returning from the mass. After having performed my morning
devotion, and breakfasted, I went down to the kitchen; the girl
Geronima was seated by the fire. I inquired if she had heard mass?
She replied in the negative, and that she did not intend to hear
it. Upon my inquiring her motive for absenting herself, she
replied, that since the friars had been expelled from their
churches and convents she had ceased to attend mass, or to confess
herself; for that the government priests had no spiritual power,
and consequently she never troubled them. She said the friars were
holy men and charitable; for that every morning those of the
convent over the way fed forty poor persons with the relics of the
meals of the preceding day, but that now these people were allowed
to starve. I replied, that the friars, who lived on the fat of the
land, could well afford to bestow a few bones upon their poor, and
that their doing so was merely a part of their policy, by which
they hoped to secure to themselves friends in time of need. The
girl then observed, that as it was Sunday, I should perhaps like to
see some books, and without waiting for a reply she produced them.
They consisted principally of popular stories, with lives and
miracles of saints, but amongst them was a translation of Volney's
Ruins of Empires. I expressed a wish to know how she became
possessed of this book. She said that a young man, a great
Constitutionalist, had given it to her some months previous, and
had pressed her much to read it, for that it was one of the best
books in the world. I replied, that the author of it was an
emissary of Satan, and an enemy of Jesus Christ and the souls of
mankind; that it was written with the sole aim of bringing all
religion into contempt, and that it inculcated the doctrine that
there was no future state, nor reward for the righteous nor
punishment for the wicked. She made no reply, but going into