'It is a little thick,' said the Trappist, whose keen eyes had noticed that
there was a lack of warmth in the manner in which I took the glass from his
hand, 'but the beer is good. It is rather new.'
'It must be very nourishing,' I replied, after heroically draining the cup
of tribulation.
'Have some more?' said this good-natured Trappist as he raised the jar
again. I saved myself from a second dose by an energetic '_Merci!_' and
changed his thoughts by asking him if he had been a long time at the
monastery.
'I was one of the first lot who came here in July, 1868. There were
twenty-two of us in all, _peres et freres_, and two or three weeks
afterwards seventeen were down with fever. You can have no idea of what it
was here five-and-twenty years ago. The country was unfit for human beings.
The people went shivering about in the heat of summer wrapped up as they
would be in the depth of winter. It was pitiful to see them.'
He then entered into details respecting the clearing of the land, the
draining of the pools, etc. Suddenly remembering the flight of time, he
disappeared with my card, and left me in charge of the lodge. Presently he
came back, and told me that the reverend father was unwell, and could not
see anybody, but that I could pass the night in the monastery if I wished
to do so.
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