"But I know not that the Church
has prohibited that."
The ladies and the commissary retired soon, fatigued with their long
day's ride. The friar was devoutly telling his beads, and L'Isle sat
musing by the fire, while the servants, in turn, took their places at
the supper table. Presently the friar, having got through his
devotions, rose as if about to retire for the night; but, as he passed
L'Isle, he loitered, as if wishing to converse, perhaps for the last
time, with this foreigner, whose position, character, and ideas,
differed so much from his own, and who yet could make himself so well
understood. As L'Isle looked up, he said:
"Men of your profession see a great deal of the world."
"Yes. A soldier is a traveler, even if he never goes out of his own
country."
"But the soldiers of your country visit the remotest parts of the
world, the Indies in the east and west, and now this, our country, and
many a land besides."
"At one time the soldiers of Portugal did the same," said L'Isle.
"Yes; there was a time when we conquered and colonized many a remote
land, where the banner of no other European nation had ever been
seen.
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