MODES OF PERSUASION.

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pleasing. A young girl enters a convent as a novice at fifteen and sixteen: this requires little persuasion the scene is new, and therefore not without its pleasures.

Mothers, sisters and friends are occasionally seen; and no vow prevents a return to the world. During the novitiate she forms attachments among the nuns, who exert themselves to please her. The attractions of the world are not presented, and she therefore does not feel them to be attractions. In the meanwhile the priests and confessors have been labouring to impress her with the notion of the excellence of a religious life, its pure enjoyments in this world, and its certain and great rewards in another; and these arguments are accompanied by strictures upon the vexations of life, and the little happiness in the world.

"Such reasoning naturally produces its effect upon the mind of a young person who has never known the world, and who is daily told by the nuns how happy they are.

"There is also a certain eclat in taking the veil, very captivating to a young mind; and all these things considered, it is not surprising that when the novitiate expires, there should be nothing terrible, or even affecting, in taking the veil. What are the vows to the buoyant youth and happy ignorance of sixteen? She looks forward to the

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NOT ALWAYS INFLUENTIAL.

future being like the past, and every body joins to assist this delusion. But time brings a change and heaven alone knows the broken hearts which the cloistered walls enclose. They are reserved for the day when all secrets shall be disclosed."

ESCURIAL.

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CHAPTER XIII.

ESCURIAL-OPENING THE GREAT GATES-BURIAL VAULT OF THE SPANISH KINGS-THE EARTHEN PITCHER-RETURN TO MADRID-TOLEDO-ITS CATHEDRAL-SWORD MANUFACTORY-COLLEGE FOR GIRLS-IMPRUDENCE.

THE Delvilles who were looking forward to an excursion to Andalusia, and who had now pretty well satiated themselves with the novelties of Madrid, resolved to employ the intervening week before the bull-fight would take place, in seeing the Escurial. This famous monastery is situated in the middle of the ascent of the chain of mountains which terminate Old Castille.

Philip II. has been compared to Louis XI., and the choice which he made of this steep and gloomy situation seems an apt picture of his dark and savage mind. His memory however is respected at the convent, where he is perpetually called the holy founder, where his ashes are deposited, and where his image constantly meets the eye. He built and endowed in it consequence of a vow made the day he gained the battle of St. Quentin, at which however Philip was not present.

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SHAPE OF THE ESCURIAL.

Sir," said Edward,

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as they advanced to the front of the edifice, " did we not hear something of St. Lawrence having inspired the idea of this edifice ?"

"No, not exactly that, Edward. The battle of St. Quentin was gained on St. Lawrence's day, and therefore this building was dedicated to him. This saint is reported (how truly I know not) to have endured martyrdom, by being fried on a gridiron; and this culiniary instrument is to be seen, I am told, impressed upon the doors, windows, altars, and sacerdotal habits: the whole structure, indeed, represents one huge Brobdignag gridiron."

seen.

The building is quadrangular, with the principal front to the west, behind which a mountain is The opposite side, which faces Madrid, takes the form of the shortened handle of a gridiron reversed, and the four feet are represented by the spires of four little square towers, which rise above the angle. Its form has not permitted the architect to make the most of its vast extent: there is nothing magnificent in the architecture. It has rather the serious simplicity befitting a convent, than the splendid elegance which announces the residence of a great monarch. The front, to the west, alone has a fine portal, formed by large columns of the Doric order, half sunken in the wall; and on each side are two great doors of noble

THE CONVENT AND THE COURT.

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dimensions. This principal entrance is never open for the kings of Spain and the princes of the blood, except on two solemn occasions: when they come for the first time to the Escurial, and when their remains are deposited there, in the vault that awaits them. As they stood looking at these closed gates, Mr. Delville said: "These gates may stand for the emblems of life and eternity; which, for the children of kings as well as the meanest mortals, open but once, and immediately close again for ever."

When the court is not at the Escurial it resembles only a vast convent, inhabited by two hundred monks, under the inspection of a prior. On the arrival of the court, the convent is transformed into a palace, the monks are banished to the apartments in the south and west sides, and the principal cells become the habitations of the royal family and the courtiers. The king himself has his in the narrow space that forms the handle of the gridiron. Philip II. seems to have wished to make this a retreat where sovereign greatness might retire, to hide itself beneath the shade of altars, and become familiar with the tomb; and his successors, faithful to his vow of humility, still content themselves with the same humble habitation.

They went into the church to visit the tombs of Charles V. and his son, Philip II. These two