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 painting was almost effaced by the damp, the pillars entirely discoloured, some of them decayed and crumbling to pieces, threatening the destruction of the gallery they supported, and indeed the whole bore the appearance of total neglect. The solitary opened a door at the farther end of the hall, and conducted his guest into what he called his library, for as such it seemed to have been intended; but the glasses in many places were broken, the books all tumbling in disorder, and so covered with dust, that they were scarcely discernible. A few old-fashioned velvet chairs, once of crimson, but changed by the damps, two tables, with a writing desk of a very particular old-fashioned construction; a large dog that lay before a great wood fire, and seemed by age rendered almost incapable of moving, though he growled at the stranger; a sword, and a pair of pistols, that hung against the wall, comprised the whole furniture of this room.

Being seated, the solitary inquired of his success at the Convent. Ferdinand related