When I said that
perhaps he would like that I should leave an acknowledgment in
writing, expressive of the gratitude I felt at my kind and hospitable
reception, he appeared much pleased, and instantly procured me paper.
I left with him the following lines:
"Convent of La Trappe, July 20, 1817.
"I have this day visited the Convent of La Trappe,
and in the absence of the Grand Prior, to whom I
brought a letter of introduction from Monsieur Lamorelie,
Sub-Prefect of Mortagne, I was received and
have been entertained by Frere Charle Marie, his Secretary.
"It is quite impossible that I can do justice to the
kind, polite, and hospitable reception I have met with
from him, by any expressions in writing. I can only
observe, that it has made an impression on my mind
never to be effaced! If these worthy and pious people
have abandoned the world for the solitude and austerities
of La Trappe, they have not forgotten, in their own self-denial,
the benevolence and benignity due to strangers.
May their self-devotion meet with its reward!"
I now took my leave of the Convent with feelings which I will not
pretend to describe, but which, together with the impressions I
received when I first entered it, and the whole circumstances of my
visit, I am conscious of retaining while "Memory holds her seat". The
following lines, by P. Mandard, on quitting La Trappe, convey a very
faithful and poetical picture of this extraordinary solitude:
--Saint desert, sejour pur et paisible,
Solitude profonde, au vice inaccessible;
Impetueux torrens, et vous sombres forets,
Recevez mes adieux, comme aussi mes regrets!
Toujours epris de vous, respectable retraite,
Puisse-je, dans le cours d'une vie inquiete,
Dans ce flux eternel de folie et d'erreur,
Ou flotte tristement notre malheureux coeur;
Puisse-je, pour charmer mes ennuis et mes peines,
Souvent fuir en esprit au bord de vos fontaines,
Egarer ma pensee au milieu de vos bois,
Par un doux souvenir rappeler mille fois
De vos Saints habitans les touchantes images,
Penetrer, sur leurs pas, dans vos grottes sauvages,
Me placer sur vos monts, et la, prennant l'essort,
Aller chercher en Dieu ma joie, et mon tresor!
CHAP.
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