y, who
came down like a furious avalanche upon the building that for its beauty
should have been held twice sacred.

By this time, too, a change for the better had come over the monks. Much
wealth and influence had gone from them; they were quietly doing good.
But the traditions of the past are slow in dying. The mob believed the
monastery was a vast treasure-house; untold riches lay buried in
fictitious graves, hidden in tombs and hollow pillars. It was now that
the men of Reus proved capable of fiendish acts of excitement. The monks
were driven from their refuge and many were cruelly massacred. The
pent-up fury of ages was let loose like a torrent. No power could stay
the thirst for so-called revenge. It was their hour; a short-lived hour;
but how much was accomplished! The monastery was ruined. The mob,
infuriated at finding no heaps of gold, no hidden treasures, tore down
pillars, defaced monuments, desecrated the church, left the beautiful
traceried windows in ruins, and then set fire to the building.

The sun had risen on as fair and peaceful a scene as earth could show;
it set on the saddest of devastations. Yet, thanks to the solid masonry,
much escaped. For the monks it was lamentation and mourning and woe. It
has been recorded that the sun went down in a deep-red ball, reflection
of the blood of the martyred monks. But the people are superstitious. We
have seen it ourselves sink over the Spanish plains also a fiery-red
ball, intense and glowing, when the world was at peace. Yet, it must
have been a special sunset on that memorable day of 1835, for it is
recorded that long after the sun disappeared clouds shot to and fro in
the sky like swords of flame. But this, too, we have gazed upon in days
of peace and quietness.

CHAPTER XXIX.

LORENZO.

Day visions--All passes away--End of the feast--Francisco gathers
up the fragments--Ghosts of the past--Outside the monastery--Oasis
in a desert--After the vintage--Francisco gleans--Guilty
conscience--Custom of country--Dessert--Primitive
watering-place--Off to the fair--Groans and lamentations--Sagacious
animal--Cause of sorrows--Rage and anger--Donkey listens and
understands--A hard life--Washing a luxury--Charity
bestowed--Deserted settlement--Quaint interior--Back to the
monastery--Invidious comparisons--A promise--Good-bye to
Poblet--Troubled sea again--Suffering driver--Atonement for
sins--Earns pa