This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
204
WITH ENGLISH PEASANTS.

a restoration of the ruins of the palace built about the same period, the two buildings will, in course of time, seem to belong to each other. The great hall, a fine apartment, which formerly possessed an open roof, has been turned into a chapel. On the walls have been placed a series of beautiful bas-reliefs representating the stations of the cross. Two figures of Jesuit saints—SS. Stanislaus and Alphegius—stand before the altar, apparently guarding it. The nuns call themselves "the Sisters of the Holy Child."

The orphanages being in lofty positions, are visible for miles round. They have both been built at the expense of the Duchess of Leeds, and are said to have cost, the one £15,000, the other £20,000. I made a pilgrimage to one, and found its arrangements all that could possibly be desired. The door was opened by one of the brothers who acts as cook; another brother was sent for, who very courteously showed me over the building. I was taken into the chapel—a plain building with an altar decorated with flowers, and a statue on one side of St. Joseph and the Child, on the other of the Virgin Mary. She was also surrounded with flowers; it had lately been the feast of the Assumption. My cicerone told me that a Dutchman named Reinkens was the founder of their fraternity, and that they were called Xavierian Brothers, after St. Francis Xavier, and were a branch of the great Ignatian Society.

He took me into the dormitory—a vast apartment which seemed to extend the whole length of the building. It was divided by a number of arches down the centre, filled in to about the height of a man's breast, so cutting the dormitory in two without lessening the quantity of air. The elder boys slept on one side, the younger on the other. When they enter the room for the night, each boy stands at the head of his bed, and taking hold of the white counterpane, folds it up. Then, at a given signal, they all kneel down and say their evening prayer. These acts, and every other, are all done by rule, the whole company being directed by a single brother, who stands on a step by one of the arches.

In the schoolroom the boys appeared seated at desks, or standing