illed with a horde of brigands,
French, Italians, Saracens, and Jews, who had cast aside all religious
faith of their fathers, and had re-established the worship of the demon
in the temple of Jupiter Pen.

The old manuscripts tell us that in the middle of the tenth century the
demons were in full sway on these mountains; that through the mouth of
the statue of Jupiter the worst of lies and blasphemies were spoken to
those who came to consult it. These worshipers of strange old gods
lived by plunder, and exacted toll of all who came through the pass.
The same conditions existed on the Graian Alps to the southward. On
one of these mountain passes, some fifty miles from Mont Joux, there
lived a rich man named Polycarpe. He, too, did homage to Jupiter, and
on the summit of a tall column which he built in the pass he had placed
a splendid diamond, which he called the "Eye of Jove." People came
from great distances to be healed by its magic glance, and the mountain
on which he dwelt was the mountain of the Columna Jovis. This became
changed, in time, to Colonne Joux, the Mountain of the Column of Jove.
And the demons of these two heights, the Mountain of Jove and the
Column of Jove, sent down their baleful call of defiance to the valley
over which Bernard ruled as Archdeacon of Aosta.

It came to pass that a troop of ten French travelers crossed over the
pass of Mont Joux. In the pass they were attacked by marauders, and
one of their number was carried away captive. When they came down to
Aosta, Bernard, the Archdeacon, fearlessly offered to go back with them
to attack the giant of the mountain, to rescue their friend, and to
replace the standard of the cross over the altar of the demon.

That night, so says the old chronicle, Saint Nicholas appeared to him
in the garb of a pilgrim and said: "Bernard, let us attack these
mountains. We shall put the demon to flight. We shall overturn this
statue of Jupiter, which the demons have taken possession of to bring
trouble among Christians. We will destroy it, and we will destroy the
column and its diamond, and in their place we will build two refuges
for the use of the pilgrims who cross the two mountains. Go thou, as
the tenth one in this band; then wilt thou conjure the demons. Thou
shalt bind the statue with a blessed stole, and its ruins will mingle
with the chaos of the mountains. Thus shalt thou destroy the power of
evil to the day of judgment."

And in proof o