"Your most reverend Lordship is wrong," interrupted the captain. "The illustrious Visconde has served her majesty in other ways. To hire the English transports for Belle Isle and the Açores meant money. To pay the French and Belgian and English officers and men at Oporto meant more money. The English Admiral Napier, who destroyed the Miguelista fleet, required still more money. Money was hard to find: but the noble Visconde had powerful friends in London. He knows the Senhor Rothschild, that clever man who kept back from the English the news of Waterloo while he made his own fortune in the Funds. The Visconde helped to find the money."
"At what rate of interest?" asked the Abbot quietly. And when the officer only shrugged his shoulders he added, "Is the noble Visconde a born Portuguese?"
The Viscount boiled over with rage. "I have not come here to be cross-examined and insulted," he cried, "I am here to execute a decree of the Government. This monastery is suppressed."
"I am told the Government has sent a strong force of soldiers," the Abbot answered. "Why? Because the Government fears we may tear the decree to pieces. I have not questioned your Excellency out of idle curiosity. I am the father of this family; I am responsible for their little patrimony; and when I go to stand, as go I so soon must, before my Lord, I must not go as an unfaithful steward."
"The monastery is suppressed," the Viscount repeated.
"The question for me," continued the Abbot, ignoring him, "is whether I can obey this decree or not. We have always rendered unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's; but we cannot render unto Cæsar the things that are God's."
"The monastery is suppressed. It belongs to the Portuguese people," piped the Viscount.
This time the Abbot did not ignore him. "Portuguese?" he echoed. "All these fathers and brethren are Portuguese. The Senhor Captain is a Portuguese. The humblest of these soldiers is a Portuguese. Apparently we are all Portuguese save your Excellency. The Portuguese people! Yes. Here it is in the decree. From this date the possessions of the religious orders are declared to be the possessions of the Portuguese people. Senhores, listen. In time of need we have never failed to share our last crust and our last coin with the Portuguese people. We are Portuguese as well as monks. When the French were in the land we cheerfully gave up all we had to drive them out. More. There are three fathers standing here who hide soldiers' scars under their habits, and there is one who carried dispatches under a hotter fire than any of your Worships have even seen."
"This is not the point," whined the Viscount.
"It is the only point there is. Your Excellency shall answer me plainly. If we bow to this decree, which of 'the Portuguese people' will enjoy our house and goods? Will they be sold to feed the poor and to clothe the hungry and to pay the just debts of the State?"