ghbors. He dressed in the plainest garb. He drank from a rude
wooden cup. Wine he never touched, and water but rarely. The juice of
bitter herbs was his beverage, and by every means possible he strove to
reduce his body to servitude. When he came, years later, to his
deathbed, it was his sole regret that it was a _bed_ where he was to
die, instead of the bare boards on which he was wont to sleep.

His fame as a preacher spread far and wide. There are many traditions
of his eloquence, and the memory of his words was fondly cherished
wherever his sweet, rich voice was heard. "From the mountains of Savoy
to Milan and Turin, and even to the Lake of Geneva," says the
chronicle, "his memory was dear." So, in due time, after the death of
Pierre, Bernard was made Archdeacon of Aosta.

In these times the high Alps were filled with Saracen brigands and
other heathen freebooters, who celebrated in the mountain fastnesses
their monstrous rites. In the mountains above Aosta the god Pen had
long been worshiped; the word pen in Celtic meaning the highest.
Later, Julius Caesar conquered these wild tribes, and imposed upon them
the religion of the Roman Empire. A statue of Jupiter ("_Jove optimo
maximo_") was set up in the mountain in the place of the idol Pen.
Afterwards, by way of compromise, the Romans permitted the two to
become one, and the people worshiped Jovis Pennius (Jupiter Pen), the
great god of the highest mountains. A statue of Jupiter Pen was set up
by the side of the lake in the great pass of the mountain; and from
Jupiter Pen these mountains took the name of Pennine Alps, which they
bear to this day. The pass itself was called Mons Jovis, the Mountain
of Jove, and this, in due time, became shortened to Mont Joux. Through
this pass of Mont Joux the armies of every nation have marched, the
heroes of every age, from Saint Peter, who, the legend says, came over
in the year 57, down to Napoleon, who passed nearly eighteen centuries
later, on a much less worthy errand. The Hotel "Dejeuner de Napoleon,"
in the little village of "Bourg Saint Pierre," recalls in its name the
story of both these visits.

In the earliest days a refuge hut was built by the side of the statue
of Jupiter Pen. In the early pilgrimages to Rome this became a place
of some importance. Later on, marauding armies of Goths, Saracens, and
Hungarians, successively passing through, destroyed this refuge. In
the days of Bernard the pass was f