"The portal, which is 28 feet wide by 57 high, is embellished with upwards of one hundred figures in alto relievo, representing Moses and the prophets, saints and angels, apostles, kings, popes, bishops, and martyrs, with their respective insignia. Each figure stands on an ornamented pedestal, beneath a canopy of delicate workmanship; they are separated from each other by an assemblage of mouldings terminating in pointed arches. The large central window is of singular workmanship; it consists of tablets of marble formed into numerous compartments, whose interstices are filled up with stained glass. In the evening, when the sun is opposite to this window, its beams dart through the perforations, and cover the walls and pillars of the church with myriads of variegated tints."

Upon Murphy's statement that "the entire monastery, except the inferior offices and dormitories, is built of marble originally not very dissimilar in colour to that of Carrara," Link justly remarks that "an architect ought at least to know so much of mineralogy as to perceive that it is not marble, but a calcareous species of sand-stone, which appears in all parts of the surrounding mountains, while marble is not found for a considerable distance." "The colour of the stone, however," as Murphy says, "is now changed internally to a modest grey; externally the stone has contracted a yellow scoria, highly picturesque to the eye of the artist."

The monks received us with great civility, and allowed us the use of their sacristy to take some refreshments in, and pressed us strongly to pass the night in the convent. The French had made a kitchen of this room, stolen all the rich vestments, gold and silver chalices and candlesticks, and had lighted their fires with the wood-work of the drawers. The present condition of the building, we find, upon a close examination of its interior, to be almost ruinous, the work of the Philistine armies of France, who seemed to take a savage