corded in the life of
Christina of Stumbela. You are not ignorant, I suppose, of the exploits
in which Satan indulged against that saint?"

"Indeed, I am, Monsieur l'Abbe."

"Then I may tell you that the narrative of these assaults has been
preserved by the Bollandists, who have included the life of this pious
woman in their biographies. It was written by Peter of Dacia, a
Dominican, and her confessor.

"Christina was born early in the thirteenth century--1242, I believe--at
Stumbela, near Cologne.

"She was persecuted by the devil from her infancy. He exhausted the
armoury of his arts against her, appeared to her under the form of a
cock, a bull, an apostle; covered her with lice, filled her bed with
vermin, poisoned her blood, and as he could not make her deny God, he
invented fresh torments.

"He turned the food she put into her mouth into a toad, a snake, a
spider, and disgusted her so effectually with all food, that she was
dying for want of it. She spent her days in vomiting, and prayer to God
to rescue her, but He was silent.

"Still, to sustain her in such trials, the Sacrament was left to her.
Satan, knowing this, determined to deprive her of this sustenance, and
appeared in the form of these creatures even in the host when she
received it. Finally, to conquer her, he took the form of a huge toad,
and established himself in her bosom. At first Christina fainted with
fright, but then God intervened; by His order she wrapped her hand in
her sleeve, slipped it between her body and the belly of the reptile,
tore away the toad, and flung it on the stones.

"It was dashed to pieces, with a noise, said the saint, like an old
shoe.

"These persecutions continued till Advent in 1268; and from that time
the plague of filth began.

"Peter of Dacia relates that one evening Christina's father came to
fetch him from his convent in Cologne, and begged him to go with him to
his daughter, tormented by the devil. He and another Dominican, Brother
Wipert, set out, and on arriving at Stumbela they found in the haunted
hut the Priest of the district, the Reverend Father Godefried, Prior of
the Benedictines of Brunwilre, and Cellarer of that convent. As they
stood warming themselves they discoursed of the pestilential incursions
of the devil, when suddenly the performance was repeated. They were all
bespattered with filth, Christina being caked with it, to use the
Friar's expression; and 'strange to say,' adds Peter of D