some
notes in his little book, which for his own consolation he carefully
carried about with him. At about a league's distance from Montserrat,
he was overtaken by a man who had ridden after him at a rapid pace.
This man accosted him and inquired if he had given certain garments to
a poor man, as the latter had declared. Ignatius answered that it was
true that he had given them to a beggar. On learning that the latter
had been ill-treated because he was suspected of having stolen the
clothes, the eyes of Ignatius filled with tears, in pity for the poor
man.

Although he had fled so anxiously from the praise of men, he did not
remain long at Manresa before many marvellous things were narrated of
him. This fame arose from what had occurred at Montserrat. His
reputation increased day by day. Men vied with each other in adding
some particulars about his sanctity, declaring that he had abandoned
immense revenues, and other wonderful things without much regard to
real facts.

At Manresa he lived on the alms that he daily begged. He never ate
meat nor partook of wine, though they were offered him. On Sundays,
however, he never fasted, and if wine were offered him, he drank of it
sparingly. In former days he had been very careful of his hair, which
he had worn, and, indeed, not unbecomingly, in the fashionable manner
of the young men of his age; but now he determined to cease to care
for it, neither to comb it nor to cut it, and to dispense with all
covering for his head both day and night. To punish himself for the
too great nicety which he had formerly had in the care of his hands
and feet, he now resolved to neglect them.

It was while he was living at the hospital at Manresa that the
following strange event took place. Very frequently on a clear
moonlight night there appeared in the courtyard before him an
indistinct shape which he could not see clearly enough to tell what
it was. Yet it appeared so symmetrical and beautiful that his soul was
filled with pleasure and joy as he gazed at it. It had something of
the form of a serpent with glittering eyes, and yet they were not
eyes. He felt an indescribable joy steal over him at the sight of this
object. The oftener he saw it, the greater was the consolation he
derived from it, and when the vision left him, his soul was filled
with sorrow and sadness.

Up to this period he had remained in a constant state of tranquillity
and consolation, without any interior knowledge o