DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0197
A CLERICAL EXQUISITE. 181
brothers, in the long brown habit of the Capuchins,
with his shaved head and sandals on his feet, made
me feel for the moment as if I were in Europe.
The monks were then at prayers; and following
him through the great church, down a marble
staircase, and along a subterranean corridor, in
five minutes after my arrival in Bethlehem I was
standing on the spot where the Saviour of man-
kind was born.
The superior was a young man, not more than
thirty, with a face and figure of uncommon beauty ;
though not unhealthy, his face was thin and pale,
and his high, projecting forehead indicated more
than talent. Genius flashed from his eyes, though,
so far as I could judge from his^conversation, he
did not sustain the character his features and ex-
pression promised. He was not insensible to the
advantages of his personal appearance. The rope
around his waist, with the cross dangling at the
end, was laid as neatly as a soldier's sword-belt 5
the top of his head was shaved, his beard combed,
and the folds of his long coarse dress, his cowl, and
the sandals on his feet, all were arranged with a
precision that, under other circumstances, would
have made him a Brummel. There was some-
thing, too, in the display of a small hand and long
taper fingers, that savoured more of the exquisite
than of the recluse ; but I ought not to have noted
him too critically, for he was young, handsome,
and gentlemanly, and fit for better things than the
dronish life of a convent. I am inclined to be-
Q 2
brothers, in the long brown habit of the Capuchins,
with his shaved head and sandals on his feet, made
me feel for the moment as if I were in Europe.
The monks were then at prayers; and following
him through the great church, down a marble
staircase, and along a subterranean corridor, in
five minutes after my arrival in Bethlehem I was
standing on the spot where the Saviour of man-
kind was born.
The superior was a young man, not more than
thirty, with a face and figure of uncommon beauty ;
though not unhealthy, his face was thin and pale,
and his high, projecting forehead indicated more
than talent. Genius flashed from his eyes, though,
so far as I could judge from his^conversation, he
did not sustain the character his features and ex-
pression promised. He was not insensible to the
advantages of his personal appearance. The rope
around his waist, with the cross dangling at the
end, was laid as neatly as a soldier's sword-belt 5
the top of his head was shaved, his beard combed,
and the folds of his long coarse dress, his cowl, and
the sandals on his feet, all were arranged with a
precision that, under other circumstances, would
have made him a Brummel. There was some-
thing, too, in the display of a small hand and long
taper fingers, that savoured more of the exquisite
than of the recluse ; but I ought not to have noted
him too critically, for he was young, handsome,
and gentlemanly, and fit for better things than the
dronish life of a convent. I am inclined to be-
Q 2