of the richest abbeys in France. It was a retreat for penitents of both sexes, and presided over by an abbess. The old monastic buildings and courtyards, surrounded by walls, and covering from 40 to 50 acres, now form one of the larger prisons of France, in which about 2000 men and boys are confined, and kept at industrial occupations.' See Chambers's 'Encyclopaedia,' s.v., and Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 2d. S, I. 104.
Stanza XXI. l. 408. but = except that. Cp. Tempest, i. 2, 414:
With grief that's beauty's canker, thou might'st call him
A goodly person.'
l. 414. Byron, writing to Murray on 3 Feb., 1816, expresses his belief that he has unwittingly imitated this passage in 'Parisina.' 'I had,' he says, 'completed the story on the passage from Gibbon, which indeed leads to a like scene naturally, without a thought of the kind; but it comes upon me not very comfortably.' Byron is quite right in his assertion that, if he had taken this striking description of Constance as a model for his Parisina, he would have been attempting 'to imitate that which is inimitable.' See 'Parisina,' st. xiv:—
The living cause of Hugo's ill.'
Stanza XXII. l. 415. a sordid soul, &c. For such a character in the drama see Lightborn in Marlowe's Edward II, and those trusty agents in Richard III, whose avowed hardness of heart drew from Gloucester the appreciative remark:—
Richard III, i. 3. 353.
Stanza XXIII. l. 438. grisly, grim, horrible; still an effective poetic word. It is, e.g., very expressive in Tennyson's 'Princess,' sect. vi, where Ida sees
Of grisly twine, all dabbled with the blood,' &c.
See below, III. 382.
Stanza XXV. l. 468. 'It is well known, that the religious, who broke their vows of chastity, were subjected to the same penalty as the Roman vestals in a similar case. A small niche, sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive wall of the convent; a slender pittance of food and water was deposited in it, and the awful words, Vade in Pace, were the signal for immuring the criminal. It is not likely that, in latter times, this punishment was
