Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-10-21
BROTHER FELIPE'S MEMORY.

emu TEN I EEtI . - WEWO
1t was very generally agreed IN the,
monastery that it would be no dlfhcuIt
matter for Brother Felipe to forget the
world. The difficulty for him WOULD nave
been to remember it. He could not even
remember the little worldly calls which,
even in monastery, must needs be bark
enedl to from day to day, and though in
themselves trials are yet, when properly
responded to, of no small use in keeping
the devil at bay. For example, the call
to meals. Feasting to the proper and en-
Joined extent is an excellent thing; no
brother, not even Brother Antonio, would
have dared to deny it. For by fasting
the flesh is mortified, as it should be. But
to forget the times and seasons for the
partaking Of food altogether, as Brother
Felipe sometimes did, is to go to ,ex-
tremes. And when. as also sometimes
happened, Brother Felipe forgot when
he was, as a matter of rotation, kitchener
for the day, the mortifcation-of other
people rather than of himself-was excess
sive.
If he did not forget to prepare a meal
Brother Felipe was as likely as not to err
on some other side of his memory. Such
was the case when, being engaged in the
monastery was famous throughout the
province, he used, quite unsupported,
soda by mistake for sugar. Brother An
tonic, suffering from a sharp attack of
rheum, which required in the abbOts
'opinion-as we'll as in Brother Antonio's
"a warming draught, was the victim of
this monstrous brew. His words, as he
rushed from the buttery plucking at his
chest, while the torrid GQueur was burn
ing from within, were such as had never
been dreamed of in that unworldly place,
and caused his brothers to hang their
heads for weeks .afterward
/ rOther Antonio did penance for the
words. as did Brother Felipe for the
brew. Brother Felipe did it without
grumble. He delighted IN doing penance
another strange thing.
Often he implored something to be put
upon him when from his confession there
was no need of it. Only it must be
member anything-not even his sins.
And that in itself becomes q sin,
said the abbot upon one occasion.
Punish me, therefore; punish me, ia
ther," Felipe replied, and was given his
wish; though, it must be admitted, if alb
sent-mindedness made him sinner it
also prevented him from being a sufferer.
seeing that he usually forgot that what'
he was doing was penance, and he
had none even of the pangs of conscience.
Of this, doubtless, the abbot was aware.
The others often wondered what Broth
er Felipe had been like in the outside
world. Thes- themselves had been SO diff
ferent in some ways. Not in all, of
course. Brother Antonio had never hat
ed meat and wine then any more than
he did now. The difference was that
now he tried to hate them. They all
tried to hate the past, and if they ever
spoke of it, which was seldom, they spoke
of If with fear and 1OathinU
PrOther Felipe, on the other hand, had
thrown a thunderbolt once or twice into
their midst by speaking of some incident
of the past with obvious qualification.
His devoutness was beyond question,
his docility equally so, the only proofs
devil in his youth being certain sugges-
tions of quick temper. Once for moth
ing at all he had knocked brother
down, a sign of depravity indeed in any
body else but Brother Felipe. Somehow
it was like it's cause nothing at all in
him. The abbot had visited it mildly,
plainly finding it impossible to punish
overmuch one who was beyond doubt as
unconscious of his sin as a summer sky
that a moment before has been streaked
with lightning.
Every one was agreed in fine that
Brother Felipe was without guile. But
for his wool-gathering wits he might have
been saint Also-but for what fol-
lows:
1t is possible, though not easy, to forget
the world at all times except one. That
is in time of war. If the enemy thunders
on ones gates, he brings the world with
him. Neither prayers nor excommunica-
tions can keep him out. And so, one
might say, a captain is stronger than the
devil himself, who is not at least at his
ease in a holy place. If this be any ex-
cuse for what Brother Felipe did, let it
be told in his favor.
1t was after the melting of the SHOWS
in the year 1S0-. You know the events
of that year? The arch enemy Napoleon
had thrown his men with equal disdain
and cunning into the Peninsula. and the
Spaniards. remembering their glory, had
risen. Skirmishes, Heterogeneous. de-
feats victories, all these the patriots had
briefly, since this is no place for the de-
tails of the fighting-that Capt. Herpolet,
with 400 conscripts, mad with hunger
and defeat, was cut off from the French
main army of the Pyrenees, and led
them ravaging by whatever ways they
could find among the hills. If there was
any method in their retreat the historians
will know it. Enough that this captain
came, ignorant that the Spaniards had
let him slip ahead only league or So
that league by which fear for little out
strips vengeance-to the village of Gale
d'Estrez. Above that on the hill, as all
know, the monastery stands.
Something of the news of the rising had
come to the brothers ears. Villagers on
their way to join the patriots had passed
within sight of them; Brother Pedro, sent
on an errand into the hills, had come
back with the sound of trumpets in his
ears. Sounds of firing, too, to make the
world seem furiously near. The abbot
might cxhort to prayer and fasting; he
might speak of vows in which neither
war nor rumors Of war had any part
But the tidings came-kept coming. Only
they knew so little that the first cottages
of Gale d'Estrez were in flames and
smoke steaming up from the valley be-
fore the brothers knew that a detach-
ment of the French army was already
there.
And about to march upon the mon