this rank and file, — and I was not sorry ; 
 I dreaded to encounter his withering 
 glance, to hear his foreboding voice ; for 
 I had been told he often pressed pro- 
 phecies upon those least inclined to seek 
 them, and I shrank from any knowledge 
 of the horrors he might possibly disclose 
 to me. Far from desiring to catch even 
 the shadow of coming events, I said to my- 
 self, in the nervous language of Dryden, 
 
 " Seek not to know what must not be reveal'd ; 
 Joys only flow where fate is most conceal'd. 
 Too busy man would find his sorrows more, 
 If future fortunes he could know before ; 
 For by that knowledge of his destiny, 
 He would not live at all, but always die." 
 
 Not above one hundred yards from the 
 spot selected by the reverend fathers for 
 
128 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 their quiet recreation, the river, as if tired 
 of being cahii and placid, flowed with a 
 brisker current, and rushing over a ledge 
 of rocks, became all froth and foam. The 
 light spray occasioned by its rapid move- 
 ment refreshed the herbage on its banks 
 so invitingly, that I leapt off my courser, 
 and allowed him to profit as much as he 
 pleased by the abundant pasture. 
 
 Throwing myself on the solid ground, 
 I kept intensely poring over the stream, 
 lost and absorbed in the train of in- 
 teresting yet melancholy recollections 
 which all that had occurred to me since 
 1 first entered this fair realm of Por- 
 tugal was so well calculated to ex- 
 cite. T thought (alas ! how vainly now !) 
 of offers I had slighted with so much 
 levity ; of opportunities which, had they 
 been grasped with a decided hand, might 
 have led to happy results, and stemmed 
 a torrent of evils. Since that period, the 
 germ of destructiveness, which might 
 
BATALIIA. 129 
 
 then have been trodden down, has risen 
 into a tree fraught with poisons, darkening 
 the wholesome light, and receiving nourish- 
 ment, through all its innumerably varied 
 fibres, from the lowest depths of hell. 
 
 Whilst I was watching the constant 
 flow of waters, and giving way to a tide 
 of regrets in my own bosom equally 
 ceaseless, the full rich tones of the con- 
 ventual bells came booming over the 
 watery levels — a summons the monks 
 dared not disobey. Putting up their fish- 
 ing-rods, they all dispersed in silence, with 
 the exception of one, whom I joyfully re- 
 cognised upon his nearer approach, and 
 who seemed to feel equal pleasure in re- 
 cognising me. 
 
 " To what lucky chance," said the Prior, 
 (for it was he who had advanced to me,) 
 "are we indebted for the renewal of a 
 visit I scarcely ventured to flatter myself 
 w^ould have taken place so soon ?" 
 
 " To the genuine desire," answered I, 
 
 K 
 
130 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 " not only of assuring you once more of 
 my real veneration, but a wish to exa- 
 mine the mausoleum of Don Emanuel, 
 which I totally neglected in the hurry of 
 yesterday — .You remember how they push- 
 ed me along ?" 
 
 He smiled ; and I could not help think- 
 ing, from the cast of his countenance, that 
 a few details of our Alcoba^a banquets and 
 compotations would not have been ill re- 
 ceived. Being, however, too discreet to 
 tell tales out of this pious school, I said 
 nothing of our gay supper, of my Lord 
 Abbot's epicurean worship, of Monsieur 
 Simon, or of the Poet, or of " our tragedy," 
 or Senhor Agostinho, (ycleped Donna 
 Inez), or of Donna Franciscans director, — 
 though I had his cursed name on the tip 
 of my tongue, ready to bolt out with not 
 a few bitter animadversions upon a spe- 
 cies of piety which had deprived me of 
 many and many an hour of cheerfulness 
 and joy. 
 
BATALHA. 131 
 
 Repressing, upon reflection, every spark 
 of curiosity, as befitted a holy personage 
 weaned from idle gossip, the good Prior 
 most charitably observed, " that my horse 
 stood in need of more substantial refection 
 than he could find on the river banks ; 
 and that, although he could not offer 
 luxuries such as I had been accustomed 
 to, the simple fare his far from wealthy 
 convent afforded would be served up to 
 me most gladly." 
 
 Taking himself my horse by the bridle, 
 he ushered me across the lawn into the 
 same quadrangular cool and lofty cham- 
 ber I had supped in before. A very 
 youthful-looking lay brother received my 
 Arabian into his charge with great delight, 
 and stroked its mane and kissed its neck 
 in a transport of childish fondness. 
 
 As to me, though I was treated with 
 less enthusiasm, there was no want of the 
 utmost cordiality in my reception. An 
 immense earthen platter, containing a sa- 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 voury mess of fish and rice, vegetables 
 delicately fried after the Italian fashion, 
 caraffes of wine, baskets of ripe and fragrant 
 fruit, pomegranates, apricots, and oranges, 
 were neatly arranged on a marble table, 
 having in its centre a rock of transparent 
 ice, shining with ten thousand prismatic 
 colours. To this frugal collation I sat 
 down with the most sincere appetite, and 
 was waited upon wdth hospitable glee by 
 the angels of this wilderness — two lay 
 brothers and as many novices, — all of 
 whom appeared enchanted with an op- 
 portunity of making themselves of some 
 use in this mortal existence. The Prior, 
 crossing his hands on his bosom, entreated 
 me to dispense with his attentions for half 
 an hour, the choir service imperatively 
 requiring his presence. 
 
 As soon as he had taken his departure, 
 followed by his friars and novices, I gave 
 myself wholly up to the enjoyment of 
 those romantic fancies the surrounding 
 
BATALHA. 133 
 
 scenery was so admirably well adapted to 
 inspire. Two stately portals, thrown wide 
 open to catch the breezes, admitted 
 views of the principal courts and clois- 
 ters of this unequalled monument of the 
 purest taste of the fourteenth century. 
 A tranquil, steady sun-light overspread 
 their grand broad surfaces. The graceful 
 spire, so curiously belted with zones of the 
 richest carved work, rose high above the 
 ornamented parapets, relieved by a soft 
 and mellow evening sky. None of the 
 monks were moving about ; but I heard 
 with a sort of mournful pleasure their 
 deep and solemn voices issuing from the 
 great porch of the transept nearest the 
 choir. 
 
 The young Egyptian-looking boys in 
 white linen tunics I had noticed at my 
 first visit were all at their accustomed avo- 
 cations, dislodging every atom of dust from 
 the deeply-indented tracery. The fla- 
 mingo was there, but I missed the stork, — 
 
131- THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 and knew but too soon the cause of his 
 being missed ; for, upon ascending the 
 steps before the chapter-house, I dis- 
 covered him lying stretched out upon the 
 pavement stiiF and dead. One of the boys 
 stood bending over him in an attitude 
 expressive of the deepest sorrow. The 
 youth saw I compassionated him, and mur- 
 mured out in a low desponding voice : 
 " This poor bird followed me all the way 
 from my home in Alemtejo — a long dis- 
 tance from Batalha. He was the joy of 
 my life, and dearly loved by my mother, 
 who is dead. I shall never see her again 
 in this world, nor hear the cheering cry 
 of this our fond household bird, calling 
 me up in the morning : he will receive 
 no more crumbs from my hand — he will 
 keep faithfully by my side no longer. I 
 have no one now in this grand place who 
 loves me !" And he burst into a flood of 
 bitter tears, and it was a relief to my 
 
BATALIIA. 135 
 
 own heart — a great relief — to join in his 
 mourning. 
 
 The Prior, who happened to come up 
 at the moment, could not at first imagine 
 what had affected me ; but when I point- 
 ed to the boy and the lifeless stork, he 
 entered into my feelings with his charac- 
 teristic benevolence, and spoke words of 
 comfort to the poor weeping child, with 
 such true parental kindness as seemed to 
 assure him he had still a friend. Touched 
 to the heart, the boy fell on his knees, and 
 kissed the pavement and his stork at the 
 same time. I left him extending his arms 
 to the good Prior in an act of supplication, 
 which I learnt afterwards had not been 
 treated with cold indifference. 
 
 And now the Prior, with his wonted 
 solemn and courteous demeanour, offering 
 to be himself my guide to the mausoleum 
 of Don Emanuel, we traversed a wilder- 
 ness of weeds, — this part of the conventual 
 
136 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 precincts being much neglected, — and en- 
 tered a dreary area, surrounded by the 
 roofless, unfinished cluster of chapels, on 
 which the most elaborately sculptured 
 profusion of ornaments had been lavished, 
 as often happens in similar cases, to no 
 very happy result. I cannot in conscience 
 persuade myself to admire such deplorable 
 waste of time and ingenuity — " the quips, 
 and cranks, and wanton wiles" of a cor- 
 rupt, meretricious architecture ; and when 
 the good Prior lamented pathetically the 
 unfinished state of this august mausoleum, 
 and almost dropped a tear for the death 
 of Emanuel its founder, as if it had only 
 occurred a week ago, I did not pretend 
 to share his afl[liction ; for had the build- 
 ing been completed according to the de- 
 sign we are favoured with by that dull 
 draftsman Murphy, most preciously ugly 
 would it have been ; — ponderous and 
 lumpish in the general effect, exuber- 
 antly light and fantastic in the detail. 
 
BATALHA. 137 
 
 it was quite a mercy that it was never 
 finished. Saxon crinklings and crank- 
 lings are bad enough ; the preposterous 
 long and lanky marrow-spoon-shaped 
 arches of the early Norman, still worse ; 
 and the Moorish horse-shoe-like deviations 
 from beautiful curves, little better. 
 
 I have often wondered how persons of 
 correct taste could ever have tolerated 
 them, and batten on garbage when they 
 might enjoy the lovely Ionic so prevalent 
 in Greece, the Doric grandeur of the 
 Parthenon, and the Corinthian magnifi- 
 cence of Balbec and Palmyra. If, how- 
 ever, you wish to lead a quiet life, beware 
 how you thwart established prejudices. 
 I began to perceive, that to entertain any 
 doubts of the supreme excellence of Don 
 Emanuel's scollops and twistifications 
 amounted to heresy. Withdrawing, there- 
 fore, my horns of defiance, I reserved my 
 criticisms for some future display to a 
 more intelligent auditor, and chimed in 
 
138 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 at length with the Prior's high-flown ad- 
 miration of all this fillagree, and despair 
 for its non-completion ; so we parted good 
 friends. My Arabian was brought out, 
 looking bright and happy ; I bade a most 
 grateful adieu to the Prior and his at- 
 tendant swarm of friars and novices, and 
 before they had ceased staring and won- 
 dering at the velocity with which I was 
 carried away from them, I had reached a 
 sandy desert above a mile from Batalha. 
 
 Night was already drawing on — the 
 moon had not yet risen — a dying glow, 
 reflected from the horizon above the hills, 
 behind which the sun had just retired, was 
 thrown over the whole landscape. " Era 
 gia r hora" — it was that soothing, solemn 
 hour, when by some occult, inexplicable 
 sympathy, the interior spirit, folded up 
 within itself, inclines to repel every gro- 
 velling doubt of its divine essence, and 
 feels, even without seeking to feel it, the 
 consciousness of immortality. 
 
BATALHA. 139 
 
 The dying glow had expired ; a sullen 
 twilight, approaching to blackness, pre- 
 vailed: I kept wandering on, however, 
 not without some risk of being soon ac- 
 quainted with the mysteries of a future 
 world ; for had not my horse been not 
 only the fleetest, but the surest of foot 
 of his high-born tribe, he must have stum- 
 bled, and in dangerous places, for such 
 abounded at every step. As good fortune 
 would have it, all the perils of the way 
 were got over ; the grand outline of the 
 colossal monastery and its huge church 
 emerged from the surrounding gloom ; 
 innumerable lights, streaming from the 
 innumerable casements, cast a broad gleam 
 over the great platform, where my Lord 
 Almoner and his guests were walking to 
 and fro, enjoying the fresh evening air, 
 and waiting my return, they were pleased 
 to say, with trembling anxiety. 
 
 The first question I was asked upon 
 entering the grand illuminated saloon 
 
140 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 Was, how I had fared, and whether I did 
 not feel half-dead for want of refreshment. 
 " We, for our parts," exclaimed my Lord 
 Abbot, " have been the happiest of the 
 happy : your great Simon has surpassed 
 even my expectations. And now, to 
 another proof of his transcendent skill, — 
 now to supper." 
 
ALCOBAfA. 141 
 
 NINTH DAY. 
 
 Lamentations on our Departure, and on the loss of Monsieur 
 Simon. — Mysterious Conference. — A sullen Adieu. — Live- 
 liness of the Prior of St. Vincent's. — Pleasant Surprise. — 
 Vast and dreary Plain. — A consequential Equerry. — An 
 Invitation. — The Bird-Queen. — Fairy Landscape. — The 
 Mansion. — The great Lady's Nephews — Reception by her 
 Excellency. — Her attendant Hags. — The great Lady's 
 questions about England and dismal ideas of London. — 
 The Cuckoo. — Imitations. — Dismay of her Sublime Lady- 
 ship and her Hags. — Our Departure from the bird-ridden 
 Dominions. — Cultivated Plain. — Happy Peasantry, and 
 their gratitude to the Monks of the Royal Convent. — 
 Their different feelings towards the great Lady. — Female 
 Peasants bearing Offerings to our Lady of Nazare. — Sea 
 View.— Pedraneira. — Banquet of Fish. — Endless Ravine. 
 — Alfagirao. — Arrival at the Caldas. — Sickly Population. 
 — Reception of Dr. Ehrhart. — His Visit to the Invalids, 
 and contempt of the Medical Treatment of the place. — 
 A determined Bore — His Disaster. 
 
 June 11 til. 
 
 Great were the lamentations in Alco- 
 bafa when the hour of our departure ar- 
 
142 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 rived, — a voice of wailing scarcely equal- 
 ed in Rama when Rachel wept for her 
 lost children. Here, I am perfectly con- 
 vinced, that had my Lord Abbot been 
 permitted, like spiritual lords in our own 
 country, to avow the legal paternity of a 
 dozen brats, he would sooner have spared 
 the whole treasure than have lost the 
 advice and exertions of a being he vene- 
 rated above all others without any ex- 
 ception — a matchless cook. It was a cruel 
 separation : the artist himself, who had a 
 susceptible heart, as well as a hand gift- 
 ed with the most exquisite sauce-making 
 sensibilities, was far from being callous 
 to the raptures of such a discriminating 
 gourmand as the ruler of Alcobapa. To 
 remain in this holy place, to quit my 
 service, I verily believe never entered the 
 head beneath his milk-white betasseled 
 cook-cap; but he was visibly moved by 
 the rapturous eulogies, still more perhaps 
 by the generous presents I suspect he 
 
ALCOBA^A. 143 
 
 had received ; he saw with great commi- 
 seration how acutely the Lord Abbot 
 felt his departure. Pity, we all know, 
 melts the heart to love, and love full often 
 to devotion ; so, when we repaired, one 
 and all, to take a parting mass before 
 setting out on our journey. Monsieur 
 Simon, though little given to demonstra- 
 tions of piety, fell to thumping his breast 
 with such vehemence, that I could not 
 resist saying to him as we came out of 
 church, " Simon, my Lord Abbot seems 
 to have quite reconverted you ; you are 
 becoming astonishingly religious." — " Ah, 
 Monsieur," said he, " on le sera, a moins ; 
 Monseigneur rend la religion si aimable." 
 
 I thought now, as the equipages, horses, 
 &c. were all marshalled before the grand 
 entrance, we were actually ready to set 
 out. No such thing : the Grand Prior 
 of Aviz, taking me aside for a moment, 
 whispered in my ear that he had still 
 a few words of great importance in store 
 
144 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 for my Lord Almoner, and begged me to 
 cast another look at my favourite portrait 
 of St. Thomas of Canterbury whilst he 
 delivered them. 
 
 Calling his colleague of St. Vincent's, 
 they both entered a private room of au- 
 dience adjoining the hall of pictures, from 
 which my Lord Almoner had not yet 
 stirred; and notwithstanding the doors 
 had been immediately closed, I heard a 
 loud storm of indistinct but angry words 
 approaching to tempest, the exact import 
 of which it is not in my power to reveal, 
 supposing I had the inclination; but I 
 learned afterwards (though rather vaguely) 
 from one of the Prior of St. Vincent's 
 confidants, that they related to certain 
 mysteries, certain despotic imprisonments, 
 certain grotto -like communications, be- 
 tween this sacred asylum and another 
 not less monastic, though tenanted by 
 the fairer portion of holy communities — 
 the daughters of prayer and penitence. 
 
ALCOBA^A. 145 
 
 Providence, that tempers the wind to 
 the shorn lamb, and does kind things now 
 and then to pets and favourites, was not 
 totally ungracious to my Lord Almoner 
 upon this occasion. Had it not, by direct- 
 ing the semi-inquisitorial visit of the tw^o 
 prelatical missionaries, given his right re- 
 verence of Alcobaca's thoughts serious oc- 
 cupation, they might have dwelt far more 
 painfully upon the departure of his be- 
 loved Simon ; the sharp edge of his afflic- 
 tions in this particular was taken off by 
 the reflections which the late stormy con- 
 ference had inspired. 
 
 When he came forth to accompany us 
 to our carriages, as the rules of courtesy 
 demanded, I observed a marked change in 
 his deportment and countenance ; there 
 were no longer those sunny smiles, those 
 cooings and chucklings, which had greeted 
 my revered companions upon their arrival. 
 A sullen, sulky gloom — a but half-subdued 
 expression of anger pervaded his every 
 
146 THE MONASTERY OF 
 
 look and gesture : coldly and formally, 
 therefore, did we take our leave. Not 
 above half of the community were drawn 
 out in complimentary array, and that half 
 looked strange and suspicious, as if they 
 conjectured something had happened un- 
 pleasant and awkward. The two fathers 
 deputed to attend us to Pedraneira got 
 into one of their heavy conventual vehicles, 
 and, in their capacities of conductors, led 
 the van. I looked back as we drove off; 
 and, there stood my Lord Almoner, with 
 his eyes fixed on the pavement, before the 
 grand portal, immovable, and as if he had 
 been turned to stone.. 
 
 The Grand Prior of Aviz having some- 
 thing very confidential to discuss with his 
 secretary, begged me to excuse his accom- 
 panying me in my carriage : the Prior of 
 St. Vincent's took his place ; an exchange I 
 had no cause to complain of, his conversa- 
 tion being so full of hilarity and life. This 
 flow of cheerful good spirits did not, how- 
 
ALCOBAfA. 147 
 
 ever, carry him beyond the limits of the 
 most perfect discretion : not a syllable 
 that had the slightest reference to pains 
 or pleasures below ground escaped his 
 lips — not the smallest hint — no, not a 
 breath. 
 
 All attempts to gain information upon 
 this curious point proving fruitless, we 
 praised fine weather and fine prospects, 
 and deprecated bad roads. We had no 
 occasion, however, to do so; for scarcely 
 had we turned the angle of one of the vast 
 walled inclosures belonging to the con- 
 vent, and expected to sink into some fright- 
 ful rut or sandy furrow, when an immense 
 body of well-clothed peasants, with their 
 strong bright tools slung over their sturdy 
 shoulders, met us with loud vivas, and the 
 tranquillizing assurance that the whole way 
 to Pedraneira had been smoothed by their 
 exertions : so we rolled along over firm 
 gravel and compact heath-faggots most 
 delightfully. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 RETURN FROM 
 
 We soon reached the banks of my fa- 
 vourite river, and crossed over a very pic- 
 turesque-looking bridge, without parapets, 
 to its opposite shore — a vast and dreary 
 plain. We were beginning to experience 
 the effects of heat rather oppressively, 
 when we entered a forest of pine, and 
 felt much invigorated by fragrant, ge- 
 nial breezes, — shade was out of the ques- 
 tion, most of the trees being tall and 
 sapless. 
 
 In one of the least frequented parts of 
 this superannuated forest, the career of 
 our caravan was suddenly arrested by a 
 most imposing cocked-hatted personage, 
 booted up to the chin, like West's heroes 
 in his picture of the Battle of the Boyne, 
 bestriding a maneged horse, decked out 
 in all the pride of burnished pistol and 
 gold-laced holster. 
 
 This most consequential of equerries, 
 with as much solemnity as if he had been 
 reading a state proclamation, invited us, in 
 
ALCOBAfA. 149 
 
 the name of his mistress, a lady of high 
 caste and importance, to screen ourselves 
 from the meridian heats in her quinta 
 hard by ; a most blessedly shady place, in 
 which she had congregated, I verily be- 
 lieve, half the birds in the country — those 
 least in repute, such as kites, owls, and 
 buzzards, not excepted. 
 
 ]My Lord of Aviz was still too deeply 
 engaged in confidential discourse with his 
 secretary to much relish making a halt and 
 getting out of his carriage ; but the Prior 
 of St. Vincent's and myself were perfectly 
 disposed to accept the invitation, having 
 learnt, during our course of Alcobaf a gos- 
 sip, too many curious particulars about this 
 eminent lady-patroness of the feathered 
 tribe, not to feel extremely curious to be 
 admitted into the penetralia of the asylum 
 she afforded them ; a favour rarely granted, 
 and which sprang most probably out of a 
 strong curiosity to see and fondle my be- 
 loved Arabian, not my own dear self — her 
 
150 RETURN FROM 
 
 most excellent ladyship professedly not 
 caring one pip of an orange for strangers 
 of any description or quality, unless they 
 were blessed with four feet, or a natural 
 mantle of feathers. 
 
 Preceded by the right pompous and fus- 
 tified equerry, we diverged from the mend- 
 ed track into an avenue of dwarfish cork- 
 trees, leading straight to a lofty wall, which 
 extended far to the right and left of a 
 grand massive Tuscan gateway. The wide 
 space before this stately entrance exhibited 
 the refreshing sight of marble troughs 
 brimful of the clearest water ; heaps of 
 oats and barley, amply sufficient to supply 
 the wants of our mules ; and paniers of 
 bread and oranges, under very substantial 
 canvass awnings. 
 
 My reverend companions, as in duty 
 bound, went immediately to offer their 
 homage to the bird- queen ; but I begged 
 to be excused for the moment, promising 
 that as soon as my Arabian had been re- 
 
ALCOBAfA. 151 
 
 freshed and brightened up by a good 
 rubbing, I would lead him myself to the 
 foot of the throne of these dominions. 
 Having gained this respite, the whole 
 party dispersed as seemed best in their 
 eyes, and I entered perfectly alone the 
 deeply shaded inclosure — without excep- 
 tion one of the strangest scenes of fairy- 
 land ever conjured up by the wildest 
 fancy. 
 
 As far as the eye could stretch, extended 
 a close bower of evergreens, myrtle, bay, 
 and ilex, not to mention humble box, lofty, 
 broad, and fragrant ; on either side, arches 
 of verdure most sprucely clipped, opened 
 into large square plats of rare and curious 
 flowers ; and in the midst of each of these 
 trim parterres, a fountain inclosed within 
 a richly-gilded cage, containing birds of 
 every variety of size, song, and plumage ; 
 parroquets with pretty little flesh-colour- 
 ed beaks, and parrots of the largest spe- 
 cies, looking arch and cunning, as they 
 
152 RETURN FROM 
 
 kept cracking and grinding walnuts and 
 filberts between their bills as black as 
 ebony. 
 
 In one of these inclosures I noticed an 
 immense circular basin of variegated mar- 
 ble, surrounded by a gilt metal balustrade, 
 on which were most solemnly perched 
 a conclave of araras and cockatoos. Their 
 united screechings and screamings upon 
 my approach gave the alarm to a mul- 
 titude of smaller birds, which issued forth 
 in such clouds from every leaf and spray 
 of these vaulted walls of verdure, that 
 I ran off as if I had committed sacrilege, 
 or feared being transformed by art-magic 
 into a biped completely rigged out with 
 beak, claws, and feathers. 
 
 The strange green light which faintly 
 pervaded the closely-bowered alleys — the 
 aromatic odour universally diffused — the 
 rustle of wings, the chirping and twitter- 
 ing above my head and on every side of 
 me, was so completely bewildering and 
 
ALCOBAfA. 153 
 
 magical, that I almost doubted whe- 
 ther ever again I should be permitted to 
 emerge into common life or common 
 daylight. The soft, perfumed, volup- 
 tuous atmosphere of this seemingly en- 
 chanted garden, induced a languor and 
 listlessness to creep over me I scarcely 
 ever felt before. 
 
 Just as I was giving way to this gentle 
 indolence, and had sunk down by the 
 marble basin soothed by the bubblings 
 of its little quiet jet-d'eau, I heard the 
 heavy tramp of the solemn equerry, — and 
 there he was true enough. " Be pleased, 
 sir," said he, making a bow which the 
 stiffest and most formal dancing-master 
 of the days of Louis the Fourteenth would 
 have gloried in, — " be pleased to comply 
 with the urgent request of my Lord Prior 
 of Aviz, who is waiting with impatience 
 to have the honour of presenting you to 
 my most illustrious and most excellent 
 mistress." 
 
154. RETURN FROM 
 
 " Oh !" answered I, " by all means ; 
 nothing less than the attractions of your 
 most illustrious and most excellent lady's 
 feathered favourites could have detained 
 me from her presence — pray lead me 
 to it." 
 
 The wsij was not long, but most de- 
 lightful, under a continued arbour of 
 exotic plants, looking as healthful as if 
 they had been quite at home in Portu- 
 gal — born and bred there for centuries. 
 On either side, more flower-beds, and 
 more birds, some at liberty and some in 
 cages. 
 
 The house itself, at which we arrived 
 in due course, though of an extent quite 
 remarkable, was far from presenting a 
 palace-like appearance, being in height 
 only one story. Its verandas, however, 
 commanded respect : they were extremely 
 spacious, paved and balustraded with 
 marble. 
 
 Under the terraces they supported, were 
 
ALCOBAfA. 1 55 
 
 offices innumerable, not unlike rabbit- 
 burrows in the realm of Brobdignag, out 
 of, and into which, were continually creep- 
 ing a great number of tawny- coloured 
 menials, very slightly clothed indeed, all 
 busily engaged in tending the feathered 
 race committed to their charge : for half 
 these burrows, or arched chambers, or 
 whatever we please to call them, were 
 closed with light trellises of wire, forming, 
 after all, no very pleasant aviaries. Cer- 
 tain most horribly discordant screechings, 
 which pierced my ears every now and 
 then, seemed to indicate that the birds 
 of the establishment were not so happy 
 or judiciously governed as their sovereign 
 mistress imagined — the case of subjects in 
 most dominions. 
 
 On the lowest step of a grand flight 
 of steps leading up to the principal ve- 
 randa, stood three young gentlemen, aged 
 fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen years, the 
 nephews of the great lady, as like one to 
 
156 RETURN FROISI 
 
 the other as if they had been not only 
 twins, but triplets ; all sleek, and smooth, 
 and sallow ; all dressed in obsolete court- 
 dresses of blue and silver tissue, each 
 with his powdered hair in a silken bag, 
 each with his little cut-steel-hilted sword, 
 and each with a little abdominal bulge 
 that promised in the course of a very few 
 years to become a paunch of considerable 
 dignity. In close attendance upon these 
 hopeful youths, were a stripling page, a 
 half-crazed buffoon, an ex-jesuit, and a 
 dwarf; personages indispensable to a noble 
 and well-constituted Portuguese establish- 
 ment. Down went all their heads the mo- 
 ment I drew near, and down went mine 
 to the very earth in return for so much 
 courtesy. 
 
 We ascended the steps all together 
 right lovingly, the three youths march- 
 ing hand-in-hand. Nothing could exceed 
 the decorous behaviour of these sweet 
 young gentlemen ; it did honour to their 
 
/ 
 
 ALC0BA9A. 157 
 
 preceptor, who had brought them up in the 
 most commendable fear of the devil and (/ 
 of taking birds' nests ; — the latter, of all 
 crimes, was esteemed the most heinous in 
 those dominions. 
 
 Independently of my fondness for brute 
 animals, I am not unapt, cameleon-like, to 
 take the colour of what happens to pass 
 around me. It might be supposed, there- 
 fore, that I entered fully into the fashion 
 of the place, and expressed my fondness 
 and admiration of every species of bird 
 it had pleased God in his infinite good- 
 ness to create, with enthusiasm. So dis- 
 posed, and in this blessed trim, I entered 
 the grand saloon of the great lady's re- 
 sidence. Her excellency was seated at its 
 upper end in a high-backed wicker chair, 
 stuck close to the wall. Seven or eight 
 old hags, of a most forbidding aspect, all 
 in black, and all more sincerely beard- 
 ed, I make no doubt, than the Countess 
 Trifaldi's attendants, were ranged to the 
 
158 RETURN FROM 
 
 right and left, on narrow benches; forming 
 one of the ugliest displays of living ta- 
 pestry my eyes had ever encountered. 
 
 The two Priors, who, to their no great 
 delight, one may easily imagine, formed 
 part and parcel of this odious assembly, 
 had reserved a wicker chair, the cool- 
 ness of which was completely neutral- 
 ized by a red velvet cushion, for the 
 stranger— the unhappy stranger, who felt 
 already quite sufficiently annoyed and 
 sweltered. 
 
 As soon as we had exchanged an in- 
 finity of salutations, and several capacious 
 golden snufF-boxes had gone their rounds 
 with as much regularity as the planets, 
 four antiquated damsels entered the pre- 
 sence, bearing trays, heaped high with 
 candied apricots and oranges, and, still 
 sweeter than all the sweetmeats ever con- 
 fectionized, a preparation of the freshest 
 eggs ever laid, with the richest sugar ever 
 distilled from the finest canes ever grown 
 
ALCOBAfA. 159 
 
 in the Brazils for private consumption 
 under the most skilful management. 
 
 To these succeeded another entree of 
 ci-devant young women, who presented us, 
 upon embossed silver salvers, goblets of 
 cut glass, containing the coldest and 
 purest water. 
 
 Right opposite to where we sat, for- 
 mally marshalled all of a row, the young 
 fidalgos and their preceptor, who had en- 
 listed Doctor Ehrhart, Franchi, and the 
 two Priors' secretaries into their ranks, 
 were seated on stools, not in the least 
 superior either in shape or dimensions to 
 those used for milking in the homeliest 
 bartons of our own dear farming country. 
 
 It was some time before any sounds, ex- 
 cept the whirring and whizzing of enor- 
 mous cockchafers, and the flirting of fans 
 almost as large as the vans of a windmill, 
 were audible. At length the great lady 
 broke silence, by asking me whether we 
 had any birds in England : to which, 
 
160 RETURN FROM 
 
 rising from my chair, I replied with a low 
 obeisance, that, thanks be to God, we were 
 blessed with an immense number. 
 
 " Indeed !" rejoined her excellency ; " I 
 thought your country too cold to allow 
 them, sweet dears, to build their nests and 
 enjoy themselves." 
 
 " Yes," observed the Jesuit, " the. cli- 
 mate of your island must be very bitter. 
 Camoens, whose authority none can dis- 
 pute, calls it 
 
 A grande Inglaterra die de neve 
 Boreal sempre abunda. 
 
 (Canto 6, stanz. 42.) 
 
 " Which being undoubtedly the case," 
 continued the bird-queen, " that great 
 number you boast of must be imported: 
 indeed, I understood as much from an old 
 servant of my father's, who made a for- 
 tune by dealing in Canary-birds, and tak- 
 ing them to your great town, where you 
 can hardly distinguish night from day, as 
 he told me. But what will not the lure 
 
ALCOBAfA. I6l 
 
 of gain make us submit to ? He was con- 
 tinually resorting to that black place with 
 his living wares, (how I pity them !) and, 
 to be sure, he gained sufficient, though he 
 almost coughed his lungs out, to buy a 
 nice quinta in my neighbourhood. He is 
 an excellent judge of everything that con- 
 cerns birds ; knows how to treat them in 
 moulting-time, which few do ; and for the 
 sagacity with which he discovers an inci- 
 pient pip, and stops its progress, I may 
 venture to affirm from long experience, he 
 has no equal. But tell me fairly, most 
 estimable Englishman, have you any na- 
 tive birds in your island ?" 
 
 " Yes, madam," was my triumphant re- 
 ply, " we have ; one in particular — seldom 
 seen, but often heard — the cuckoo." 
 
 I had scarcely pronounced that name, 
 when an exact imitation of its well-known 
 sound burst forth from Franchi and the 
 buffiDon, who was standing behind his 
 stool, to the high glee of the young gen- 
 
 M 
 
162 RETURN FROM 
 
 tlemen, their page and dwarf, and the evi- 
 dent dismay of her sublime ladyship and 
 her hags in waiting. They looked as if 
 they could have pinched us all as sharply 
 as the snuff in their ample boxes. In 
 short, surprise and anger at Franchi's want 
 of decorum, and a suspicion, perhaps, of 
 being what we call quizzed, in our verna- 
 cular slang, began to manifest itself; when 
 the solemn equerry announced with his 
 wonted solemnity, that our carriages were 
 in waiting, and my Arabian at the door, 
 ready to receive the honour of a caress 
 from his most illustrious and excellent 
 misl:*ess. 
 
 Overjoyed at this intelligence, the two 
 Priors and myself, all heartily tired of our 
 formal sitting, rose up without a moment's 
 delay ; so did the great lady, and her train 
 of hags and dismal damsels, following each 
 other one by one. As soon as this dolor- 
 ous procession reached the gateway, a 
 great number of gigantic dark-brown um- 
 
ALCOBA^A. 163 
 
 brellas were spread forth, and under their 
 deep shade my astonished courser, with 
 his fine arched neck held down by a cou- 
 ple of grooms, was patted in succession by 
 the lank, cold fingers of the bird-queen 
 and her antiquated attendants ; then fol- 
 lowed as many curtseys, and as low as the 
 dry stiff knees that performed them could 
 contrive to drop; and the Grand Prior of 
 Aviz signifying that he had no further 
 occasion for the attendance of his confi- 
 dential secretary, I got into his dormeuse, 
 ordered my Arabian to folldw, and bade, 
 I hope and trust, an eternal adieu to this 
 region of screaming birds, clipped hedges, 
 and sour-visaged old women. 
 
 It was some time before we cleared the 
 walls of these bird-ridden dominions, a 
 great deal more extensive than I apprehend- 
 ed. Our route, distinctly marked out by 
 its recent mendings, led us across a plain 
 in the highest state of cultivation, forming 
 a most agreeable contrast to the ragged 
 
 M 2 
 
164 RETURN FROM 
 
 weather-beaten forest and pompous idle 
 inclosure we had left behind. Here every 
 object smiled; here every rood of land was 
 employed to advantage, the Lombard sys- 
 tem of irrigation being perfectly under- 
 stood and practised. Every cottage, ap- 
 parently the abode of industrious con- 
 tentment, had its well- fenced garden 
 richly embossed with gourds and me- 
 lons, its abundant waterspout, its vine, 
 its fig-tree, and its espalier of pomegra- 
 nate. 
 
 The peasantry, comfortably clad in sub- 
 stantial garments, looked kindly and un- 
 enviously at our splendid caravan, because 
 their hearts were expanded by good treat- 
 ment, their granaries amply stored, their 
 flocks numerous and healthy, and their 
 landlords, the rich monks of Alcobaca, 
 neither griping nor tyrannical. When 
 the Prior of Aviz stopped to converse with 
 these good people, which he frequently 
 did, and inquired with his usual affable 
 
ALCOBACA. 165 
 
 benignity, " Who taught you to till your 
 land so neatly ? to manure it with so 
 much judgment ? to raise such crops of 
 grain ? to spare your cattle all forced 
 oppressive labour? to treat their young 
 with so much gentleness ?" the answer 
 was prompt and uniform, — " Our indul- 
 gent masters and kind friends, the monks 
 of the royal monastery.'' 
 
 The pleasure my excellent friend re- 
 ceived from this communication beamed 
 forth from his ingenuous countenance, as 
 he noted down the result of his inquiries 
 on his tablets ; a set-off, perhaps, in his 
 opinion, to the strange mysterious report 
 he had received of certain unedifying 
 frailties. Whatever snares of the evil-one 
 my kind hosts of Alcoba^a may have fallen 
 into beneath ground, few communities ever 
 conferred more solid benefits upon its sur- 
 face to all their dependants. 
 
 Very different were the replies to our 
 queries about the great lady : shrugs of 
 
166 RETURN FROM 
 
 the shoulder, and shakings of the head, 
 gave us to understand most plainly, that, 
 as far as her territorial influence extended, 
 — luckily small in comparison with that of 
 the great convent — it was of a nature more 
 blighting than genial, less charitable than 
 oppressive. And as to her birds, they were 
 a flagrant nuisance — whole flights of her 
 doves, parrots, kites, finches, and thrushes 
 being allowed to commit with the most 
 perfect impunity every species of depre- 
 dation best suited to their habits and pro- 
 pensities. 
 
 We were all so enchanted with these 
 scenes of rural delight and joy, that we 
 ordered our carriages not to be driven 
 along too rapidly. We had to pass the 
 river again and again over the same sort 
 of ruinous bridges as we had met with in 
 the immediate vicinity of Alcobapa. My 
 revered companion could not repress sen- 
 sations of terror as we jolted up and down 
 steep arches unprotected by any parapet — 
 
ALCOBA^A. 167 
 
 sensations which the most fervid exhorta- 
 tions on my part to put faith in Saint 
 Anthony could not subdue; so out he 
 trundled into all the dust and offal of the 
 road. 
 
 After not less than three or four of 
 these rather dangerous transits, we mount- 
 ed a heathy, pastoral hill, browsed by goats, 
 and met a long string of female peasants, 
 bearing offerings of various kinds to our 
 Lady of Nazare ; and presently the sanc- 
 tuary, to which they were goin^' in pil- 
 grimage, discovered itself on the brow of 
 a craggy eminence shelving down to the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 Much praise cannot in truth be lavished 
 upon this edifice, which is neither consi- 
 derable nor picturesque ; but the colours 
 of the wide unlimited ocean, so pure, so 
 vivid, so beautifully azure, made up for 
 all other deficiencies, and, joined to the 
 reviving freshness of the sea-breeze, gave 
 my spirits the most delightful and ani- 
 
168 PEDRANEIllA. 
 
 mated flow. Gay, agile, and buoyant, I 
 leaped out of the carriage the moment it 
 stopped, and was immediately received into 
 the arms and garlick-scented embrace of 
 the two aged fathers, our harbingers, who 
 had preceded us to Pedraneira. 
 
 This most opulent farm-mansion, the 
 capital of the conventual domains in these 
 quarters, had very much the air of an 
 oriental caravanserai, with stables for mules 
 and courts surrounded with arches, cas- 
 tellated granaries, and vaulted chambers, 
 incrusted with clean glossy tiles, by no 
 means indifferently painted with scrip- 
 tural and legendary subjects. In the 
 largest and coolest of these apartments 
 we were regaled with a magnificent ban- 
 quet of fish, caught near the rocks of Pe- 
 niche, and reckoned the best upon the 
 whole line of the coast. 
 
 Being a fast-day, except a few hashes of 
 pork for heretics, savoury as the flesh-pots 
 of Egypt, nothing unorthodox was served 
 
PEDRANEIRA. 169 
 
 up. Dr. Ehrhart, however, partook of 
 every ragout set before him indiscrimi- 
 nately, to the scandal of our hosts, the 
 monks and their attendants. All the rest 
 of the company having made their elec- 
 tion, stuck to fish with true Catholic pro- 
 priety. 
 
 Our repast quickly dispatched, and the 
 aged fathers most kindly thanked and most 
 willingly dismissed from their attendance, 
 — for, to say truth, they were not only 
 intolerably effluvient but inveterately pro- 
 sy, — we made haste to set forth in order 
 to reach the Caldas before night. As long 
 as we continued on the shore enjoying the 
 vast marine prospect and the unceasing 
 sound of the waves, nothing could be plea- 
 santer ; but when we entered an almost 
 endless ravine, its banks entirely covered 
 with the strong healthy flowers of the Pa- 
 laver corniculaturn, our progress was slow 
 and tedious. To this ravine succeeded 
 another, diversified by a more agreeable 
 
170 THE CALDAS. 
 
 sort of vegetation — the yellow lupin in all 
 its fragrance. 
 
 At some distance we saw a Moorish 
 castle, standing proudly on an insulated 
 eminence, presenting a grand mass : it 
 bears also a grand name, Alfagirao. This 
 picturesque object, the stillness and soft 
 hues of evening, and the perfume of the 
 lupins, were circumstances too pleasing 
 not to make us regret our arrival at the 
 Caldas with quite sufficient light to dis- 
 tinguish all its ugliness ;— its dull monoto- 
 nous houses, with their coarse green win- 
 dow-blinds and shutters flapping to and 
 fro in the dusty breeze ; and its heavy 
 verandas, daubed over with yellow ochre, 
 and striped in places with blue and red, 
 in patterns not unworthy of Timbuctoo or 
 Ashantee. 
 
 In my eyes, the whole of this famous 
 stewing-place wore a sickly unprepossess- 
 ing aspect. Almost every third or fourth 
 person you met was a quince-coloured 
 
THE CALDAS. 171 
 
 apothecary, accoutred like a courtier on 
 his march to the drawing-room, and car- 
 rying many a convenient little implement 
 in a velvet bag, as pompously as if he had 
 been a lord chancellor; and every tenth 
 or twelfth, a rheumatic or palsied invalid, 
 with his limbs all atwist, and his mouth 
 all awry, being conveyed to the baths in 
 a chair. You could hardly move without 
 running your head against the voluminous 
 wig of some medical professor, and hearing 
 the formidable stump of his gold-headed 
 cane. 
 
 The news of the advent of a great Ger- 
 man doctor, ex-physician to the household 
 of his ex-majesty the most Christian King, 
 soon spread itself throughout the Cal- 
 das ; and we had not set our feet on the 
 hot flag-stones of this physical emporium 
 above five or six minutes, before a deputa- 
 tion of the faculty arrived. These sages 
 came on purpose to introduce themselves 
 to Dr. Ehrhart, and entreat the honour of 
 
172 THE CALDAS. 
 
 his company on a professional tour to their 
 principal patients. His account of the 
 woful condition and appearance 6f the 
 wretched invalids in their respective tubs 
 and cisterns, related in Alsatian French, 
 sound Latin, and broken Portuguese, was 
 most original. 
 
 " I found many of them," said the in- 
 dignant doctor, " with galloping pulses, ex- 
 cited almost to frenzy by the injudicious 
 application of these powerful waters, and 
 others with scarcely any pulses at all. 
 The last will be quiet enough ere long ; 
 and considering what dreadful work these 
 determined Galenists drive amongst them, 
 with their decoctions, and juleps, and 
 spiced boluses, and conserve of mummy, 
 and the devil knows what, I expect a gene- 
 ral gaol-delivery must speedily take place, 
 and the souls of these victims of exploded 
 quackeries be soon released from their 
 wretched bodies, rendered the worst of 
 prisons by a set of confounded bunglers." 
 
THE CALDAS. 173 
 
 Never shall I forget the indignant scowl 
 my angry doctor cast upon the contemners 
 of simple and vegetable medicine. His 
 ebullitions of wrath remained unpacified 
 till he had swilled down the contents of 
 an ample caraffe of wine, diluted with only 
 a very few drops of water, accompanied by 
 a platter of those savoury bulbs which 
 geese are so often stuffed with in England, 
 for the express purpose, he openly avowed, 
 of decreasing flatulence, and expelling the 
 prince of the air and all his satellites. 1 
 thought the Prior of St. Vincent's would 
 never have ceased laughing at this species 
 of exorcism. The Portuguese have in ge- 
 neral a strong relish for coarse practical 
 jokes ; and I am far from pretending that 
 this one was not most decidedly of the 
 number. 
 
 The master and mistress of the large 
 rambling habitation assigned to us thought 
 proper to light up with their own hands 
 all the tapers in the Bohemian glass 
 
174 THE CALDAS. 
 
 sconces and chandeliers of the barn-like 
 saloon on their ground-floor. Such a glare, 
 equal at least to that of a ridotto in a 
 second-rate Italian town, was as sure to 
 excite notice and attract passengers, as a 
 flaming candle every moth and father- 
 longlegs in its neighbourhood. We were, 
 therefore, in no want of company. 
 
 Our tea-table, which we had prudently 
 established as far beyond the influence of 
 Doctor Ehrhart's regale as possible, was 
 soon surrounded by all the fashion not 
 under immediate medical restraint that 
 happened to be at the Caldas : old buck- 
 ram officers, not much the wiser for 
 having served under the Count de la 
 Lippe ; pot-bellied fidalgos, who had not 
 yet been stewed down to less unseemly 
 proportions; and desembargadors and men 
 of the law, as greedy as sharks, and as 
 heavy as cart-horses. 
 
 One of the most ponderous of the set, 
 a personage of some political importance. 
 
THE CALDAS. 175 
 
 and a distinguished graduate of the Uni- 
 versity of Coimbra, was half inclined to 
 turn restive, because I would not sit 
 down by him and explain in minute 
 detail some passages in Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries about which he was eager of 
 information. Pushing my chair away 
 from this determined bore, he pushed 
 his after me with such vehemence, that 
 a conflict must have ensued, perhaps 
 to my total discomfiture, had not his 
 chair been killed under him ; — both back 
 and legs gave way, and down he fell flat 
 on the gritty floor. Everybody's sides in 
 the room shook with laughter — even the 
 spare ribs of the Count de la Lippe's 
 ancient martinet officers. 
 
176 THE CALDAS. 
 
 TENTH DAY. 
 
 Knavish Provedore. — Leave the Caldas. — Obidos. — Abori- 
 ginal-looking hamlet- — Exquisite Atmosphere. — Pastoral 
 Hymns to St. Anthony. — Bonfires on the Eve of his 
 Festival. — Reception at Cadafaiz. — Delightful change. 
 
 June 12. 
 
 We have been all cheated at a ferocious 
 rate by one of those harpies called pro- 
 vedores, who, under the mask of adminis- 
 tering justice, and superintending hospi- 
 tals, and so forth, contrive to divert every 
 little rill of royal beneficence into their 
 own pockets. This knave was so accus- 
 tomed to the sweets of monopolies, that he 
 bought up half the fowls, turkeys, and 
 provisions in the place, and then dealt 
 them out to our numerous caravan at his 
 
OBIDOS. — CERCAL. 177 
 
 own price. 1 refused seeing this cormo- 
 rant ; which was lucky, as I understood he 
 joins insolence to knavery, — a compound 
 which would have called forth my best 
 manual exertions, occasioned delay, and 
 very probably given but too much employ- 
 ment to Doctor Ehrhart. 
 
 It was so delightful a morning, — so tem- 
 perate, for there were^not any clouds — so 
 balsamic, for a slight shower had lately 
 fallen, — that I could not find it in my heart 
 to be out of humour long. We had not 
 left the Caldas in arrear half an hour, 
 before we saw Obidos, with its towers and 
 battlemented walls, rising above a forest 
 of pines, and connected with the neigh- 
 bouring hills by a long stretch of aque- 
 duct. These hills being clothed with a 
 thick vegetation of dwarf ilex, and myrtle, 
 look at a distance as uniformly green as 
 if covered with turf. 
 
 Cereal, where our dinner was prepared, 
 is a pleasant little assemblage of reed- 
 
 N 
 
178 CERCAL. 
 
 covered sloping sheds and pointed hovels, 
 at the feet of shrubby acclivities. Before 
 the entrance of this aboriginal-looking 
 hamlet, is an irregular lawn, bounded by 
 inclosures with bamboo fences, twined 
 over with convolvuli of various colours, 
 forming a labyrinth of cheerful lanes, 
 through which whole families of turkeys, 
 consequential fathg:s, bustling mothers, 
 slim aunts, and half-fledged cousins, were 
 wandering about, clucking, and whistling, 
 and gobbling, with all the well-known 
 volubility of their native language. 
 
 Though mid-day and in mid-June, the 
 heat was moderate ; the sky, of a pale 
 tender blue, inexpressibly serene and 
 beautiful. To breathe the soft air of such 
 a climate, is in itself no trifling luxury; 
 it seemed to inspire new life into every 
 vein : and if to those gifts of Nature the 
 blessings of a free government and the 
 refinements of art were added, more phi- 
 losophy than I am master of would be 
 
CARIIEGADO. 179 
 
 required, not to murmur at the shortness 
 of our existence. 
 
 Our road in the evening lay between 
 lofty slopes partially covered with bushes 
 of rosemary and lavender in the fullest 
 bloom. The sun went down behind the 
 chain of hills which form the coast of the 
 sea, just as we reached a quinta belonging 
 to Fgrjaz, at present governor of Madeira. 
 As we approached the rich cultivated 
 plains framed in by the hills around 
 Cadafaiz, we heard the country people, 
 men, women, and children, singing hymns 
 to Saint Anthony as they returned home 
 from reaping. 
 
 Near Carregado we left the high road 
 to take that of Cadafaiz. The whole 
 country was blazing with fires in honour 
 of to-morrow's festival. I counted above 
 one hundred shining bright amongst the 
 olive-trees ; whilst a number of grotesque 
 figures, withered hags, and meagre imp- 
 lings, kept glancing about before them, 
 
 N 2 
 
180 CADAFAIZ. 
 
 in the style of those visions the illuminati 
 often contrive to conjure up, to delude 
 and hamhoozle their dupes and victims. 
 
 At Cadafaiz itself, that most comfortable 
 of rustic manorial mansions, the Prior of 
 St. Vincent's, who had preceded us above 
 an hour in his light chaise, drawn by two 
 potent mules, was waiting our arrival. 
 The Prior of Aviz uttered a hearty " thank 
 God," as he sunk down in an arm-chair 
 of most ample dimensions. Dr. Ehrhart 
 recommended us all to dilute, after his 
 example, as freely as possible ; and Franchi 
 unpacked his piano- forte. Recollections 
 of the Caldas and all its apothecaries, — not 
 to mention its dust, its glare, its bustle, 
 and its onions,-^made me value the calm 
 and cleanliness of this retired abode still 
 more highly. O the delightful, refreshing 
 change ! Were I to live as many years 
 as I have often been wished to do by 
 my good friends the Spaniards, I should 
 not forget how keenly I enjoyed it. 
 
CONVENT ON THE HILL. 181 
 
 ELEVENTH DAY. 
 
 Excursion to a Franciscan Convent. — A Miracle. — Country 
 resembling Palestine. — Innumerable Assemblage of Pea- 
 sants. — Their sincere Devotion. — Sublime Sight. — Obser- 
 vations of the Prior of Aviz, — The Benediction. — Ancient 
 Portuguese Hymn. — Its grand effect on the present 
 occasion. — Perilous Descent from the Mountain. — A 
 Mandate from the Prince. — Evening. — Music and a 
 Morisco Dance. 
 
 June 13. 
 
 I SHOOK off laziness manfully, not above 
 an hour after sunrise ; so did the Grand 
 Prior of Aviz ; — an effort, our hospitable 
 host observed, w^orthy to be classed amongst 
 the choicest of St. Anthony's miracles. 
 Not a member of our caravan but seemed 
 to feel the Saint's benign and holy in- 
 
182 FllANCISCAN CONVENT. 
 
 fluence. One would have thought it 
 pervaded the very atmosphere ; for 
 even Dr. Ehrhart — no ardent devotee — 
 desired to join our solemn pilgrimage to 
 the Franciscan convent, on the summit 
 of an exceedingly high hill, where the 
 grand mass of the day was to be cele- 
 brated. The good Doctor having promised 
 not to stop our procession by getting out 
 of his vehicle and botanizing by the road- 
 side, we set forth, after a slight breakfast, 
 and wound our long array up the acclivity 
 by a tedious, serpentine, rugged track. 
 
 We had attained a sort of resting-place, 
 not more than one hundred yards beneath 
 the summit, when a stout lubber, dressed 
 in goats' skins, carrying a sickly brat in 
 his arms, bolted forth from between two 
 thorny bushes, looking like one possessed, 
 and bawling out, " A miracle ! a miracle ! 
 My child was at tlie point of death, when 
 the saint appeared to me in a dream, and 
 told me to give it the raspings of a cow- 
 
COUNTRY RESEMBLING PALESTINE. 183 
 
 horn : I did — and there you see it is 
 alive and hearty." 
 
 Hearty at least were Dr. Ehrhart's ex- 
 pressions of surprise at this most pastoral 
 remedy ; he kept repeating " raspings of 
 cow-horn, raspings of cow-horn !" so often, 
 that I beseeched him, for St. Anthony's 
 sake, to remain quiet; and we proceeded, the 
 lOut with his brat, having joined the great 
 concourse of people on the top of the hill, 
 still crying out, " A miracle ! a miracle \" 
 and I am happy to add, for the honour 
 of faith, my most perfect conviction that 
 not a soul of the crowd — and a great crowd 
 it was — but firmly believed him. 
 
 Arrived at length at the point to which 
 we had been tending, I fancied myself 
 suddenly transported to Palestine ; a plain 
 perfectly flat and arid presented itself, 
 diversified alone by the low columned 
 arcades and belfries of the convent, in- 
 clining to the ruinous, and bearing a 
 strong resemblance in form and tint to 
 
184 FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 
 
 the views I have seen of the semi-gothic 
 chapels and cells at Jerusalem and Naza- 
 reth. Scattered all over from one end to 
 the other of this extensive level, (for it 
 stretched out above a mile,) vv^ere droves 
 of asses, a few mules of superior caste 
 glaringly caparisoned, and peasants with- 
 out number, of all ages and sexes, sitting 
 in clusters upon the ground, employed 
 as busily in gathering together the frag- 
 ments of a general repast, as if they had 
 just partaken of some miraculous supply 
 of loaves and fishes. 
 
 This was all mighty well, and admirably 
 adapted to prompt a desire of sketching, 
 for nothing could be more picturesque 
 than these varied groups ; but the comfort 
 of comforts was to witness how gratefully 
 devout they appeared, how perfectly con- 
 vinced that they stood under the open eye 
 of the Saint, and that by acting in con- 
 formity with his precepts, they might de- 
 serve, at the inevitable hour, his efficacious 
 
FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 185 
 
 patronage. In the mean time I saw no 
 tokens of riot or intemperance, no bran- 
 dishing of knives, no drunken disputes or 
 w^allo wings. 
 
 When the bells of the convent gave 
 notice that service was going to begin, the 
 groups that were scattered over the plain 
 rapidly joined together, and moved in one 
 dense body, one vast multitude, six or 
 seven thousand at least, to the wide naked 
 space before the entrance to the church, 
 which, though not inconsiderable in its 
 dimensions, was far too small to contain a 
 twentieth part of so numerous a congre- 
 gation. 
 
 The community, consisting of from thirty 
 to forty monks, all young men, many with 
 features as regular as the fine Grecian 
 heads on the Syracusan medals, but look- 
 ing pale and attenuated, were standing on 
 the long line of steps. Their superior 
 presented the banner of the Saint to my 
 revered companions, who having saluted it 
 
186 FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 
 
 with profound reverence, we entered the 
 church. I looked back from the portal 
 upon the multitude, which extended itself 
 like a sea to a great distance ; all silent, 
 all kneeling, all with their moistened and 
 glistening eyes (for many wept through 
 religious fervour ) fixed on the illumina- 
 tion which streamed from the high altar, 
 and which appeared to them, I have no 
 doubt, a cheering light, a sacred pharos, 
 shining to conduct them to that haven 
 where the ardent in faith and the contrite 
 in spirit meet their eternal reward. 
 
 " Oh !" said the excellent Prior of Aviz 
 to me, as he pressed my hand with pa- 
 rental kindness, "this is a sight which re- 
 lieves and elevates my heart. How glow- 
 ing and sincere the piety of these plain 
 countrymen ! how consolatory their firm 
 confidence in protection from above ! And 
 yet these warm, ennobling feelings — feel- 
 ings which raise our nature above the 
 dust — are precisely those the vile syco- 
 
FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 187 
 
 phants of the evil principle, the blood- 
 stained monsters of France, pant to era- 
 dicate. The suppressors of institutions 
 vrhich tend to soothe those lacerating 
 cares humanity is subject to, and to absorb 
 in the glorious prospect of the future the 
 corroding misery of the present, are, in 
 fact, suppressors of happiness, — the dele- 
 gates of that dread invisible agency, v\^hich, 
 under an endless variety of specious 
 masks, is ever in movement, seeking v^hom 
 and what it may devour." 
 
 Not one vrord had I to say against this 
 reasoning; for how often have I thought 
 myself, that these experiments upon the 
 human mind, to which the Prior of A viz 
 alluded, are as abhorrent to men of pure 
 and kindly feeling, as those of the hellish 
 Majendie upon the unoffending animals 
 he submits to the most horrible and lin- 
 gering torture, and for purposes equally 
 problematical. 
 
 The " Ite, missa est" having been pro- 
 
188 FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 
 
 nounced, the Prior of Aviz, trembling with 
 emotion and evidently much affected, was 
 conducted in procession by the monks to 
 their sacristy, to put on his pontifical vest- 
 ments, and, next, to the steps before the 
 entrance, where, looking up to the effigy 
 on the banner, again displayed by the 
 superior of the convent, he bestowed, as if 
 immediately delegated by the Saint him- 
 self to perform that sacred office, a solemn, 
 heartfelt benediction. 
 
 At that moment, when every knee was 
 bent and every head was bowed, the an- 
 cient and venerable hymn appointed for 
 this festival, so dear to the natives of Por- 
 tugal — so often sung by their armies in 
 their proud days of conquest on the eve 
 of going into battle, rose with one accord, 
 as from one heart, from the whole of the 
 vast assemblage. The perfect unison of so 
 many thousand manly voices, mingled with 
 the clearer tones of children and their mo- 
 thers, filled the summer air with a volume 
 
FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 189 
 
 of sound more intellectually harmonious 
 than any which ever reached my ear from 
 the artificial efforts of musicians and cho- 
 risters. Prayer does not always ascend 
 with the greatest fervency from beneath 
 gilded vaults or gorgeous cupolas ; it is in 
 the free untainted desert, under Nature's 
 own sky, that man seems to commune 
 more deeply with his God. Impressed with 
 that sentiment, the bare rocks, the scat- 
 tered stones, the withered turf, ranked 
 higher in my estimation than all the 
 splendours of regal magnificence ; and the 
 simple congregation assembled together in 
 this wild and desolate place to thank the 
 Almighty for his blessings, appeared far 
 superior in my eyes to those pharisaic 
 gatherings attracted to church by worldly 
 motives and. the parade of idle vanity. 
 
 So very thick was the concourse of 
 people, and so profoundly were they af- 
 fected by the late most solemn benedic- 
 tion, that it was no easy matter for the 
 
190 FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 
 
 prelate to pass between their still kneeling 
 groups to regain the sacristy in order to 
 be divested, of his heavy cope, the people 
 pressing forwards to kiss his hand in such 
 tides, and with such earnestness, that he 
 felt fatigued and jaded. Nor was his lassi- 
 tude destined to a speedy termination : 
 he had hardly resumed his customary ha- 
 biliments, when our egress from the church 
 was absolutely impeded by a procession 
 of young lads, dressed in a style as antique 
 as the Moorish domination in Portugal ; 
 some carrying baskets of fruit and corn ; 
 some, on an ornamented sledge, an im- 
 mense mass of wax fashioned into the 
 shape of a gigantic taper ; and some, a num- 
 ber of lambs bedecked with ribands and 
 flowers. 
 
 I thought, when I saw presented on the 
 steps before the altar these living offer- 
 ings, not one of which I understood, to my 
 heart's content, was devoted to the knife, 
 but all destined to be reared with care 
 
FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 191 
 
 and tenderness — I thought even their bleat- 
 ings might reach the throne of universal 
 beneficence. We well know how posi- 
 tively the inspired David declares, in one 
 of his Psalms, that the ear of God is open 
 to the supplications of all his creatures, to 
 whom, as well as to us, he has imparted 
 the blessings of light, of sleep, and of nu- 
 triment, — "qui dat jumentis escam ipsorum 
 et pullis corvorum invocantibus cum." 
 
 When I communicated to my revered 
 friend the feelings which throbbed in my 
 own bosom, and reminded him of the 
 fervid effusion of the prophet king, he 
 replied : " Most entirely do I sympathise 
 with the holy monarch. Man, in the de- 
 lusion of pride, may arrogate to himself 
 an exclusive supremacy ; but fully per- 
 suaded am I, that the same principle of 
 life which animates the wisest and bright- 
 est of mankind, pervades the boundless 
 creation in all its forms and branches ; and 
 when that principle prompts the cry of 
 
192 FRANCISCAN CONVENT. 
 
 distress or tlic expression of gratitude in 
 the humblest animal, neither pass un- 
 heeded by the Divine Creator, nor are 
 they poured forth to him in vain. These 
 are my own interior sentiments," conti- 
 nued the venerable prelate. " And they 
 are mine also," I could not repress ex- 
 claiming. 
 
 At length the procession, after depo- 
 siting all its offerings, having retired into 
 the secret courts and penetralia of the 
 convent, the crowd began to disperse; a 
 passage was cleared between the remain- 
 ing groups of the multitude, and we re- 
 gained our carriages, much to the relief of 
 the Grand Prior, who was experiencing 
 an almost total exhaustion. 
 
 What with the sun-rays from above, 
 and the rolling stones below, our descent 
 was not only broiling, but dangerous: 
 many of our mules stumbled, and one fell 
 down dead, half crushing the driver in its 
 fall. The sto])page and confusion this sad 
 
RETURN TO CADAFATZ. 193 
 
 accident occasioned in one of the nar- 
 rowest parts of our perilous track exposed 
 us to scorching heat for half an hour. 
 We arrived at last at our cool, shady 
 quarters, as brown as mummies, and as 
 dry as cinders. 
 
 The first living objects that met us at 
 the massive portal, surmounted by a huge 
 marble cross, which defends the entrance 
 of the orange orchard immediately around 
 the mansion, were two special couriers 
 in the royal livery, magnificently badged 
 and booted, just arrived with a written 
 mandate from the Prince, summoning the 
 two Priors to an audience to-morrow at 
 the palace of Queluz, precisely at three. 
 They delivered me also a very kind letter 
 of invitation from the Marquis of Anjeja 
 (then lord in waiting) to dine with him 
 at the same hour. 
 
 " Really," said our most amiable host, 
 a little ruffled by this peremptory com- 
 mand, " we did not expect a summons to 
 
194 CADAFAIZ. 
 
 communicate observations upon Alcobaca 
 so soon, — on our way home, too, God bless 
 us ! without being allowed time to shake 
 off the dust from our garments, and make 
 ourselves decent and comfortable. But an 
 uncontrollable love of gossip is inherent 
 in the character of royalty, and as inde- 
 lible : we have nothing to do but to 
 obey." 
 
 So saying, and so sighing, with many 
 an ejaculation from the inmost soul of 
 laziness, both Priors wrote answers to 
 the royal mandate ; I did the same to the 
 Marquis of Anjeja, and the couriers de- 
 parted. 
 
 After every comfort and ablution our 
 pleasant retired chambers could afford, we 
 partook of a delicious repast, and of all 
 the blandishments which delicate dishes 
 and iced sherbets could bestow on the 
 willing palate. To these delights succeed- 
 ed, on the part of the Lord Priors at least, 
 a most comfortable nap, and then a stroll 
 
CADAFAIZ. 195 
 
 in the long-bo wered alleys of the quinta ; 
 and then the evening perfume of orange- 
 flowers and jasmine, and the evening 
 song of birds, — music, also, from Franchi, 
 accompanied on the guitar by two novices, 
 who played from their heart and soul 
 most ravishingly, — and then a dance of 
 true oriental fervour, performed by a 
 chosen band of the morisco-dressed pro- 
 cessionists, who had been drawn down, 
 not from heaven, like the Angel to St. 
 Cecilia, but from the convent on the hill ; 
 where, I have little doubt, their freaks and 
 gambols were sadly missed, and the tem- 
 porary deprivation of such amusing frolics 
 heartily regretted. 
 
 2 
 
196 QUELUZ. 
 
 TWELFTH DAY. 
 
 Dreary expanse of Country between Cadafaiz and Queluz. — 
 Arrival at the Palace. — Court Lumber. — Observations of 
 the Marquis of Anjeja relative to the Prince-Regent. — 
 Promised Audience of his Royal Highness. — Visit to the 
 forbidden Gardens. — Surprise of an African Gardener. — 
 A Pavilion, — Night-scene — Preparations for a Fete. — 
 The Infanta's Nymph-like Attendants. — The young Mar- 
 quis of Marialva. — Interview with her Royal Highness. 
 — A Race. — A Dance. — The Prince's Summons. — Con- 
 versation with him. — Character of that Sovereign. — 
 Baneful influence of his despotic Consort. — Unhappy 
 Aspirants to Court Benefits. — Private Conference with 
 the Marquis. — The Prince-Regent's Afflictions. — His 
 Vision. — Anjeja's urgent Request. — Terrible Cries from 
 the Queen — Their effect on me. — My Departure from 
 the Palace. 
 
 14th June. 
 
 The morning was the very essence of 
 summer — and summer in Portugal, con- 
 sequently tremendously hot. Such heat 
 was oppressive enough, but the Grand 
 
QUELUZ. 197 
 
 Prior thought early rising still more abo- 
 minable, and notwithstanding the Prior 
 of St. Vincent's exhortations to set forth 
 whilst any degree of coolness lingered in 
 the atmosphere, there was no persuading 
 him to move before half-past eight. 
 
 Being myself pretty well seasoned to 
 meridian excursions, and bronzed all over 
 like a native Portuguese, I set the sun at 
 defiance, mounted my Arabian, and steer- 
 ing my course as directly as was possible 
 without the aid of a compass, traversed 
 the wide expanse of country between Ca- 
 dafaiz and Queluz ; — and a sad dreary 
 expanse it was, exhibiting only now and 
 then a straggling flock, looking pretty and 
 pastoral — a neglected quinta of orange- 
 trees with its decaying garden-house, the 
 abode of crime or innocence, whichever 
 you like best to fancy — or a half-ruined 
 windmill, with its tattered vans, revolv- 
 ing lackadaisically in the languid and 
 feeble breeze. 
 
198 QUELUZ. 
 
 Exactly at the hour named, 1 arrived, 
 not a little ennuied and wearied, at the 
 palace of Queluz. The chaises belonging 
 to the Priors of Aviz and St. Vincent's 
 were waiting before the royal entrance, for 
 both prelates were still closeted with the 
 Prince Regent. Blessing Heaven that I 
 had nothing to do with the business, what- 
 ever it might be, that was in agitation, I 
 gladly took refuge from the intolerable 
 sunshine in the apartments allotted to the 
 lord in waiting ; — shabby enough they 
 were, bare as many an English country 
 church, and not much less dingy. 
 
 The beings who were wandering about 
 this limbo, or intermediate state, belonged 
 chieliy to that species of living furniture 
 which encumber royal palaces — walking 
 chairs, animated screens, commodes and 
 conveniences, to be used by sovereigns in 
 any manner they like best ; men who 
 had little to feed on besides hope, and 
 whose rueful physiognomies showed plainly 
 
QUELUZ. 199 
 
 enough the wasting effects of that empty 
 diet, — weather-beaten equerries, superan- 
 nuated veadors,* and wizened pages. The 
 whole party were yawning over dusty card- 
 tables. 
 
 Making them many low bows, which 
 were returned with equal courtesy, I pass- 
 ed forward into an interior apartment, 
 where the Marquis of Anjeja and his son 
 the Conde de Villaverde were waiting for 
 me, and immediately dinner was served 
 up. Our repast was not particularly dis- 
 tinguished by good cheer or lively conver- 
 sation. 
 
 As soon as it was over, and the motley 
 tribe of attendants who had crowded tu- 
 multuously round our table sent about 
 their no business at all, the Marquis ob- 
 served to me in a very subdued and rather 
 melancholy tone, that the Prince had been 
 
 * A Veador is something less than a Camarista, or cham- 
 berlain, and something more than a groom of the bed- 
 chamber. 
 
200 QUELUZ. 
 
 greatly disturbed of late by strange appre- 
 hensions and stranger dreams ; that his 
 temper was much ruffled, and that some- 
 thing, he could not tell what, bore heavily 
 on his mind. He would have entered, I 
 believe, into further details of still greater 
 importance, had not a page called him 
 away to the royal presence. 
 
 " I shall return in half an hour," said 
 he, " and finish what I had to say to you." 
 This half hour exceeded three quarters, 
 and two quarters added to that ; but they 
 passed rapidly, for both the young Conde 
 and myself, oppressed by a warm atmo- 
 sphere, and lulled by the drone of humble- 
 bees, and the monotonous buzzing of cour- 
 tiers and lacqueys, in the adjoining apart- 
 ments, had fallen fast asleep. 
 
 When I awoke from this happy state of 
 forgetfulness, one of my servants, who had 
 followed me from Cadafaiz with a change 
 of dress, took me into a room which a 
 principal attendant of the palace had 
 
QUELUZ. 201 
 
 given up to him, and out of which I 
 issued completely renovated, and met the 
 Marquis hastily bearing to me the inter- 
 esting intelligence, that in the course of 
 the evening, or as soon after nightfall 
 as possible, the Prince Regent would 
 give me an audience. " In the interven- 
 ing time," he added, " if you wish to see 
 the curious birds and flowers last sent 
 from the Brazils, the gardens, though ac- 
 cessible of late to very few persons, shall 
 be open to you. Villaverde would most 
 gladly accompany you, but even he has 
 not been in the habit of straying about 
 them for some time past. As to myself, 
 the Prince has a long series of deputations 
 and petitions to receive, and it is my duty 
 to remain near his royal person on these 
 occasions : so pardon my not offering my- 
 self as your guide. At the extremity of 
 the avenue you see from these windows, 
 stands a pavilion well worthy your atten- 
 tion, and I rather wish you might princi- 
 
202 QUELUZ. 
 
 pally employ it in examining the j^aint- 
 ings and china, till the moment arrives 
 when the Prince will be at leisure to re- 
 ceive you." 
 
 I bowed, the Marquis and his son bowed 
 also, and I entered the grand avenue, won- 
 dering what in the name of mystery all 
 these precautions could mean. The enig- 
 ma was not long in meeting with some ex- 
 planation. A gardener, who had left my 
 service only last year, and was now esta- 
 blished prime guardian of carnations and 
 anemones in this regal paradise, advanced 
 towards me with looks of the greatest sur- 
 prise, and touching the extremities of my 
 garments with his exuberant lips — for he 
 was neither more nor less than a negro — 
 stammered out, " Most excellent sir, by 
 what chance do I see you here, where so 
 few are permitted to enter ?" — " By the 
 chance of having the Prince's permission." 
 " Ah, sir," continued he, " it is the Prin- 
 cess who reigns here almost exclusively." 
 
QUELUZ. 203 
 
 " Well," answered I, '' her indignation, I 
 hope, will not visit me too severely : here 
 I am, and here I shall continue." 
 
 With a low salam in the style of a re- 
 gular Bostangi, the poor African, not a 
 little confounded, humbly retired, and left 
 me at full liberty to enter the pavilion, 
 whose richly gilded trellised doors stood 
 wide open. Many entertaining objects, 
 arabesque paintings by Costa full of fire 
 and fancy, and mandarin josses of the 
 most supreme and ridiculous ugliness, 
 kept me so well amused that half an hour 
 glided away pretty smoothly. 
 
 The evening was now drawing towards 
 its final close, and the groves, pavilions', 
 and aviaries sinking apace into shadow : 
 a few wandering lights sparkled amongst 
 the more distant thickets, — fire-flies per- 
 haps — perhaps meteors ; but they did not 
 disturb the reveries in which I was wholly 
 absorbed. 
 
 " So then," thought I within myself, 
 
204 QUELUZ. 
 
 " the Infanta Donna Carlotta is become 
 the predominant power in these lovely 
 gardens, once so profusely adorned and 
 fondly cherished by the late kind-hearted 
 and saintly king. She is now Princess of 
 Brazil and Princess Regent ; and what 
 besides, Heaven preserve me from re- 
 peating !" 
 
 Reports, I well knew, not greatly to the 
 good fame of this exalted personage, had 
 been flying about, numerous as butterflies ; 
 some dark-coloured, like the wings of the 
 death-head moth, and some brilliant and 
 gay, like those of the fritillaria. 
 
 This night I began to perceive^ from a 
 bustle of preparation already visible in the 
 distance, that a mysterious kind of fete 
 was going forwards ; and whatever may 
 have been the leading cause, the effect 
 promised at least to be highly pleasing. 
 Cascades and fountains were in full play ; 
 a thousand sportive jets deem were sprink- 
 ling the rich masses of bay and citron, 
 
QUELUZ. 205 
 
 and drawing forth all their odours, as well- 
 taught water is certain to do upon all 
 such occasions. Amongst the thickets, 
 some of which received a tender light 
 from tapers placed low on the ground 
 under frosted glasses, the Infanta's nymph- 
 like attendants, all thinly clad after the 
 example of her royal and nimble self, were 
 glancing to and fro, visible one instant, 
 invisible the next, laughing and talking 
 all the while with very musical silver- 
 toned voices. I fancied now and then I 
 heard gruffer sounds ; but perhaps I was 
 mistaken. Be that as it pleases Lucifer, 
 just as I was advancing to explore a dus^ky 
 labyrinth, out came, all of a sudden, my 
 very dear friend Don Pedro, the young 
 Marquis of Marialva. 
 
 " What ! at length returned from Alco- 
 ba^a," said he, lifting me a foot off the 
 ground in a transport of jubilation ; "where 
 is my uncle ?" 
 
 " Safe enough," answered I, perhaps in- 
 
206 ' QUELUZ. 
 
 discreetly : " he liad his audience five or 
 six hours ago, and is gone home snug to 
 his cushions and calda da galinha. I am 
 waiting for my turn." 
 
 " Which will not come so soon as you 
 imagine," replied Don Pedro, " for the 
 Prince is retired to his mother's apart- 
 ments, and how long he may be detained 
 there no one can tell. But in the mean 
 while come with me. The Princess, who 
 has learnt you are here, and who has 
 heard that you run like a greyhound, 
 wishes to be convinced herself of the 
 truth of a report she thinks so extra- 
 ordinary." 
 
 " Nothing so easy," said I, taking him 
 by the hand ; and we sprang forwards, not 
 to the course immediately, but to an am- 
 phitheatre of verdure concealed in the 
 deepest recess of the odoriferous thickets, 
 where, seated in the oriental fashion on a 
 rich velvet carpet spread on the grass, I 
 beheld the Alcina of the place, surrounded 
 
QUELUZ. 207 
 
 by thirty or forty young women, every 
 one far superior in loveliness of feature 
 and fascination of smile to their august 
 mistress. 
 
 " How did you leave the fat waddling 
 monks of Alcoba^a," said her royal high- 
 ness. " I hope you did not run races with 
 them ; — but that would indeed have been 
 impossible. There," continued she, " down 
 that avenue, if you like, when I clap my 
 hands together, start ; your friend Pedro 
 and two of my donzellas shall run with 
 you — take care you are not beaten." 
 
 The avenue allotted for this amusing 
 contest was formed of catalpas and orange 
 trees, and as completely smooth and level 
 as any courser, biped or quadruped, upon 
 whom all the bets in the universe were 
 depending, could possibly desire. The 
 signal given, my youthful friend, all ar- 
 dour, all agility, and two Indian-looking 
 girls of fourteen or fifteen, the very ori- 
 ginals, one would have thought, of those 
 
208 QUELUZ. 
 
 graceful creatures we often see repre- 
 sented in Hindoo paintings, darted forth 
 with amazing swiftness. Although I had 
 given them ten paces in advance, exerting 
 myself in right earnest, I soon left them 
 behind, and reached the goal — a marble 
 statue, rendered faintly visible by lamps 
 gleaming through transparent vases. I 
 thought I heard a murmur of approbation ; 
 but it was so kept down, under the terror 
 of disturbing the queen, as to be hardly 
 distinguishable. 
 
 " Muy bien, muy bien," said the Princess 
 in her native Castilian, when we returned 
 to the margin of the velvet carpet upon 
 which she was still sitting reclined, and 
 made our profound obeisances. ^' I see 
 the Englishman can run — report has not 
 deceived me. Now," continued her royal 
 highness, " let me see whether he can 
 dance a bolero ; they say he can, and like 
 one of us : if that be true — and I hope it 
 is, for I abhor unsuccessful enterprises — 
 
QUELUZ. 209 
 
 Antonita shall be his partner, — and she is 
 by far the best dancer that followed me 
 from Spain." 
 
 This command had been no sooner 
 issued, than a low, soft-flowing choir of 
 female voices, without the smallest dis- 
 sonance, without the slightest break, — 
 smooth, well-tuned, and perfectly melo- 
 dious, — filled my ear with such enchant- 
 ment, that I glided along in a delirium 
 of romantic delight. 
 
 My partner, an Andalusian, as full of 
 fire and animation as the brightest beau- 
 ties of Cadiz and Seville, though not quite 
 so young as I could have wished her to 
 be, was rattling her castanets at a most 
 intrepid rate, and raising her voice to a 
 higher pitch than was seemly in these 
 regions, when a universal " Hush, hush, 
 hush !" arrested our movements, suspend- 
 ed the harmonious notes of the choir, 
 and announced the arrival of the Marquis 
 of Anjeja. 
 
210 QUELUZ. 
 
 After a thousand kind and courteous 
 compliments he was pleased to pay me, he 
 begged another thousand pardons of the 
 Princess for having ventured to interrupt 
 her recreations : " But, madam," continued 
 he, " the Prince Regent has been waiting 
 several minutes for the Englishman, and 
 I leave you to judge whether he has a 
 minute to lose." 
 
 Her Royal Highness looked rather blank 
 at this intelligence, and, compassionating 
 my disappointment, held out her hand, 
 which I kissed with fervour, and three or 
 four of her attendants as many silken 
 handkerchiefs, which I found very con- 
 venient in removing those dews which not 
 only the night, but such violent exercise 
 as I had lately taken, occasioned. Panting, 
 and almost breathless, I quitted the en- 
 chanted circle with great reluctance. 
 
 What a contrast the dark, dull ante- 
 chambers of the palace presented to that 
 lively and graceful scene ! It was in the 
 
QUELUZ. 211 
 
 long state gallery where the Prince ha- 
 bitually receives the homage of the court 
 upon birthdays and festivals, — a pompous, 
 richly gilded apartment, set round with co- 
 lossal vases of porcelain, as tall and as formal 
 as grenadiers, — that his Royal Highness 
 was graciously pleased to grant me audi- 
 ence. 
 
 He was standing alone in this vast room, 
 thoughtful, it appeared to me, and abs- 
 tracted. He seemed, however, to bright- 
 en upon my approach ; and although he 
 was certainly the reverse of handsome, 
 there was an expression of shrewdness, and 
 at the same time benignity, in his very un- 
 common countenance, singularly pleasing : 
 it struck me that he had a decided look, 
 particularly about the mouth, of his fa- 
 ther's maternal ancestors. John the Fifth 
 having married the Archduchess, daughter 
 of the Emperor Charles the Sixth, he had 
 therefore an hereditary claim to those 
 wide-spreading, domineering lips, which so 
 
 p 2 
 
212 QUELUZ. 
 
 remarkably characterised the House of 
 Austria, before it merged into that of 
 Lorraine. 
 
 " Welcome back from Alcobaca!" said his 
 Royal Highness to me, with the most con- 
 descending kindness : " I hope your jour- 
 ney was pleasant — how did you find the 
 roads ?" 
 
 " Not half so bad as I expected, espe- 
 cially upon our return from the great con- 
 vent, the reverend fathers having sum- 
 moned all their numerous dependents to 
 mend them with astonishing expedition ; 
 the Lord Abbot took care of that." 
 
 " He takes excellent care of himself, at 
 least," observed the Prince, — " nobody bet- 
 ter. Is it not true that he is become most 
 gloriously corpulent, and fallen passion- 
 ately in love with the fine French cookery 
 you gave him an opportunity of enjoy- 
 ing ?" 
 
 I perceived by this sally that the Grand 
 Prior had been a faithful narrator of our 
 
QUELUZ. 213 
 
 late proceedings, as was proved more and 
 more by the following queries. 
 
 " You had a stage-play too, had you 
 not ? The fathers at Mafra have often re- 
 galed me with performances of a similar 
 nature ; and many a hearty laugh have I 
 had at them, and with them, before now. I 
 dare say you must have thought them half 
 out of their senses ; their poet particularly, 
 who, I hear, is one of the most ridiculous 
 buffoons, the most impudent blockhead 
 {tolerao) in the kingdom. I shall send for 
 him one of these days myself ; they say he 
 is highly diverting, and I want something 
 to cheer my spirits. Every despatch from 
 France brings us such frightful intelligence, 
 that I am lost in amazement and horror ; 
 the ship of the state in every country in 
 Europe is labouring under a heavy tor- 
 ment, — God alone can tell upon what 
 shore we shall be all drifted !" 
 
 With these prophetic words, most so- 
 lemnly and energetically pronounced, the 
 
214 QUELUZ. 
 
 Prince thought fit to dismiss me, honour- 
 ing me again witli those affable expressions 
 of regard which his excellent heart never 
 failed to dictate. Let me observe, whilst 
 the recollections of the interviews I have 
 had with this beneficent sovereign remain 
 fresh in my memory, that not one of his 
 subjects spoke their native language — 
 that beautiful harmonious language, with 
 greater purity and eloquence than himself 
 When in his graver moods, there was a 
 promptitude, a facility in his diction, most 
 remarkable : every word he uttered was 
 to the purpose, and came with the full- 
 est force. When he chose to relax, — 
 which he certainly was apt enough to 
 do more than now and then, — a quaint 
 national turn of humour added a zest to 
 his pleasantries, that, upon my entering 
 heart and soul into the idiom of the lan- 
 guage, has often afforded me capital en- 
 tertainment. No one knew how to win 
 popular affection, after its own fashion, 
 
QUELUZ. 215 
 
 more happily than this well-intentioned, 
 single-minded prince. Had it not been 
 for the baneful influence of his despotic 
 consort, — her restless intrigues of all hues, 
 political as well as private — her wanton 
 freaks of favouritism and atrocious acts of 
 cruelty, — his reign would have gone down 
 to the latest times in the annals of his 
 kingdoms surrounded with a halo of gra- 
 titude. 
 
 Upon my reaching the great portal of 
 this silent gallery, and fumbling to open 
 its valves — for this extremity of the apart- 
 ment was but very feebly illuminated, — the 
 Marquis, who had been giving some orders 
 to somebody of whom I only caught a 
 glimpse, spared me the trouble of further 
 rattlings at locks or door-knobs, and we 
 entered together another shadowy world — 
 another immense saloon. Here, by the 
 wan light of one solitary lustre, containing 
 but half its complement of yellowish wax 
 tapers drooping with dismal snuffs, I disco- 
 
216 QUELUZ. 
 
 vered some fifteen or twenty unhappy aspi- 
 rants to court benefits still loitering and 
 lingering about. The sovereign of Portugal 
 was at this period as completely despotic 
 as the most decided amateur of unlimited 
 monarchy could possibly desire : they who 
 entered these palace regions came with as 
 many hopes of success and fears of the 
 contrary as if they were resorting to a table 
 of hazard. The sovereign, in their eyes, 
 was Chance personified ; his decrees for 
 or against you, modestly styled avisos, were 
 pieces of advice to the judicial obeyers of 
 his commands, which, if once obtained, 
 were never slighted. 
 
 Most of the victims of this system, at 
 this time in this great hall assembled, ap- 
 peared visibly suffering under the sickness 
 of hope deferred. " Five hours have I been 
 walking up and down, to and fro, to no 
 purpose," said an old General, my very 
 particular acquaintance. " Is there no 
 chance yet of delivering my memorial into 
 
QUELUZ. 217 
 
 his royal highness's own hand ?" whis- 
 pered another veteran, decorated with 
 scars as well as orders ; " None," answered 
 the Marquis : " the Prince is retired for 
 the night, and you had better follow his 
 example." 
 
 Had there been more light, we should 
 have been fastened upon by a greater 
 number of petitioners ; but, thanks to the 
 pervading gloom, we slipped along half- 
 undiscovered. 
 
 Our next movements were directed 
 through an ante-chamber of large size and 
 much simplicity, for its walls were quite 
 plain, and the roof as unornamented as that 
 of a barn. A few expiring lamps gave me 
 an opportunity of perceiving another as- 
 semblage of the votaries of royal favour 
 in some of its shapes, less dignified than 
 the company we had just quitted, but 
 who had been equally eager, and who now 
 were equally exhausted, — country magis- 
 trates, sea captains, provincial noblesse. 
 
218 QUELUZ. 
 
 and I know not who besides ; some of 
 them, if truth may be spoken, looking 
 more like the had than the beau ideal of 
 bandits and bravoes ; but what they were 
 in reality, thank God, I am perfectly 
 ignorant. Anjeja paid them no atten- 
 tion as we passed on through their open- 
 ing ranks : his looks, though not his voice, 
 told me plainly enough, 
 
 Non ragionam di lor, 
 Ma guarda e passa. 
 
 These looks seemed to tell me at the same 
 time that he wished to converse with me 
 in private. 
 
 I was tired of close conferences in close 
 apartments ; I longed for the refreshing 
 sea-breezes of my quinta on the banks 
 of the Tagus; the very name of which 
 (San Jose de Riba-mar) was music to my 
 ears at this moment. A page announced 
 that my carriages, just arrived from Cada- 
 faiz, were in waiting. This was tantalizing 
 indeed : I would have taken leave of my 
 
QUELUZ. 219 
 
 most obliging Marquis without any very 
 deep regret after all, but he would not 
 let me off so soon as I eagerly desired ; he 
 absolutely insisted upon taking me into 
 an interior apartment I had never visit- 
 ed before, where we sat down, — for here, 
 at least, were plenty of chairs and sofas, — 
 and he addressed me with considerable 
 emotion in the following manner : 
 
 "You see, his royal highness is more 
 gloomy than he used to be." 
 
 " Upon the whole," answered I, " his 
 spirits are less depressed than I was led 
 to imagine : my friends the Priors seem 
 to have regaled him with many a good 
 story about convents, for he laughed 
 several times at my Lord Almoner's cha- 
 rities of all kinds beginning so comfort- 
 ably at home." 
 
 " Ah !" replied Anjeja, "you little think, 
 notwithstanding this apparent levity, what 
 an accumulated weight of sorrows press 
 him down : he is the most affectionate of 
 
220 QUELUZ. 
 
 sons, the most devoted ; and being such, 
 feels for his mother's sufferings with the 
 acutest poignancy. Those sufferings are 
 frightfully severe, more heart-rending than 
 any words of mine can express. This 
 very evening he knelt by the Queen's 
 couch above two hours, whilst, in a parox- 
 ysm of mental agony, she kept crying out 
 for mercy, imagining that, in the midst of 
 a raging flame which enveloped the whole 
 chamber, she beheld her father's image a 
 calcined mass of cinder, — a statue in form 
 like that in the Terreiro do Paco, but in 
 colour black and horrible, — erected on a 
 pedestal of molten iron, which a crowd of 
 ghastly phantoms — she named them, I 
 shall not — were in the act of dragging 
 down. This vision haunts her by night 
 and by day ; and should she continue 
 to describe it in all its horrible details 
 again and again to my royal master, I fear 
 his brain will catch fire too. There is a 
 remedy — my relation, her confessor, knows 
 
QUELUZ. 221 
 
 it well — there is a medicine, and of the 
 highest and most salutary kind — such 
 might be administered — restitutions might 
 be made — infernal acts revoked, and jus- 
 tice rendered. But hitherto the powers 
 of evil — certain demons in the shape of 
 some of Pombal's ancient counsellors, and 
 others equally culpable, though not so old 
 in iniquity, have impeded measures which 
 would conciliate the disaffected, and al- 
 though they might excite the gibes and 
 murmurs of the disciples of new doctrines, 
 would attach all us, the ancient nobles of 
 the realm, to the House of Braganza 
 more closely than ever. May I ask, has 
 the Prince ever touched upon this subject 
 to you ? I think Marialva told me he 
 had, and once in his presence." 
 
 I answered, " If he did, it was ambi- 
 guously, and with so much slightness that 
 it passed like a fleeting cloud." 
 
 After a long pause, during which An- 
 jeja appeared lost in thought, he said to 
 
222 QUELUZ. 
 
 me with the greatest earnestness, "If, at 
 the next audience the Prince may give 
 you, he should pour forth his sorrows for 
 his mother's malady into your bosom, — 
 which I have reason to conjecture he 
 shortly may, for I know that he feels himself 
 towards you affectionately well inclined" 
 (sumamente affeifoado), " remember the kind 
 regard you entertain for our family,' (he 
 meant the Noronhas in general, from 
 which great house all the Marialvas are 
 paternally descended,) " remember to let it 
 suggest such observations as may further a 
 great and interesting cause. T wish also 
 you would dwell particularly on what the 
 late Archbishop, your devoted friend, may 
 probably have said to you upon this sub- 
 ject. Whatever that may have been, give 
 it the turn we wish, and do not let it lose 
 any charm in the narration." 
 
 I could hardly repress a smile at this 
 urgent request to launch forth beyond the 
 exact limits of truth, if not of probability ; 
 
QUELUZ. 22ii 
 
 for I perfectly recollected the good Arch- 
 bishop's -opinions were everything but 
 favourable to the reversal of those attain- 
 ders. However, I preserved a decorous 
 gravity. I said nothing ; but I contrived 
 that my looks should express a disposition 
 to second his wishes the first opportunity 
 of doing so that might present itself. 
 
 At this moment, the most terrible, the 
 most agonizing shrieks — shrieks such as 
 I hardly conceived possible — shrieks more 
 piercing than those which rung through 
 the Castle of Berkeley, when Edward the 
 Second was put to the most cruel and 
 torturing death — inflicted upon me a sen- 
 sation of horror such as I never felt before. 
 The Queen herself, whose apartment was 
 only two rooms off from the chamber in 
 which we were sitting, uttered those 
 dreadful sounds : " Ai Jesous ! Ai Je- 
 sous !" did she exclaim again and again 
 in the bitterness of agony. 
 
 I believe I turned pale ; for Anjeja 
 
224 QUELUZ. 
 
 said to me, " I see how deeply you are 
 affected : think what the sufferings must 
 be that prompt such cries ; think what 
 a son must feel, and such a son as our 
 royal master." 
 
 I undoubtedly thought all this, and a 
 great deal more : not only the tears in my 
 eyes, but the faltering of my voice, ex- 
 pressed the intensity of my feelings. The 
 Marquis, far from displeased at the effect 
 produced upon me, embraced me with 
 redoubled kindness. Notwithstanding my 
 entreaties for him to remain in his apart- 
 ment, he was determined, after I had 
 taken leave, to conduct me to the outward 
 door of the palace ; nor did he cease gaz- 
 ing, I was afterwards told, upon the car- 
 riage which bore me away, till the sound 
 of the wheels grew fainter and fainter, and 
 even the torches which were borne before 
 it became invisible. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 — Theatre in a distant part of the Convent, p. 103. 
 
 My readers need not start at the idea of a play in a 
 convent, and a synod of reverend fathers assisting at 
 its representation. Such entertainments were often re- 
 sorted to at Mafra to dispel the profound ennui of that 
 royal and monastic residence — the Escurial of Portugal. 
 Upon these occasions, the actors, orchestra, and audi- 
 ence were all monks, with the exception of his late 
 Majesty, John the Sixth, and a few especial lay 
 favourites. 
 
 II. 
 
 — Grotto-like communications, p. 144. 
 
 The lively and intelligent Miss Pardee's charming 
 description of her visit to this famous convent, subse- 
 quent to the predatory incursion of the French, and 
 previous to its final desecration by their imitators, the 
 niculorn Portuguese, cannot be too warmly commended. 
 She paints the supreme beauty of the young monk she 
 caught a peep at (p. 77), and who manifested himself 
 
 Q 
 
226 NOTES. 
 
 more fully, (see p. 89,) in a fervid and animated style, 
 which does credit to the discriminating eye of the fair 
 and susceptible authoress. Her hints (p. 100) of a 
 subterranean road from the monastery of Alcobaga to a 
 Bernardine nunnery in the neighbourhood, are far more 
 palpable than any I can pretend to have received. They 
 afford the finest play to the imagination. We immedi- 
 ately assign the handsome monk as beautiful a partner ; 
 and the picture becomes complete. 
 
 III. 
 
 — The Bird-Qneeri's garden, Sfc. p. 151-163. 
 
 This fine, trim garden was suffered to fall into total 
 ruin, and its feathered inhabitants were dispersed and 
 destroyed, upon the death of their mistress, which 
 occurred about ten months after the period of my 
 visit. The French armies, in their devastating marches 
 and counter-marches through Portugal, completed the 
 work of desolation, by cutting down the pine-forest, 
 and grubbing up even the very roots for fuel. 
 
 IV. 
 
 — The Monks of the Koyal Monastery, p. 165. 
 
 The revenue of this royal monastery, at the period of 
 my excursion to it, considerably exceeded 24,000/. 
 and the charities such wealth enabled the monks to dis- 
 pense were most ample, and judiciously applied. The 
 traces of John the Fifth's munificence were then visible 
 in all their freshness and lustre. Since those golden 
 days of reciprocal good-will and confidence between the 
 landlord and the tenant, the master and the servant, what 
 
NOTES. 227 
 
 cruel and arbitrary inroads have been made upon indi- 
 vidual happiness ! What almost obsolete oppressions 
 have been revived under new-fangled, specious names ! 
 What a cold and withering change, in short, has been 
 perpetrated by a well-organized system of spoliation, 
 tricked out in the plausible garb of philosophic im- 
 provement and general utility ! 
 
 V. 
 
 Alfagirau, p. 170. 
 
 Tradition informs us that it was at this castle, which, 
 from a distance at least, looks magnificently picturesque, 
 that the good king Don Deniz sometimes held his 
 splendid and opulent court. He was husband to St. 
 Isabel, one of the purest gems of the Roman calendar. 
 From this virtuous and exemplary queen descended the 
 less saintly Constance of Castile, duchess of York. The 
 accounts given by chroniclers of the wealth and pro- 
 sperity of Don Deniz, the successful impulse he gave to 
 agriculture, and the quantity of gold extracted under 
 his auspices from the sands of the Tagus, appear incre- 
 dible in our days of almost universal scepticism. 
 
 VI. 
 
 — The hellish Magendie, p. 187. 
 
 I had copied, for insertion here, a record of these 
 atrocious experiments, which appeared in most of the 
 newspapers of the time, and were even alluded to in 
 ])arliament ; but, upon reading it over, although it 
 would fully justify the epithet I have bestowed on 
 this keen anatomist, the details are so heart-sicken- 
 
/ 
 
 228 NOTES. 
 
 ing, so horrible, that I shrink from their further dis- 
 semination. 
 
 VII. 
 
 — The young Marquis of Marialva, p. 205. 
 
 From this mild night, I have been told repeatedly, 
 may be traced the marked predilection of the future 
 empress-queen for this graceful young nobleman — a 
 predilection about which much has been said and more 
 conjectured. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED DY SAMUEL BENTLEY, 
 
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