When in the
Convent, my progress had always exceeded my instructions, my Acquirements had been wonderfull for my age, and I had shortly surpassed my Masters.
Darkness, outstripping some visitors on mules, had risen thus to the rough convent walls, when those travellers were yet climbing the mountain.
The guides called to the mules, the mules pricked up their drooping heads, the travellers' tongues were loosened, and in a sudden burst of slipping, climbing, jingling, clinking, and talking, they arrived at the convent door.
The next day his friend sent intelligence of his death to his relatives, who had already ascertained his misfortune, as well as the
convent where Camilla lay almost on the point of accompanying her husband on that inevitable journey, not on account of the tidings of his death, but because of those she received of her lover's departure.
"As you are my commander, it is my duty to obey." And springing backward, he broke his sword across his knee to avoid the necessity of surrendering it, threw the pieces over the convent wall, and crossed him arms, whistling a cardinalist air.
Then, assisted by Bicarat, the only one left standing, he bore Jussac, Cahusac, and one of Aramis's adversaries who was only wounded, under the porch of the convent. The fourth, as we have said, was dead.
The pauper and the miser are as free as any in the Catholic
Convents of Palestine.
"Well, suppose I go back to the cardinal and ask him for a passport into all the
convents one can find, even into the nunneries?
They all spent their time in spinning, and that is why the
convent has this name.
He and the other prisoners were taken to the right side of the Virgin's Field, to a large white house with an immense garden not far from the
convent. This was Prince Shcherbitov's house, where Pierre had often been in other days, and which, as he learned from the talk of the soldiers, was now occupied by the marshal, the Duke of Eckmuhl (Davout).
As I shall not have occasion to refer either to her or her sister again, I may as well mention here, that Georgiana made an advantageous match with a wealthy worn-out man of fashion, and that Eliza actually took the veil, and is at this day superior of the convent where she passed the period of her novitiate, and which she endowed with her fortune.
Then I thought of Eliza and Georgiana; I beheld one the cynosure of a ball-room, the other the inmate of a convent cell; and I dwelt on and analysed their separate peculiarities of person and character.
"I had at that time a large sum in gold, and on the eve of the battle, from a presentiment perhaps of the turn which things would take on the morrow, I concealed it in the principal vault of the
convent of Newcastle, in the tower whose summit you now see silvered by the moonbeams.
"Where is this place--where is the
convent?" Newman asked at last, looking up.
That occurrence soon became generally known--her nocturnal visit, the change she underwent, and her entry into a
convent. From that time Father Sergius's fame increased.
