Brother Benito is periodically absent from the convent. He has read Matthew G. Lewis’s novel The Monk and dreams of being confronted by the temptations that lure the novel’s protagonist to his perdition but has had no such good fortune . . . although the presence of the Count may change this mediocre fate. Although he would never confess as much, he likes to travel, to break the tedious monotony of the monastery. On his journeys, he revels in his status as a living saint, a guide to the most important souls in the country and a prestigious counselor to important people. A cruel seducer of misguided men and women. But, for all his dealings with the rich and powerful, not once has he come face-to-face with an evil against which to pit his faith and triumph, to be the living saint that people say he is.

Strangely, the journey that follows the Count’s visit is fruitless, both for Brother Benito and for his followers. The monk is distracted, he is no longer thinking about Lewis’s The Monk, he cannot get the Count out of his mind. And he finds this thought deeply distressing. As a penance, he prolongs the journey, thus keeping his burning desire to return to the monastery at bay. Perhaps the devil has chosen this extraordinary Count to tempt him. And he finds some solace in the fear this thought stirs in him.