At times it seemed as if from this
remorselessly shaded avenue we should escape into the open; the trees
gave way and we caught glimpses of wide plains and distant hills; then
they closed upon us again, and in their chill shadow it was no comfort
to know that in summer, when the townspeople got through their work,
they came out to these groves, men, women, and children, and had supper
under their hospitable boughs.
One comes to almost any Cartuja at last, and we found ours on a sunny
top just when the cold had pinched us almost beyond endurance, and
joined a sparse group before the closed gate of the convent. The group
was composed of poor people who had come for the dole of food daily
distributed from the convent, and better-to-do country-folk who had
brought things to sell to the monks, or were there on affairs not openly
declared. But it seemed that it was a saint's day; the monks were having
service in the church solely for their own edification, and they had
shut us sinners out not only by locking the gate, but by taking away the
wire for ringing the bell, and leaving nothing but a knocker of feeble
note with which different members of our indignation meeting vainly
hammered.
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