Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/313

Rh say all that one knows and thinks, if one wishes to live at peace. He seems now to have found this blessed peace and to employ it for his learned labors. We may trust him for writing something as high-minded and patriotic as the above-mentioned work. The printing presses of Monte Casino—where this work also was printed—have, since the transactions of 1848, been stopped, and Padri Tosti now writes under the watchful eye of the censor. He has in the mean time, at the last session of the Chapter in the Convent—received the title of Abbot, and he is said to have the prospect if he behaves well—of becoming in reality the Abbot of the Convent. He gives instruction merely an hour in the day, the rest of his time he devotes to his own learned labors. I complimented him on his Lega Lombarda, which seemed to give him a pleasure that he was half ashamed of showing. The number of the monks is not above twenty, and their life not under strict rule. They live well; take a good rest at noon; smoke cigars, walk about, read the newspapers, &c. The pupils who are educated here, for the greater part young noblemen—are above one hundred and twenty. Besides these there are forty alumni, so that the whole number of residents is about two hundred. Salt, cigars, &c., are now sold in the convent, which attracts many people thither, because these articles can be purchased here at lower prices than elsewhere. At Whitsuntide, many thousands of people assemble on Monte Casino, both men and women of the peasantry, to make confession and receive absolution from the learned fathers, who cannot then have a great deal of time for their noonday slumber.