of satire makes you as bitter against Popery as old Moodie himself."

"It is, at least, no scandal to say that, under her patronage, small
sins are easily absolved here, on the performance of certain duties of
atonement."

"What are the duties of atonement?"

"Ave Marias, fasts, and alms. The alms go to the begging friars, or
else to buy masses for the souls in purgatory."

Walking up the sloping street that leads to the castle, they found
this Moorish edifice in a shattered condition, a few towers only
standing whole amidst the ruins. From one of these, looking northward
across the river which ran three hundred feet below them, they saw the
strong fort of San Christoval towering above them, while they, in
turn, overlooked the city, and beyond its walls, the plain to the
south, not long since covered with vineyards, and olive groves, and
the picturesque villas of the richer citizens of Badajoz--now its bare
surface was furrowed with trenches, ridged with field works, and
spotted with ruins. The devastating blast of war had left it the
picture of desolation.

Lady Mabel, turning to ask L'Isle a question, saw him gazing gloomily
down into the deep but dry fosse below them.

"What fixes your attention on that spot," she asked.

"Do you see where the earth shows, by its color differing from the
adjacent soil, that it has been turned up not long since? Thousands