ke the bags
Of hoarding abbots; angels imprisoned
Set thou at liberty.'

"This last, though, in a sense different from the poets; in Lisbon
alone, turning thousands of nuns into the streets, that their convents
might be converted into barracks. In obedience to the imperial decree,
all the gold and silver of the churches, chapels, and fraternities of
the city were carried off to the mint; and, in this day of sweeping
confiscation, individuals did not forget themselves. Indeed,
throughout the country, the French soldier proved that he had the eye
of a lynx, the scent of a hound, and the litheness of a ferret after
booty, trained to it by the system which makes the war support the
war. But Evora has been particularly unlucky. It not only bore its
full share of the first burden imposed on the country, but the year
after, when the Portuguese, rising too late in armed resistance, lost
a battle before the town, the French, entering with the fugitives,
massacred nearly a thousand persons, many of them women and children,
including some forty priests, a class they made the especial objects
of their vengeance; and they plundered the town so thoroughly, that
the very cracks in the walls did not escape their search. The best
excuse that can be made for their plunderings is, that in the
confusion of their own revolution they so completely lost the idea of
property, that though they have recovered the thing, they have not yet
remastered the idea of it."

A number of friars now coming out of the church attracted Mrs.
Shortridge's attention. But Lady Mabel had an English woman's ear for
French atrocities, and continued the conversation:

"I can understand that a needy and ignorant soldiery may perpetrate
such robberies amidst scenes of violence, and under the temptations of
want; but we expect better things from the men who lead them."

"That supposes these men to be of a different class, with different
education and habits from the common soldier. The revolution and
conscription has leveled all those distinctions. Many a youth of good
birth and education is made to bear his musket in the ranks, and does
not elevate his comrades to his standard, but is soon degraded to the
level of their sentiments and habits. Many a French general, for
instance Junot, has been raised from the ranks. Military merit or
accident has elevated them to command without a corresponding
elevation of sentiment or principles. It is not easy to make a
g