possibly guess who he is, or where he comes from; and persons of the
same name, family, and neighbourhood, have often lived together in the
Convent for years, unknown to each other, without having suspected
their proximity.

The abstraction of mind practised at La Trappe, and the prevention of
all external communication with the world is such, that few but the
superior know any thing of what is passing in it. It has been related,
that so little information of the affairs of mankind did these people
receive, that the death of Louis XIV. was not known there for years,
except by the Father Abbé; and such was their state of seclusion, that
a Nobleman having taken a journey of five hundred miles, purposely to
see the Monastery, could scarcely find in the neighbouring villages
one person who knew where it was situated. Indeed, at the present day,
it is quite astonishing how little is known of this place, and how
very few, even among those in its immediate vicinity, have ever
visited it.[1]

On the great festivals they rise at midnight; otherwise they are not
called until three quarters past one: at two they assemble in the
Chapel, where they perform different services, public and private,
until seven in the morning, according to the regulations of the week,
as exemplified in the "_Table pour l'Office Divin_". At this hour they
go out to labour in the open air. Their work is of the most fatiguing
kind, is never intermitted, winter or summer, and admits of no
relaxation from the state of the weather.

[Footnote 1: Among the most frequent visitors of La Trappe, was
the unfortunate James the Second. His first visit was on the 20th
November, 1690, where he was received by M. de Rancé, whose account of