tar, two Masses every day, barefooted
processions--himself the central figure carrying a cross--each had
their turn. Along the deep red roads between the orange gardens
which lead from Asuncion towards the Recoleta on Campo Grande, he
used to take his way accompanied by Indians crowned with flowers,
giving his benediction as he passed, to turn away (according to
himself) the plague, and to insure a fertile harvest. Not being
content with the opportunities which life afforded, he instituted
an evening service in church in order to prepare for death."

These, however, were only some of the milder uses to which the Bishop
put his histrionic talents in order to prove his claim to sainthood.

The fortunes of Cardenas varied considerably, but on the whole his
extraordinary versatility kept him afloat in the public estimation. He
at one time, however, very nearly incurred the popular resentment owing
to his having taken up the body of a suicide, and caused it to be
interred in holy ground from the force of a mere whim. The uproar
consequent on this he managed to overrule, and having got the better of
Don Gregorio, the Civil Governor, the Bishop actually elected himself
Governor in his place, and now became supreme in Asuncion, from which
place the Jesuits were forced to flee in haste to their establishments
in the country.

Each side now brought endless charges against the other, and in the
middle of the wordy warfare the validity of Cardenas's appointment to
the Bishopric was questioned. Nevertheless, Cardenas succeeded in
retaining his office, and after a while issued a declaration
excommunicating the entire Order of the Jesuits, after which, having
sworn to the people that he possessed a Decree from the King of Spain,
he issued an order commanding the expulsion of the Jesuits from
Paraguay. This was carried into effect at Asuncion, and the College of
the Order was sacked and gutted by fire. Outside the boundaries of the
capital, however, this command had no effect whatever, and the great
settlements of the Jesuits far away in the forests were totally
unaffected by any mandate given at Asuncion.

The Bishop had now gone too far in his policy of aggression. The High
Court at Charcas summoned him to appear before its tribunal at once, and
to give his reasons for the expulsion of the Jesuits and his appointment
of himself as Governor of Paraguay. At the same time a new Governor,
Don S