Page 37 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

THE SOLUTION 17
fish, eggs, and all seasonings. At night they stretched
out fully clad on a bed consisting of planks raised from
the floor and covered with a ticking stufied with straw.
Until they fell asleep, each would challenge himself:
"How much do I love God, and what am I willing to
do for Him?"
For two years, 1828-1830, Brother Nicholas lived the
life of a Trappist novice and lived it so well that his
being permitted to pronounce the vows that would bind
him for life was taken for granted. He would make an
excellent Trappist lay-brother.
The Revolution of July, 1830, sent Charles X into
exile in England and made Louis Philippe, King of the
French. A by-product of this upheaval was anti-clerical-
ism. Priests went into hiding. The old Law of Associa-
tion was revived, limiting the number of religious who
might live in the same monastery.
By early September the anti-clerical virus had spnead
from Paris throughout the country. Eventually it in-
fected Mulhausen in Alsace. From here the National
Guard attempted an armed sortie on the defenceless
Trappists at Mont des Olives, but good neighbors who
had been standing guard over the monastery day and
night greeted the attackers with a round of rifle fire,
blank carridges to be sure but crackling very realistically.
One of the lfrappists, Father de Geramb, a forrner
Austrian General, had for the occasion resurrected one
of his splendiferous uniforms. From him, posted in a
conspicuous spot, had come the thunderous command,
"Fire!" The terrified valiants from N{ulhausen had fled.
A week or so after this abortive sally against the mon-
astery, the Mayor of nearby Reiningen advised Dom
Klausener to send away all the non-French members of
the community. The Prior agreed, first instructing the
French members to doff their Trappist habits and to