Your horse is at hand ?' As he spoke he detected a sadness on the man's countenance.

Without more words, he dismissed him.
That day he sat in the open air, in a gallery whence he could survey a great part of the monastic buildings, and much of the mountain summit on its western side.

For an hour he had the companionship of Marcus, who, pointing to this spot and to that, instructed Basil in the history of what he saw, now and then reciting his own verses on the subject.

He told how Benedict, seeking with a little company of pious followers for a retreat from the evil of the world, came to ruined Casinum, and found its few wretched inhabitants fallen away from Christ, worshipping the old gods in groves and high places.

Here, on the mountain top, stood temples of Jupiter, of Apollo, and of Venus.