The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-12

or three of them hitched tandem; anC
| never were seen such headstrong beasts
| since Balaam's day as the hardy
mountain-br mules of MontblanchI
| AT first ours refused to move at ALL till
after long suasion on the part of the
| driver in the way of shrieks and yells
and cudgelling with clubs and peltine
with stones and when at last he did
conclude to start, it was with the uneX-
| pected velocity of a ball from a can
| mons mouth and a tremendous lurch
/ that nearly ended our earthly career
Head high in air, he galloped on, re-
CARELESS of rocks and gullies and
sloughs of mud, pitching us from end to
+ end of the tartana, with our feet help
lessly twisted through the open ropes
/ beneath. When human nature could
endure no more, we begged to be let
out, which could only be accomplished
! by heading the mules straight into a
J boulder, and we gladly paid the eXor-
+ bitant price demanded for the privi-
! lege of trudging behind on foot.
Never have J. seen such a melancholy
! place as the old convent of Poblet,
which has stood since the year 1149 in a
| lonely hollow of the hills, surrounded
by venerable olive trees whose trunks
are gnarled and twisted into fantastic
shapes. This is the story of it's foun-
dation: In the time Of the Moors a
holy hermit named Pobet retired to
this secluded spot to pray; but an emir.
out hunting, discovered him and had
him cast into prison, Angels came
down from heaven, broke his chains
and let him forth; but he was speedily
re-arrested. After his miraculous re-
lease had been three times accom-
plished the Moors repented and grant
ed him all the territory of Hardeta, in
which the convent is situated There
he died, in a grass hut in the lonely
gorge. When the Christians recon-
quered the country, in 114O, the body of
Poblet was revealed by miraculous
lights, in consequence of which Ramon
Berenguer " caused the great monas-
terry to be built on the spot, and the
holy bones inferred within it. 1t be-
came the Escorial of Aragon-the bur-
ial-place of the Aragonesa kings and
afterwards of the Dukes of Cardona.
Every succeeding monarch increased
its wealth, regarding it not only in the
light of a sacred shrine, but as his own
last resting place. AS the long lines of
royal tombs rose thicker on either side
of the choir, the living kings came
hither, too over mountain and moor,
for penitence and prayer and lived for
time the austere conventual life.
Thus though no sovereign ever actually
assumed the cowl at Poblet, several
left orders that their effigy should be
twice represented on their monuments
once in royal robes and again in the
monastic habit. Five hundred monks
of st. Bernard occupied, but did not
fill, the magnificent buildings. Their
domain became almost boundless, their
power absolute, their wealth beyond
computing; their library the most ia
NOUS in Spain-so large it was said a
set of wagons, employed night and day
a whole year, could not cart away all
its books. AS Poblet became the Span
ish Westminster for kings and queens,
other distinguished personages natu-
rally desired to mingle their dust with
that of royalty. Dukes and grandees
of the first-class We're filed away, like
moldy documents, in nitches around |
the principal cloister, where their
tombs less injured than anything else,
form a most curious epitome of the his
tory of Spanish sepulchral decorations
and counts, less honored in
death as in life, had cemetery as
signed to them in the strip of ground |
the aspe. Famous warri-
ors were buried in the nave and ante 1,
chapel. The bishops of Lerida and |
Taragona, deserving their own cathe-
dral, had each their appointed portion
Of the transept; while the abbots of Po-
blet, far mighties than bishops, occu-
pied the chapter house. where numbers
IF their venerable etfigies may still be
seen, having been hastily covered over
at the time of the invasion.
Gradually the monks of Poblet grew
hundred their number was reduced to
;ixty-six, and into that sacred circle no
novice could come in whose veins ran
other than the purest blood of the
Spanish grandee. He who became
monk of Poblet had to prove his pedi-
free, and the chapter sat In solemn de-
Iteration upon his quarterings. Eve
y monk had his two servants and rode
lpon a snowwhite mule. The mules
,red by the friars were sought through
he whole peninsula and fabulous
,rices paid for them. Within the
wallis every variety of trade was repre-
ented, so that the convent became in
ependent of the outer world and no
monk need look beyond his cloisted for
Tailors, shoemakers apoth- I
carries, each had their wing or court.
hospitals We're built close by for sick {
nd ailing pilgrims, and beside them a s
alace for the sovereigns, who here {
ought the cure of their souls. The Y
asst produce of the vineyards that de- |
ended upon Poblet was brought to the
onvent wine presses, and was slowed J
way in its vast avenue of wine-vats {
Ell Priorato," as it was called, became $
ne most reputed of Spanish wines, and
ne pipes, the presses and the watts to .
lis day remain almost entire. 1t was Y
he same old story indicated by that {
gnificant clause in the prayer-book h
In all time Of our prosperity, good |
ord deliver us" AS the power of the {
onvent increased the friars of Poblet, I
Ike autocratic sovereigns, issued their t
and the surrounding coun- il
Y had only to hear and obey He who o
Tiled to attend the summons of the Il
'ass-bell must answer to the monks v
r his neglect. Ramon, which Is /,
nown to have "a million feet but no n
ead," told of offending peasants who C
ecame the bugaboo whispered by the q
ce-making mothers to brighten re- q
actory children into subsection. Then b