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440 The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane chapter vi. Gil Blas walking through the streets of Valencia meets a friar whom he thinks he knows. An account of that friar. As I had not seen the whole city in my first excursion, I went out next day, with an intention to take another walk; and perceived in the street a Carthusian friar,1 who, doubtless, was going to perform the affairs of his community. He walked with downcast eyes, and so devout an air, that he attracted the notice of every body. As he passed close by me, I looked at him with attention, and thought I saw in him the very person of Don Raphael, that adventurer, who maintains such an honourable place in the two first volumes of my memoirs. I was so much astonished, so struck with this meeting, that, instead of accosting the monk, I stood immoveable some minutes; during which, he was gone a good way from me. “Just heaven! (said I) were ever two faces more alike! What must I think of this affair? Can it be Raphael indeed! or can I doubt that it is he?” I was too curious to know the truth, to remain long where I was. I asked the way to the monastery of the Carthusians, whither I instantly repaired, in hopes of seeing my man again, when he should return; and firmly resolved to stop, and speak with him. I had no occasion to wait for this: when I came to the gate of the convent, another face of my acquaintance turned my doubts into certainty: I recollected in the porter, my old valet Ambrose de Lamela. We were equally surprised to find one another in that place. “Don’t I dream? (said I, saluting him). Is it actually one of my friends whom I behold?” He could not recal me at first, or feigned himself ignorant of my features; but, considering that this feint was useless, he affected the air of a person who remembers a thing all of a sudden: “Ah! Signior Gil Blas! (cried he). Forgive my want of memory. Since I have lived in this holy place, and applied myself to fulfill the duties prescribed by our rules; I lose insensibly the remembrance of what I have seen in the world.” “I am sincerely rejoiced (said I) to see you, after an absence of ten years, in such a reverend dress.” “And I (he replied) am ashamed to appear in it, before a person who has been witness of the guilty life I led. This dress incessantly upbraids me. Alas! (added he, sighing profoundly) to be worthy of wearing it, I ought to have lived always in innocence.” “By this discourse, with which I am charmed, (I resumed) my dear brother, one may see that you have been touched by the finger of the Lord. I repeat the assurance of my joy at the occasion; and long earnestly to hear in what miraculous manner you and Don Raphael have entered into the right way; for I am persuaded that it was he whom I just now met in the Carthusian habit. I am sorry that I did not stop him in the street, and speak to him; and I wait here for his return, in order to repair my neglect.” “You are not mistaken; (said Lamela to me) it was Don Raphael himself whom you saw: and as to the detail you desire, here it is. After we parted from you, near Segorba, the son of Lucinda and I took the road to Valencia, with a design of playing some new Volume Four: X.6 441 trick of our profession in that city. One day, by accident, we went into the church of the Carthusians, while the monks were singing psalms in the quire. We considered them attentively, and experienced, that even the wicked cannot help honouring virtue . We admired the fervour with which they prayed to God, their mortified air, their minds detached from the pleasures of the age, as well as the serenity that reigned in their countenances, and so well expressed the repose of their consciences. “While we made these observations, we fell into a reverie, that became very salutary unto us. We compared our morals with those of the good monks, and the difference which we found, filled us with sorrow and disquiet. ‘Lamela, (said Don Raphael to me, when we came out of the church) how...

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