The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-01-17

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OF their venerable efigies may still be
seen-having been hastily covered over
at the time of the invasion.
Gradually the monks of Poblet grew
more and more exclusive. From five
hundred, their number was reduced to
slxty-slx, and into that sacred circle no
novice could come in whose veins ran
other than the purest blood of the Span
ish grandee. He who became a monk
OF Poblet had to prove his pedigree.
and the chapter sat in solemn delibera-
ton upon his quarterings. Every monk
had his two servants and rode upon a
snowwhite mule. The mules bred by
the friars, were sought through the
whole Peninsula, and fabulous prices
paid for them. Within the walls everv
variety of trade was represented, so
that the convent became independent
of the outer world, and no monk need
look beyond his cloister for ANYTHING
Tailors, shoe-makers, apothecaries, each
had their wing or court. Hospitals were
built close by for sick and ailing pill
grims, and beside them palace for the
sovereigns, who here sought the cure of
their souls. The vast produce of the
vineyards that depended upon Poblet
was brought to the convent wine presses.
and was slowed away in it's vast avenue
of wine-vats. Gel Priorato," as it is
called, became the most reputed of
Spanish wines, and the pipes, the presses
and the watts to this day remain almost
entire. 1t was the same old story indi-
Gated by that significant clause in the
praye r-book-'In all time of our pros
perity, good Lord, deliver U.S. As the
power of the convent increased, the
friars of Poblet, like autocratic SOY
erelgns, issued their commands, and the
surrounding country had only to hear
and obey. He who fails to attend the
summons of the mass-bell must answer
to the monks for his neglect. Ramon,
which is known to have "a million feet
but no head" told of offending peasants
who entered the convent gates and
never came forth, and the monks be-
came the bugaboo whispered by. the
lace-making mothers to brighten re-
fractory children into subsection. Then
came the wars of Don Carlos Half
the monks were royalists, half were
Carlists; and when political dissension
arose within the mystic circle, the Car
list monks, believing themselves oppres-
sed and muttering vengence, whispered
abroad tales of secret dungeons and
hidden torture. Public curiosity be-
came excited. Finally the convent
doors were broken in by night and the
townsfolk, streaming through court and
cloister reached the dungeon which
had been designated, - where, sure
enough, as may today be seen-the
dreaded rack and other instruments of
torture were found, and beneath it a
pit filled with human bones. Then the
avenging cry was, 'Destroy "''Destroy"
TWenty-four hours was insisted upon
by the authorities, to give the friars a
chance of safety. They csc aped, but
only with their lives. Poblet, beautiful
Poblet, was left in all it's perfection and
incompatible riches. Every weapon of
destruction was pressed into service by
the avengers. Picture, shrine, tomb and
fresco fell alike under the destroying
hammer till exhausted with devasta-
10
glorious sacristy, While the inestimable
manuscripts of the library, piled heap
on heap, were consumed to ashes.
To-day violence and vengeance are
written on every stone. The vast walls,
the mighty court, the endless cloisters,
look as if the shock of terrible earth
quake had passed over them. There is
no soothing vegetation, no flowers in
neglected gardens, and the very beauty
and delicacy of the fragments of scuIp-
ture which remain in the rified walls
where they are too high up for
the spoilers hands, only make stronger
contrast with the yawning wounds
where sections of stone were violently
torn away and where marble pillars lie
dashed to atoms ON the ground. An
English ruin, softened and mellowed by
time, fading and crumbling by gradual
and gentle decay, can give no idea of this.
1t might all be fresh and perfect now,
but is the most utterly ruined ruin that
can exist-the very abomination of
desolation. The approach to the great
religious house is first indicated by a
, tall stone cross rising on lofty pedes-
; tai, stained with golden lichen and with
myrtle and lentisch growing in the hol-
lows of its gray stones. Then you en-
counter a strange, uncanny group of
sanity figures in stone, standing aloft
amid solitary group of pillars at a
cross-way, marking the afternoon walk
of the friars. Hence an avenue, with
) broken stone benches at interval on
either side, lead up to the convent walls.
But there is no entrance here-only a
: great stone basin, overhung with ferns
and water-plants, a clean, sparkling
!. mountain torrent murmuring by its
side. Passing around the walls for
r some distance, YOU come at last to the