Chapter XXVIII: The Ruins of Poblet

A dream-world--Ruins--Chapel of St. George--Archways and Gothic windows--Atmosphere of the Middle Ages--Convent doorway--Summons but no response--Door opens at last--Comfortable looking woman--Ready invention--Confusion worse confounded--True version--Francisco painfully direct--Guardian gets worst of it--Picturesque decay--Gothic cloisters--Visions of beauty--Rare wilderness--King Martin the Humble--Bacchanalian days--When the monks quaffed Malvoisie--Simple grandeur of the church--Philip Duke of Wharton--Cistercian monastery--History of Poblet the monk--Monastery becomes celebrated--Tombs of the kings of Aragon--Guardian sceptical--Paradise or wilderness--Monks all-powerful--Escorial of Aragon--The great traveller--Changing for the worst--Upholding the kingly power--Time rolls on--Downfall--Attacked and destroyed--Infuriated mob--Fictitious treasures--Fiendish act--Massacre--Ruined monastery--Blood-red sunset--Superstition--End of 1835 418

CHAPTER XXIX.

LORENZO.

Day visions--All passes away--End of the feast--Francisco gathers up the fragments--Ghosts of the past--Outside the monastery--Oasis in a desert--After the vintage--Francisco gleans--Guilty conscience--Custom of country--Dessert--Primitive watering-place--Off to the fair--Groans and lamentations--Sagacious animal--Cause of sorrows--Rage and anger--Donkey listens and understands--A hard life--Washing a luxury--Charity bestowed--Deserted settlement--Quaint interior--Back to the monastery--Invidious comparisons--A promise--Good-bye to Poblet--Troubled sea again--Suffering driver--Atonement for sins--Earns paradise--Wine-pressers again--Rich stores--Good Samaritans--Quaint old town--Bygone prosperity--Lorenzo--Marriage made in heaven--House inspected--On the bridge--At the station--Kindly offer--Glorious sunset--Loretta's good-bye--"What shall it be?"--Flying moments--As the train rolls off. 430