I had no communication with the other novices, I had more liberty being only placed under the direction of the father professor of Theology, and saw them only in the choir. As a novice I had no intercourse with any of the fathers of the con vent, without the permission of the father professor. My cell was plain and neat, my bed much better than I had expected; I was obliged for my health's sake to make a prominade twice a week with some of the fathers in the city or elsewhere, as it pleased my conductor. Nearly every day after dinner I had permission to frequent society with the father students of Theology, who met in a large saloon in the garden, where a billiard table was standing, and other games were played, according to the fancy of the students, until the bell rang for vesper. I might have been happy with regard to my temporal welfare, but it was not that which I was seeking, it was something of a higher order. I was much surprised, that I never heard the monks speak on the subject of religion among themselves; they backbited and censured each other behind their backs, while they preserved the most friendly exterior when in each others presence; cabals and intrigues were used in order to gain the good will of the superior, of to be pro

moted to some little office, and so zealous were they in this, that one would think they aspired to obtain a crown. I was horror-struck with one circumstance, which troubled me not a little; we had an old father in the convent about 80 years of age, who occupied all the high offices in the order; in his old age he retired within the same convent, where he had once been a novice, and had made his vow, when he was 17 years old. I loved the old man very much, I never saw him the corridor without being engaged in mumbling some prayer, or without the rosary in his hand. Old and infirm as he was, he was ever the first in the choir and the last to leave it. He invited me often to his cell, and recounted his sufferings, when Napoleon suppressed the convents, and when he was imprisoned; but what appeared to afflict him most was the almost unbounded liberty now enjoyed by the friars. They had been much more restricted at the time when he was a student. He repeated that history every time we met, and complained as often as we saw each other.

One morning the news came that father P. had been found dead in his bed, this was sad intelligence for me, he being the only one whose cell

I could visit without permission. But the other fathers passed by this circumstance with light indifference; scarcely was the office which is said for the dead performed at church, when many of them ran away, while some did not even accompany the funeral to the grave. I saw evidently that these men came together without knowing each other, lived together without loving each other, and died without mourning over each other.

All this I would have overlooked, because I thought my cell was my world, for as soon as I had once made the profession, I was no more under any direction, except under that of the prior of the convent, and as I aspired to no honors, nor promotion, I felt rather indifferent about the conduct of others. Such were my calculations; but two things troubled me, and contributed not a little towards increasing the miseries of my situation.

1st. As a novice I could read no book, without the permission of the superior; they gave me the constitution and Breviary of the Franciscan order; the office of the Virgin Mary; the lives of St. Franciscus, St. Bernardus, St. Antonius of Padua, and all such old, miserable, insipid productions, which were calculated to create disgust, instead of imparting a taste for reading.

2dly. I once asked for a Bible, and the father professor promised me one, but as he never attended to his promises, I renewed my request after a few days, when he refused, saying: "that I must read such books which edify, and make a good Franciscan friar, and not the Bible, which would only satisfy my pride and carnal mind."

The following Saturday evening I confessed as usual, when the father confessor put questions to me quite different from those, which had reference to my confession He asked me, "whether I believed that the Pope is the infallible head of the church? That the Pope and bishops in council are the only interpreters of the Bible?" and similar questions. I perceived immediately that I was surrounded by spies. I considered the father professor no more as my superior, but as my jailor, and my cell a jail, and from that hour, I studied how to get out of the convent, but was ashamed on account of my own relations, who had warned me, and predicted to me all that had occurred. In such a state of mind, I neglected that little biblical knowledge, which I had acquired; my mind was too much perplexed to think of the one thing needful, and if I had

remained in that den of corruption, my soul must certainly have perished forever.

One day after dinner, I visited as usual, the company of the students, where I heard that one of the novices, a boy, aged sixteen years, was missing; it was a mystery how he could have escaped, as the door of the noviciate was locked. The whole convent was searched, but nothing could be found of him. The following day a toga was seen hanging out of a window on the roof of the convent. The father director of the noviciate recognized it to be that of his novice, and immediately ascended the garret with some friars, where they found the poor creature lying: helpless.

His melancholy history is as follows: Some of the monks opened the door of the noviciate with the general key, and persuaded the boy, through promises to go with them, when they conducted him up into the garret, where after having abused him in a manner too beastly to be told, they left him nearly lifeless. The boy remained there two nights and one day, without eating and drinking; during which time, having so much recovered as to become sensible of his

situation, he hung his toga out of a window for