CHAPTER XXVIII

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THE RUINS OF POBLET.

A dream-world--Ruins--Chapel of St. George--Archways and Gothic windows--Atmosphere of the Middle Ages--Convent doorway--Summons but no response--Door opens at last--Comfortable looking woman--Ready invention--Confusion worse confounded--True version--Francisco painfully direct--Guardian gets worst of it--Picturesque decay--Gothic cloisters--Visions of beauty--Rare wilderness--King Martin the Humble--Bacchanalian days--When the monks quaffed Malvoisie--Simple grandeur of the church--Philip Duke of Wharton--Cistercian monastery--History of Poblet the monk--Monastery becomes celebrated--Tombs of the kings of Aragon--Guardian sceptical--Paradise or wilderness--Monks all-powerful--Escorial of Aragon--The great traveller--Changing for the worst--Upholding the kingly power--Time rolls on--Downfall--Attacked and destroyed--Infuriated mob--Fictitious treasures--Fiendish act--Massacre--Ruined monastery--Blood-red sunset--Superstition--End of 1835 418

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