Military Memoirs of Capt. George CarletonDefoe, Daniel
History
Military Memoirs of Capt. George Carleton
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories; Great Britain -- History, Military -- Fiction; Soldiers -- Fiction
"For," says he, "tho' it must infallibly please every Man, that has any
taste of Wit; yet has it had such a fatal Effect upon the Spirits of my
Countrymen, that every Man of Wit must ever resent; for," continu'd he,
"before the Appearance in the World of that Labour of _Cerviantes_, it
was next to an Impossibility for a Man to walk the Streets with any
Delight, or without Danger. There were seen so many Cavaliero's prancing
and curvetting before the Windows of their Mistresses, that a Stranger
would have imagin'd the whole Nation to have been nothing less than a
Race of Knight Errants. But after the World became a little acquainted
with that notable History; the Man that was seen in that once celebrated
Drapery, was pointed at as a _Don Quixot_, and found himself the Jest of
High and Low. And I verily believe," added he, "that to this, and this
only we owe that dampness and poverty of Spirit, which has run thro' all
our Councils for a Century past, so little agreeable to those nobler
Actions of our famous Ancestors."
After many of these lesser sorts of Confidences, _Don Felix_ recommended
me to a Lodging next Door to his own. It was at a Widow's, who had one
only Daughter, her House just opposite to a _Francisan_ Nunnery. Here I
remain'd somewhat upwards of two Years; all which time, lying in my Bed,
I could hear the Nuns early in the Morning at their _Matins_, and late
in the Evening at their _Vespers_, with Delight enough to my self, and
without the least Indecency in the World in my Thoughts of them. Their
own Divine Employ too much employ'd every Faculty of mine to entertain
any Thing inconsentaneous or offensive.
This my Neighbourhood to the Nunnery gave me an opportunity of seeing
two Nuns invested; and in this I must do a Justice to the whole Country,
to acknowledge, that a Stranger who is curious (I would impute it rather
to their hopes of Conversion, than to their Vanity) shall be admitted to
much greater Freedoms in their religious Pageantries, than any Native.
One of these Nuns was of the first Quality, which render'd the Ceremony
more remarkably fine. The manner of investing them was thus: In the
Morning her Relations and Friends all met at her Father's House; whence,
she being attir'd in her most sumptuous Apparel, and a Coronet plac'd on
her Head, they attended her, in Cavalcade, to the Nunnery, the Streets
and Windows being crowded, and fill'd with Spectators of all sorts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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