THE grand Festa di San Francesco took place while we remained at the Monastery; this is the greatest feast celebrated by those monks: it was preceded by a novena, or nine days' vigil, during which, we observed, the monks fasted somewhat more, and sang and prayed a great deal more, than usual to tell the truth, they worked very hard; for in the morning before day-light they were up and paying their devotions in the church; they continued to exercise themselves there, with but short intervals of rest, during the whole day; in the evening, after supper, they prayed about half an hour before the picture over the door of the refectory, which we have mentioned; and after this, they repaired to an altar in the dormitory, where they concluded their labours for the day. During the whole novena, the church was adorned with hangings, and partially illuminated day and night. All the monastic functions were exercised with the greatest activity, but none more so than the cerca, or business of begging. In order to form a correct idea of this matter, we determined to accompany one of the lay brothers (they only being employed on this important service) in one of his expeditions; accordingly one fine day, immediately after dinner, Frà Filippo came to us agreeable to appointment, and we set out with him to beg for the honour of Saint Francis. Our friend had a crutch stick, armed at one end with an iron spike; and to his shoulder was fastened a large wallet, in which one indispensable piece of equipment was a large loose leathern bottle, that extended itself more or less, according to the liberality of the benefactors of the convent; the wallet generally returned home laden with a very mixed cargo-sometimes with olives and eggs, fagioli and bread,-at others, with bacon, flour, peas, fruit, &c. We set out at the hot and lazy hour when every one was reposing, except those whose callings or necessities compelled them to be up; and we trudged along through the silent

Naples, June, 1822. streets of Sorrento, utterly unnoticed, until we reached the house of a poor woman, who sold aquavitæ, rosolio, terragli, &c. The monk and the honest donna were on the best of terms; no sooner did we appear than she made us sit down, and placed some of her best rosolio before us; and after having taken two or three preliminary pinches of the monk's smuggled snuff, she began to consult him on her affairs; and when he had instructed and comforted her by his counsel, he introduced the subject of the festival, saying, he hoped the people would not forsake the Saint who had never forsaken them; that the festa would be worthy of San Francesco, with many hints of the same kind: all this was said generally, and not addressed to her in a downright begging style, and the scene was concluded by her giving him five grains and a handful of terragli; then, after another pinch of snuff, and a few compliments interchanged between the monk and the good lady, we took our leaves. We thence went on to Prospietto, by the house of Tasso, near which we entered into a cantina, where the Frate was received with great kindness by the master and mistress, who presently began to ask how the good brothers got on in their collections for the feast; Frà Filippo, with a very serious face, told them that times were not what they had been; that the good spirit of religion and generosity seemed to have left the people, and that hitherto the collections had been very trifling-very trifling indeed; in short, that he had never known such bad times since he had worn the santa lana; and this, by the bye, was no cunning exaggera tion, for the times have indeed changed for the monks; during the last twenty years they have suffered various oppressions, many monasteries have been suppressed, and the reverence in which the people formerly held their spiritual advisers has been "mocked into air," (we know not that much moral good has been effected by the change,) and

Friday, and consequently a digiuno for the people as well as for the monks; the old woman asked our companion if he would have some fagioli, which she had in fact prepared for him, as she expected his visit; Frà Filippo was of course nothing loth, and very soon the fagioli, smoking hot and invitingly white, were served up with much respect, on a coarse but clean tablecloth; some pickled peparoli (capsicums) were produced as a whet, and we, as well as Filippo, began to do great justice to the good lady's fare. The fagioli are often prepared with oil and vinegar; the old woman asked our companion if he would have some oil, offering to give him some virgin oil; to this, of course, (as virgin oil is very good,) he readily agreed, on which she got up, and the monk, and we also, followed her into the room where the oil was pressed. Here we found all the apparatus for oil making, and an immense quantity of olives, some lying in the press, some in the wring, and others which had been freshly bruised, heaped up in one corner, and slowly dropping the virgin oil into a well beneath prepared to receive it; from this store the woman dipped out some with a glass; it was beautifully clear, and had a most delightful flavor. On our return to the kitchen this was added to the fagioli, and rendered them so palatable, that we all ate very heartily of them, although it was so very soon after dinner. Filippo, as he hinted to us afterwards, had " saved a corner" in expectation of this treat, and indeed it was his usual practice, when there was but lenten entertainment at the Monastery, to have occasion to call upon some one whose respect for the cloth, and affection for him personally, insured him somewhat better fare.While we were eating, the master of the vineyard dropped in; Filippo began a conversation with him about the vintage, and presently produced two segars (a present which had been made him by a tobacconist in the town): he gave one of these to the farmer, the other he lit himself, and they both began smoking and talking of various affairs; their dis

course was assisted by the old mother and by three ruddy damsels, who came in from the Masseria to listen to the edifying words of the Frate, and to gaze at the due giovani Inglesi. At length the conversation flagged, and we sallied out to the wine-cellar, where the must was fermenting; here the monk affixed little prints of San Francesco to every butt, saying, at the same time, that the Saint would now take that wine under his protection, that it would consequently be a very good wine, and would run no risk from heat or rain or thunder, as long at least as they continued to pay a proper respect to their beatified patron; which he doubted not they would always continue to do, as they had long done, because they must certainly have found the advantages of it. We returned to the house, and the peasant told Filippo he would give him half a barrel of wine, two rotoli of oil, and four rotoli of fagioli; at the same time he gave him some pepa roli and pomi-d'oro to carry with him to the Monastery: he also presented him with some bunches of fine grapes selected for the purpose, and those we ate as we walked off. We had staid in this masseria, what with eating and drinking, smoking, talking, &c. so long, that the monk found it would be necessary to curtail his excursion and return towards town. On our way thither we stopped at a fine large garden, the master of which paid his little tax in coin; and on leaving him, we descended by a picturesque path to the marina grande, and on arriving there went into a cantina, kept by a distant relation of the monk, who at our arrival was busily engaged in roasting chesnuts. Here, however, we were not so well received as at the other places; it is true, that on our entrance he placed some of the chesnuts before us; but as the monk was his relation, he did not treat him with much deference, did not offer us any wine, and even allowed us to pay for the fruit he had put before us. While we were seated there, some fishermen, having nothing on but short cotton drawers and shirts, the sleeves of which were tucked up to the shoulders, and red woollen caps on their heads, came in to take their evening repast, which was a

few chesnuts and a little wine. Frà Filippo presently introduced the subject of the festa, and àpropos to that, began discussing the possibility of smuggling some Palermitan snuff-smuggling being a trade in which he occasionally peddled a little; about the latter subject he got some information; but for the festa he got neither money, roba, nor promises. As it grew dark we left the taverna, and jogged on towards the Monastery-we, the profane, were pretty merry, from what we had drunk; but Frå Filippo, who had been long used to tipple a little here and a little there, comported himself pretty discreetly; however, on the road he amused us with a low Neapolitan song about catching fleas, which he hummed in a suppressed voice, stopping whenever we met any persons by the way, in order that no scandal might accrue to the order. At length we reached the Monastery, and thus ended our afternoon's cerca, which had made us acquainted with many little circumstances respecting the ways and means of the Franciscans, that otherwise we might never have known.

And now let us return to the novena. During these nine days the preparations for the festival were carried on with great activity; there was more hurry and bustle in the Monastery than we had ever before witnessed, and every member seemed animated with extraordinary zeal and alacrity. Very frequent consultations took place; and for several days following, we observed nearly the whole brotherhood assembled in a group, and debating with the gravest and most important looks and tones imaginable; on inquiry we found that the subject of these consultations was about introducing two butts of wine into the Monastery, without paying the gabella. To make this matter a little clearer, we must observe, that the country near Sorrento does not abound in wine, from which circumstance it happens that the monks never get enough wine in the cerca for the consumption of the Monastery, and are consequently obliged to purchase it from time to time. For the great festival, an additional stock was requisite, the conventual cellars had run low, and consequently the provident Superior

had got a friend to buy two butts near the Torre dell' Annunziata, where the wine is better and cheaper than at Sorrento: the affair now in hand was to get this wine to the convent without paying the customary duties. An exemption is made in favour of the Franciscans, who are considered as mendicants, possessing no money of their own; but it is necessary to produce a paper from the Padre Provinciale, giving assurance to this effect: our worthy friends had received this paper, but unfortunately some mistake had happened respecting the destination of the wine, and this occasioned the debates we have mentioned. The council was broken up by the Superior's deciding that he would go in person to Castellamare, where the Provinciale resided, and get the mistake rectified, and the wine spedito: as there was no time to be lost, he prepared for his departure, and a little before sun-set the monastery boat was launched, and the Padre Samuelo, accompanied by a laybrother, and two fishermen whom they took to row the boat, set off on their expedition.

On the following day, while we were sitting in the refectory, all of a sudden a voice and a halloo rose from the sea below; they were both unknown to us; but the Vicario, who was sitting by our side, immediately recognised them as the Superior's, and dispatched two lay-brothers to assist him to land, and to accompany him in his ascent. In a few minutes we heard Don Samuelo's loud voice; he spoke now to one, and now to another, and presently he flung open the door of the refectory, and entered with great state; his gait was always rather a swag, gering one, and his head was always a little inclined to one side; but at present his gait was much more swaggering than usual, and his head still more indirect and pendent; his face was somewhat flushed, the lower parts of it being as usual covered with snuff, but at the same time it exhibited a good-humoured grin, which did not announce any sinister tidings. He had one of his hands full of papers, which waved to and fro as he walked up the refectory to his seat, and on reaching the table he threw them down on it,

and put his hand on them with a great slap, which was intended probably to rouse attention; after this he saluted us, and then in a twinkling dispatched an enormous pinch of snuff, a good part of which as usual went to adorn his countenance; he had indeed a peculiar jerk in taking snuff, which seemed to have been studied with a view to take the greatest practicable quantity in the least possible time; it must be confessed, his method, whatever might be its other, merits, was not very cleanly, but he cared very little about that, being indeed the most slovenly man in his convent. As soon as he had sat down, he turned his attention to a large plate of maccaroni, which a lay-brother had brought immediately on his entrance. He was very eager to discuss this, but he was at the same time struggling with the pangs of an untold story; he took a mouthful or two of his maccaroni, and gave us a sentence or two of his tale, then passed a censure on the cook, and began to eat again; and the whole of his discourse was plentifully sprinkled, according to his laudable custom, with expletives, which enabled him to recollect himself, and to proceed without stopping. The story ran on thus, "E così vedete il Provincialesubito che nè questi maccaroni sonofreddi sicchè dunque," &c. &c. The story lasted out the maccaroni, and the fish, and the sallad, and indeed his whole dinner; the sum of it was, that he had seen the Provinciale, had received the necessary documents, and that the wine would arrive early on the following morning.

The next morning accordingly the wine arrived in the marina of Sorrento, and was landed as a present sent to the Franciscan monks, who, on presenting their papers, received it without paying the gabella, which would have been about two dollars. At dinner the same day one of the butts was broached, and the wine served round in the refectory. It was amusing to see the anxiety of Don Samuelo on this occasion; for as it was his purchase, he seemed to consider his honour implicated in the matter; he asked one how he liked it, then another, and another, and so all round, not excepting even the novices and lay brothers. One replied,

"eh! non c'è male," another "el è un buon vino poi mà-mà mi pare un poco asciutto. To this insinuation the Superior immediately replied with infinite eagerness, mà figlio mio, per carità! cosa volete? Questo vino è un vino, &c. The wine, however, upon the whole, seemed to be much approved, and, as we did not refuse our applause, the Superior was quite happy, and for a considerable time he did not lose any opportunity of making honourable mention of his vino stupendo.

The important day on which so much honour was to be done to Saint Francis, was ushered in by a discharge of the spari, which were ranged in two long lines in front of the church; we, who in this serious moment were lying a-bed, were thoroughly roused by the discharge, which continued several minutes, and was sweetly seconded by a noisy abominable bell. Immediately after, we heard the voices of the monks rising in chorus from the church, and we could even then distinguish the treble of the zealous Don Samuelo. We soon got up, and on going into the corridor, we found a lay brother waiting to conduct us to see the ceremonies; we declined this, however, until we had had some breakfast, and then we went with some of the novices up into the choir: when we arrived there, one of the novices looked through the balustrades, and observing that there were but few people in the church, exclaimed with an air of great disappointment, " Madonna mia! non c'è gran gente per veder la festa;" and then very discontentedly went to take his place in the choir, and we filed off to where the Superior stood, with a little book in one hand, a pinch of snuff in the other, and a well-filled snuff-box lying open before him-we found him, indeed, in a complete ecstacy of music, and devotion, and snuff-taking. He had placed himself close to the organist, having undertaken to manage the stops himself; and we remarked, that when he had to sing a solo passage, he always took care that the organ should speak with a soft low voice, but when the monks sung in chorus, he pulled out the loudest stops, and let the instrument roar to the top of its lungs. In this manœuvre he had a double object-he lessened the tone

of the organ for himself, that his own good singing might not be lost, and he increased it for the others, that their bad singing might not be observed. The duties of the day were rather complicated, and several of the monks were not very perfect in their parts, but more particularly our old friend Michael Angelo, who officiated in chief in the body of the church, and who was probably thinking more of his law-suit than of his Saint: he, poor man, in spite of the hints given him by little bells, and by numerous zit-zits, would fre quently persist in singing on, with out the smallest remorse of voice, long after he ought to have given way to us in the upper-house ;-our only resource in this dilemma was, to pull out all the stops of the organ and to sing away altogether like mad, so that at length the good father below, not being able to hear himself at all, might, by stopping a little, give an opportunity to a lay brother who had been dispatched for that purpose to hint him his cue. But words cannot do justice to the agony of the Superior during the continuance of these disorders; his ejaculations were numerous and rapid, and almost loud enough to be heard by the congregation below, "mà Santo dio! che fa quel Michael Angelo! che fa-che fà! ci guasta la festa! O! Madonna mia, senti come stuona!" These exclamations were repeated in accents of horror by the monks who stood around, and especially by old Torpietro, who pettishly added that the Superior ought not to have put the old dotard there; to this remark the Superior would fain have made a reply, but time pressed, and he could only contrive to get out an emphatic Ah! which he was obliged to follow up immediately by a quavering ora pro nobis. As the ceremonies went on, the church gradually filled, and before Torpietro, who had to pronounce the eulogy of San Francesco, ascended the pulpit, a pretty numerous congregation had assembled. The old man, who was ambitious of the character of an orator, had received with great pleasure the intimation of the Superior that he was to perform this duty: several days had been given him to prepare his discourse, and the zeal which he felt to distinguish himself made him