unobserved, killed one of the men, and secured the others for a public
example. The castle was then demolished, and a hermitage called _St.
Dimas_, or the Good Thief, built upon the spot. The views from it are
very extensive and noble to the south and eastward.

And now, Sir, having conducted you to make a short visit to each of
these wonderful, though little abodes, I must assure you, that a man
well versed in _author craft_ might write thirteen little volumes upon
subjects so very singular. But as no written account can give a perfect
idea of the particular beauties of any mountain, and more especially of
one so unlike all others, I shall quit nature, and conduct you to the
works of art, and treasures of value, which are within the walls of the
holy sanctuary below; only observing, what I omitted to mention, that
the great rains which have fallen since the creation of all things, down
the sides of this steep mount, have made round the whole base a
prodigious wide and deep trench, which has the appearance of a vast
river course drained of its water. In this deep trench lie an infinite
number of huge blocks of the mountain, which have from age to age caved
down from its side, and which renders the _tout au tour_ of the mountain
below full as extraordinary as the pointed pinnacles above: beside this,
there are many little recesses on the sides of the hill below, so
adorned by stately trees and natural fountains, that I know not which
part of the enchanted spot is most beautiful. I found in one of these
places a little garden, fenced in by the fallen rocks, a spring of so
clear and cool a water, and the whole so shaded by, oaks, so warmed by
the sun, and so superlatively romantic, that I was determined to find
out the owner of it, and have set about building a house or a hut to the
garden, and to have made it my abode; but, alas! upon enquiry, I found
the well was a holy one, and that the water, the purest and finest I
ever saw or tasted could only be used for holy purposes. And here let me