"
"Has such blind selfishness a parallel?" asked Lady Mabel.
"Many," said L'Isle. "We may at times find one at home, in the wisdom
of a whig ministry, which consists in taking a microscopic view of the
wrong side of things just under their noses."
They now mounted their horses, and leaving the _praca_, had entered on
a narrow and somewhat crooked street, where they suddenly met a
funeral procession, with its priests, crucifix and tapers, the dead
being carried by several persons on a bier, and followed by a few
peasants. The travelers drew up their horses close to the adjacent
wall, to leave room for the procession. The face of the dead was
uncovered as usual, and the friar's dress which clothed the body, with
the rosaries and other paraphernalia displayed about his person, led
Lady Mabel to say, "I see that one of the good fathers is gone to his
account."
"He will now find out," said Moodie, "the worth of his beads, crucifix
and holy water."
"I am surprised," said Lady Mabel, "at so unpretending a funeral, in
the case of a member of the great order of St. Francis."
L'Isle asked a question of a Portuguese standing near, and then said,
"The cowl does not make the monk, nor must you infer from his dress
that this man was a friar.
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