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TALKATIVE NUN. BELGIANS.

to make an impression which led to inquiries concerning her history, which was certainly not of a kind to warrant any particular forwardness. It came out, that after this loquacious lady had been some time professed, she was entrusted with the care of the purse, but quickly ran away with it in company of a favourite inamorato. When the money was pretty well exhausted, she turned penitent, and went back to the convent to make confes sion of her crime. She was immediately condemned to be kept a whole year in a dungeon under ground, on bread and water, and to suffer a variety of severe penances, til at length her repentance was pronounced sincere, and she was restored to the society of her sisters.

Miss Hill complained very much of the manner in which the Belgian lower orders treated their wives in those days. She frequently saw three or four great fellows sitting in a barge, smoking at their ease, while their poor women were drawing it along. Men were also seen to load their females with heavy trunks on a journey, while they only carried some extremely light parcels. In this respect they are certainly changed for the better, though they are still to a great degree unaltered, in another point of view, which shocked the pure protestant feelings of our travellers. Their attachment to the show and superstitions of Popery, though circumstances have obliged them to curtail some of its splendours, remains less diminished than in most other countries. The party from Hawkstone arrived at Brussels on the day of the Nativity of the Virgin, and witnessed with surprise and regret the magnificent ceremonies of the festival. The whole interior of a fine church was decorated with the most ingenious devices. Orange trees were placed all over it, with two flags fastened to each; and in the midst the figure of the Virgin was

. elevated, dressed most gorgeously, and under cover of a very costly canopy. She was attired in an enormous bell hoop, with a train of rich blue and silver and coloured tissue. Her petticoat was pink under silver gauze, and over her shoulders was thrown a mantle of the same colour covered with fine point lace. Round her neck were two large rows of pearls, and in her ears were an immense pair of glittering ear-rings. On her head and on that of the figure of the infant Jesus, were crowns of gold set in precious stones; but the faces of both were black. Thus attired, she was carried all through the principal streets of the town, attended by a vast procession. The ground was strewed with flowers and boughs of trees, and the houses were hung with them also; and as she passed along followed by the host, all the people fell on their knees. Though the sun shone bright and scorching, hundreds of lights were carried in the procession, and the church was filled with innumerable tapers and silver lamps, while the dresses of the priests, their silver censers, and the music, rendered the scene beyond conception imposing. "I felt," says Miss Hill, "greatly shocked;" and who is there that knows the simplicity of truth as it is in Jesus, who has not on like occasions felt the same?

On their road to Spa, the tourists were amused by the contrast between the German and French postillions. Their different national characteristics, much the same to the present hour, are thus graphically pourtrayed by Miss Hill in her journal. "The contrast of characters between the French and Germans, is strongly illustrated in the different behaviour of the postillions of the two countries. A French postillion is either laughing, or

1 The passage is in inverted commas, and seems to be a quotation.

372

FRENCH AND GERMAN POSTILLIONS.

fretting, or singing, or swearing all the time he is on the road. If a hill or a bad road obliges him to go slowly, he will of a sudden begin cracking his whip above his head for a quarter of an hour together, without rhyme or reason; for he knows the horses cannot go a bit faster, and he does not intend they should. All the noise and emotion therefore means nothing, proceeding from the abhorrence of quiet every Frenchman imbibes from his mother's breast. On the contrary, the German postillion drives his horses with all possible tranquillity. He neither sings, nor frets, nor laughs-he only smokes. When he comes near a narrow defile, he sounds his trumpet to prevent any carriage from entering the other end till he is got through. If you call to him to go faster, he will turn about, look you in the face, take his pipe from his mouth and say Ya mynheer, and then proceed exactly on the same pace as before. He is no way affected whether the road be good or bad, whether it rains, shines, or snows; and he seems to be totally regardless of the people whom he drives, and equally callous to their reproach or applause. He has one object of which he never loses sight, which is to conduct your chaise and its contents from one post to another, in the manner in which he thinks best for himself and his horses; and unless his pipe goes out, in which case he strikes his flint and rekindles it, he seems not to have another idea during the whole journey. Mr. H. told us of a gentleman travelling, the pole of whose chaise happened to break late at night, in a very narrow road through which it was impossible for his servant on horseback to pass.' The postillion went in quest of another, but did not think proper to return till

No doubt Miss Hill meant to say he could not pass the vehicle by which the narrow road was blockaded.

SPA.

CAPUCHINS.

ENGLISH SERVICE.

373

the next morning. The only apology he made was that he went to bed, to sleep."

At Spa, Miss Hill and her companions received great civilities from the Capuchins. She describes their dress as very strange and peculiar. "A long gown of the ccarsest brown cloth, tied round with a rope which hangs to their ancles, and being knotted at the ends, they chastise themselves with it, some without mercy, others, wisely, with moderation. From the waist hangs a long bunch of beads or rosary, with a cross. They have a kind of short cloak over their shoulders of coarse material, but no shirts, neither shoes, nor stockings, only a kind of wooden sandals buckled with a strap round their feet, which are usually very dirty. The hair is entirely shaved off their heads, except a very small tuft on the forehead. The crown is quite bare. The beards of those who are ordained priests, hang down to their girdles. Upon the whole they make a venerable and strange appearance. We were honoured with their particular attention: frequently they sent us presents of nosegays out of their gardens, in which we had liberty to walk whenever we pleased." Miss Hill and a friend went to hear one of them preach, and could not help contrasting the solemnity of the sermon and worship, with what they witnessed at the English service in the house of a diplomatist of her own nation. She says, "Lord officiated as clerk, and the whole congregation, which consisted of a circle of ladies and gentlemen round the room, was in a constant titter." It was alas, an awful specimen of times passed away; but there are too many of our countrymen yet, who have to learn the important lesson of consistent conduct in foreign countries.

Miss Hill has entered in her lively record of this

journey, the following curious anecdote. A lady of gay disposition, and who out of pleasantry put on a religious habit, laid hold of a little scourge which hung at the belt of one of the Capuchin fathers, and desired him to make her a present of it, assuring him she wished to use it by way of doing penance on her return home. The father with great gravity begged she would spare her own fair person, and promised her he would give himself a hearty flogging on her account that very evening. To prove how much he was in earnest, he fell directly on his knees before a little altar, and began to whip his own shoulders with unsparing hand, and declared that when the lady retired, he would lay the scourge with equal violence on his naked body, till she was as free from sin as on the day of her birth. The lady was so melted by his conduct, that she begged him to take no more of her faults on his shoulders, for she was convinced what he had already done would clear her as completely as if he whipped himself to the bone! This story brings to mind that of the celebrated Dominic, the cuirassier, who was enabled miraculously to flog himself thousands of strokes in a minute, that he might have a bank-stock of penances at the service of all who chose to purchase them. Sure it is, that the more Popery becomes known to us, the more strongly we perceive that error is never so absurd and dangerous, as when it offers itself in the garb of perverted truth.

After seeing various other interesting sights in the countries they visited, Miss Hill and her fellow-travellers proceeded from Brussels to Paris, and thence to Versailles. As every thing relating to the then brilliant, but soon afterwards clouded and miserable court of France, cannot fail to awaken a mournful interest, the account of their admission to the palace shall close this notice of