ns, that I know not which
part of the enchanted spot is most beautiful. I found in one of these
places a little garden, fenced in by the fallen rocks, a spring of so
clear and cool a water, and the whole so shaded by, oaks, so warmed by
the sun, and so superlatively romantic, that I was determined to find
out the owner of it, and have set about building a house or a hut to the
garden, and to have made it my abode; but, alas! upon enquiry, I found
the well was a holy one, and that the water, the purest and finest I
ever saw or tasted could only be used for holy purposes. And here let me
observe, that the generality of strangers who visit this mountain, come
prepared only to stay one day;--but it is not a day, nor a week, that
is sufficient to see half the smaller beauties which a mountain, so
great and wonderful of itself, affords on all sides, from the highest
pinacle above, to the foundation stones beneath.

But I should have told you, that there are other roads to some of the
hermitages above, which, by twisting and turning from side to side, are
every week clambered up by a blind mule, who, being loaded with thirteen
baskets containing the provision for the hermits, goes up without any
conductor, and taking the hermitages in their proper order, goes as near
as he can to each, and waits till the hermit has taken his portion; and
proceeds till he has discharged his load, and his trust, and then
returns to his stable below. I did not see this animal on the road, but
I saw some of his _offerings there_, and you may rely upon the truth of
what I tell you.

Before I quit the hermits, however, I must tell you, that the hardships
and fatigues which some of them voluntarily inflict upon themselves, are
almost incredible: they cannot, like the monks in _Russia_, sit in water
to their chins till they are froze up, but they undergo some penances
almost as severe.

LETTER XXVI.

_Pere Pascal_ having invited me to high mass, and to hear a Spanish
sermon preached by one of their best orators, we attended; and though I
did not understand the language sufficiently to know all I heard, I
understood enough to be entertained, if not edified. The decency of the
whole congregation too, was truly characteristic of their profession.
There sat just before us a number of lay-brothers, bare-headed, with
their eyes fixed the whole time upon the ground; and tho' they knew we
were strangers, and probably as singular in their eyes as t