f
their guests, one hand at a rubber. Almost all of our party excused
themselves; some for want of money, others from not knowing the play.
At length they found two of our _religious_ that would place themselves
hand to hand with other two Franciscans. The party being arranged, they
commenced playing with admirable dexterity. A little was put down at
first; it was doubled. The loss vexed the one, the gain stimulated the
other. At the end of a quarter of an hour the convent of the Angelic
Order[7] of our father of San Francisco had converted itself into a
gaming house, and the poor _religious_ (friars) into profane
worldlings. We, who were simply spectators, had occasion to observe
what passed in the play, and to acquire matter for reflection upon such
a life. As the game went on engrossing in interest, the scandal
continued to increase. The draughts of liquor were repeated with much
frequency; the tongue unloosed itself; oaths mingled themselves with
jests, while loud laughter made the edifice to tremble. The vow of
poverty did not escape from the sacrilegious mirth. One of the San
Franciscans, who had often touched money with his fingers and placed it
on the table, when he gained any considerable sum, in order to divert
the company, opened his broad sleeve, and with the hem he swept the
table of all the stakes, amounting sometimes to more than twenty gold
ounces, into his other sleeve; saying, at the same time, "Take care of
it thou that canst, I have made a vow not to touch it." It was
impossible for me to listen to such imprecations, and to witness such
scandalous lives, without being moved; more than once I was on the
point of reproving them, but I considered that I was a stranger, a
passing guest, and besides, what I should say to them would be like
preaching to the desert. I therefore rose up without making any noise
and went to my sleeping-place, leaving the profane crowd; who continued
with their diversions until the dawn. The next day the friar who had
laved his part with so much facetiousness, with more of the manner of a
brigand than a _religious_, more suitable for the school of
Sardanapalus or of Epicurus than for the life of a cloister, said that
he had lost more than eighty doubloons, or gold ounces--it appearing
that his sleeve refused to protect that which he had made a vow of
never possessing.

MORALS OF THE MONKS.

"This was the first lesson which the Franciscans gave us of the New
World. It clea