Basil, 'that I shall send you to tell them how I
fare, and to bring back tidings. Your horse is at hand?'

As he spoke he detected a sadness on the man's countenance. Without
more words, he dismissed him.

That day he sat in the open air, in a gallery whence he could survey a
great part of the monastic buildings, and much of the mountain summit
on its western side. For an hour he had the companionship of Marcus,
who, pointing to this spot and to that, instructed Basil in the history
of what he saw, now and then reciting his own verses on the subject. He
told how Benedict, seeking with a little company of pious followers for
a retreat from the evil of the world, came to ruined Casinum, and found
its few wretched inhabitants fallen away from Christ, worshipping the
old gods in groves and high places. Here, on the mountain top, stood
temples of Jupiter, of Apollo, and of Venus. The house of Apollo he
purified for Christian service, and set under the invocation of the
Holy Martin. The other temples he laid low, and having cut down the
grove sacred to Apollo, on that spot he raised an oratory in the name
of the Baptist. Not without much spiritual strife was all this
achieved; for--the good Marcus subdued his voice--Satan himself more
than once overthrew what the monks had built, and, together with the
demons whom Benedict had driven forth, often assailed the holy band
with terrors and torments. Had not the narrator, who gently boasted a
part in these beginnings, been once all but killed by a falling column,
which indeed must have crushed him, but that he stretched out a hand in
which, by happy chance, he was holding a hammer, and this--for a hammer
is cruciform--touching the great pillar, turned its fall in another
direction. Where stood the temple of Venus was now a vineyard, yielding
excellent wine.

'Whereof, surely, you must not drink?' interposed Basil, with a smile.

'Therein, good brother,' replied Marcus, 'you show but little knowledge
of our dear lord abbot. He indeed abstains from wine, for such has been
the habit of his life, but to us he permits it, for the stomach's sake;
being of opinion that labour is a form of worship, and well
understanding that labour, whether of body or of mind, can only be
performed by one in health. This very day you shall taste of our
vintage, which I have hitherto withheld from you, lest it should
overheat your languid blood.'

Many other questions did Basil ask concerning the ru