"For some reason, which the Visconde de Ponte Quebrada could explain, our house was the first to be seized. But before many days have passed the spoilers will possess themselves of all the houses of our Order. We are forbidden to take counsel with any other community of outcast religious, or to establish ourselves in new houses. Without God's help this is the end of the Portuguese Benedictine congregation. "From man we have nothing to hope. The Government is one of bad faith. In my hand I have the proofs that the earlier laws of this Spring were shams. All the time it was intended to suppress the Orders entirely: but the Government dared not let the people see the thick end of the wedge. They have revealed it at last with fear and trembling. Their Bill was fathered upon one Minister alone, the Senhor Joaquim d'Aguiar. It was arranged that, in the event of public indignation, the other Ministers were to repudiate openly both the Senhor d'Aguiar and his Bill, although, in secret, it was their joint act and deed. Portugal is being governed in a poisonous mist of tricks and lies. "But why does the Portuguese people suffer God to be robbed and His servants thrown into the highway without crowding to the rescue? Alas, dear Fathers and Brethren, I know the answer. Our poor land is sick of war: but there is a deeper reason why even the most fervent Catholics will not unsheath the sword again in our defense. Dom Miguel deceived them. Just as Dom Pedro has made a sham of Liberalism, so Dom Miguel has made a sham of piety. Dom Miguel raised the cry of 'Throne and Altar.' But he cared only for the Throne. If Saint Michael and all the angels should descend to earth in our defense, the Catholics of Portugal might join their banners: but the Portuguese Catholics will not believe again in any merely human leader. They remember Evora Monte. "More: in many lands this tyranny and treachery of the Government will be applauded and upheld. Many lands have lent the Emperor Pedro money, and they claim the right to influence him in secret. The Protestants of England will rejoice in our downfall because we are Catholics and monks: the atheists and Jews of France and the Low Countries because we are Christians. The oppression of monks will spread. Spain, France, even Italy, will suffer. _Pater dimitte illis; non enim sciunt quid faciunt_: 'Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.'" The long room was growing dimmer while the Prior was speaking, and when he had finished he could hardly see the features of his auditors. For two or three long minutes silence blended itself with the dusk. The livelier-minded among the monks sat still because they felt that the Prior's words were all too true, while the simpler souls were cowed and hushed by the splintering of their last props of hope.