There Was Among The Monks One Pere Charles, A
Lusty Friar, Of Whom The People Tell Strange Stories.
Some young
women of the town were seen mounting over the wall, by a ladder
of ropes, in the dusk of the evening; and there was an unusual
crop of bastards that season.
In short, pere Charles and his
companions gave such scandal, that the whole fraternity was
changed; and now the nest is occupied by another flight of these
birds of passage. If one of our privateers had kidnapped a
Capuchin during the war, and exhibited him, in his habit, as a
shew in London, he would have proved a good prize to the captors;
for I know not a more uncouth and grotesque animal, than an old
Capuchin in the habit of his order. A friend of mine (a Swiss
officer) told me, that a peasant in his country used to weep
bitterly, whenever a certain Capuchin mounted the pulpit to hold
forth to the people. The good father took notice of this man, and
believed he was touched by the finger of the Lord. He exhorted
him to encourage these accessions of grace, and at the same time
to be of good comfort, as having received such marks of the
divine favour. The man still continued to weep, as before, every
time the monk preached; and at last the Capuchin insisted upon
knowing what it was, in his discourse or appearance, that made
such an impression upon his heart "Ah, father!
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