I confess that I had never thought I should one day be called upon to defend myself against the charge of such arsenals and ambushes. Such Arabian Night tales, so frequent in the Jacobin press, had often amused my brothers and myself, and when about a twelvemonth since terrible stories about an arsenal at Campolide were being circulated, and a friend of mine who had recently been a Minister of the Crown, warned me that we should at last be obliged to provide against an assault I answered plainly that we would rather have our lives taken than take the lives of others. _2. WEALTH._ The belief in Jesuit wealth was so deeply rooted in Portugal as to be entertained not only by our enemies but even by our best friends. Supposing this belief to be well-grounded, why should it make us criminals? It would be a strange measure to expel a man from his country merely because he possessed a large sum of money. But our reputed wealth was purely fabulous, without any foundation in fact. Would that the society had actually in Portugal abundant material resources, we should have no lack of good works on which to expend them for the good of our country. But we had no such resources. Frequently after my appointment as superior I had a hard struggle against grievous difficulties to find means of supporting my subjects. So many are the misconceptions regarding Jesuit property that with a view of dispelling them I long projected the course of lectures on the subject. I was, however, prevented from doing as I wished by the incognito in which I was placed by Hintese Ribeiro's decree. God knows what a mortification it was to me to have to assume a disguise imposed by law, but wholly repugnant to my own straightforwardness and natural ideas concerning truth as well as to the heartfelt love and admiration which I entertained for the Society of Jesus. This matter will require but a few words. If the government of the society is strictly monarchial, its administration is, on the contrary, extremely decentralized. Each house is separately administered, and nothing can be more imaginary than the bottomless common purse which has inspired so many falsehoods. As a fact, if in Portugal, thanks to the careful administration of their superiors, the Jesuit houses have been free from debt, they have usually possessed few comforts, and have sometimes endured great hardships. Residences subsisted merely upon stipends for masses and preaching, or alms spontaneously offered. In the colleges the great expenses required to provide our boys with board and lodging, with the comforts and amusements they enjoyed, and still more with what was required to keep abreast of modern educational developments. All this, I say, obliged us to interrupt our building works till the number of pupils should be much increased.