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"But it is not a punishment; it is a prudent precaution, an

honest means of preventing evils that might--I have explained

myself."

"The signor count and myself understand each other very well; but

the facts being those which your excellency has adduced, it is

impossible but that they should in part be known through the

country: there are every where firebrands, or idle spirits, who

find pleasure in the contests of the monks and the nobility, and

love to make malignant observations. Each one has his own dignity

to preserve; and I, in the character of a superior, have an

express duty-the honour of the habit-it is not my own affair-it

is a deposit which-and since the signor your nephew is so

irritated, as your excellency has said, he might take it as a

satisfaction offered to him, and-I do not say boast of it, but--"