ng miracles, chiefly
upon those afflicted by St. Anthony's fire. The medical details are
given at some length, and the cures described in the Great Life. For
the general reader it is enough to say that Hugh said Mass near the
precious but plain chest, and that he gave a good sum for the
convalescent home where the poor sufferers were housed. Whether change
of air, a hearty diet, and strong faith be enough to arrest this (now
rare) disease is a scientific question rather than a theological one;
but if, as we are told, St. Anthony sent thunder bolts upon castles and
keeps where his pilgrims were maltreated, his spirit was somewhat of
that Boanerges type which is flatly snubbed in the Gospel. From Vienne
Hugh went to his own Grenoble among those mountains which have, as
Ruskin says, "the high crest or wall of cliff on the top of their
slopes, rising from the plain first in mounds of meadow-land and bosses
of rock and studded softness of forest; the brown cottages peeping
through grove above grove, until just where the deep shade of the pines
becomes blue or purple in the haze of height, a red wall of upper
precipice rises from the pasture land and frets the sky with glowing
serration."{26} A splendid procession came out to welcome him, and the
city was hung with festoons of flowers and gay silken banners. He was
led with chaunting to the cathedral of St. John Baptist, his particular
saint, and that of his Order, upon the very feast of the great herald.
There he sang the High Mass with intense devoutness, and after the
gospel preached to the people, "giving them tears to drink," but in
moderation, for he begged all their prayers for his littleness and
unworthiness, whereas they knew quite well what a good and great fellow
he was. Then he christened his own nephew, the heir of Avalon, whose
uncle Peter was present, and the Bishop of Grenoble was godfather. The
hitherto unbaptised boy was actually seven years old. Perhaps he had
waited for Uncle Hugh to christen him, and when he had that honour he
was not named Peter, as they proposed, but John, in honour of the place
and day. Adam records that he taught the little fellow his alphabet and
to spell from letters placed above the altar of St. John Baptist at
Bellay.

Then he left for the Grande Chartreuse, having to foot it most of the
way up the mountains, sweating not a little, for he was of some
diameter, but he out-walked his companions. He took care to drop in
while the br