anna, smiling, "in the words of
your own English historian, Alban Butler."

She paused for an instant, as if to make sure of her memory, and then,
smiling, recited--

"'In the year 1102 or 1103,' he says, in his Life of St. Guy Valdescus
of The Thorn, as he Anglicises San Guido Valdeschi della Spina, 'when
the Saint was returning from the Holy Land, where he had been a
crusader, he was shipwrecked, by the Providence of God, upon the island
of Ilaria, in the Adriatic Sea; and he was greatly afflicted by the
discovery that the inhabitants of that country were almost totally
ignorant of the truths of our Holy Religion, while the little knowledge
they possessed was confused with many diabolical superstitions. They
still invoked the daemons of pagan mythology, and sacrilegiously
included our Divine Lord and His Blessed Mother in the number of these.
Now, St. Guy had distinguished himself in the Crusade alike for his
valour in action, for the edifying character of his conversation, and
for the devotion and recollection with which he performed the exercises
of religion; and he was surnamed Guy of the Thorn for that he had
caused to be fixed in the hilt of his sword a sharp thorn, or spine,
which, when he fought, should prick the flesh of his hand, and thus
keep him in mind of the pious purpose for which he was fighting, and
that it behoved a soldier of the Cross to fight, not in private anger
or martial pride, but in Christian zeal and humility. When, therefore,
after his shipwreck, and after many other perils and adventures by sea
and land, the Saint finally arrived at Rome, of which city his family
were patricians, and where his venerable mother, as well as his wife
and children, eagerly awaited his return, he was received with every
sign of favour by the Pope, Pascal the Second, who commended him warmly
upon the good reports he had had of him, and asked him to choose his
own reward. St. Guy answered that for his reward he prayed he might be
sent back to the island of Ilaria, with a bishop and a sufficient
company of priests, there to spread the pure light of the Faith among
the unfortunate natives. Whereupon the Pope created him Count and
Governor of the country, the heathen name of which he changed to St.
Paul, and gave him as the emblem of his authority a sword in the hilt
of which was fixed a thorn of gold. This holy relic, under the name of
the Spina d'Oro, is preserved, for the reverence of the faithful. In
the