The second had been trained by Savoldello, and replied to my questions in a manner which led me to suppose that everything was well conducted; others were in the same story; but one was so witty, and so well exposed the whole by-play of these wretched friars, that I must quote some of his conversation with me. Upon being asked if he had anything to say, he replied,---- "I have plenty to say; but I cannot speak." "Why?" "Because my mouth is shut, like that of a newly-made cardinal."[36] "And who has shut your mouth?" "Our pope, the novice master." "Oh! if that be all, I am superior to him, and can open it again: so I command you to speak." "There is a difficulty in doing so, nevertheless; in obeying you, and not him, I shall expose myself to persecution from him, which would be terrible; and you could not remove the penance he would enjoin." "I promise you, in the name of the Father General, to protect you against any persecution from him. You know that the General can change the master; and I can tell you thus much, that it is very probable he will change him, unless he does his duty." "In that case I will speak. You must know the prior, the novice master, and the _Procuratore_ all join in persecuting us. Nevertheless, we frequently hear them quarrelling among themselves; and only the other day I thought they would have come to blows: when, however, there is a question of some new rigour,--or observance, as they term it,--that is to say, some fresh torment or vexation for us, then they are in perfect harmony with each other. We are tired of this system, which forms neither the Christian nor the man, but the hypocrite and the animal. All politeness, all decency among them is banished. They are filthy in their persons, and would wish us to be the same. Cleanliness and neatness, they call worldly-minded foppery. For my part, I never thought that to be a monk it was necessary to be a dirty sloven. And then both prior and master do nothing but send us to hell. On every little disobedience they cry out, 'You'll go to hell.' If we speak a word in the hours of silence, if we raise our hoods, if we look about us in the least, if ever we laugh,--'to hell with us;' I say nothing about singing--there is then no hell bad enough." "Tell me, what do your masters teach you? what do they point out to you as the way of salvation? and in what, according to them, does the Christian life consist?" "The master says that to be saved we have only to imitate the patriarch St. Dominic, be devout to the Madonna, and observe the rules of the Order; and then we shall be the best Christians in the world, because these lead to perfection." "Does he ever speak of Christ?" "Scarcely ever; he gives us the lives of the saints of the Order to read; and recounts to us the miracles done by them."