n name but not in fact
what had once been.[302] And though many urged him not to alienate the
possessions, but to retain the whole together for himself, this lover of
poverty did not consent, but caused one to be elected, according to
custom, to hold them; the place, as we have said, being retained for
Malachy and his followers. And perhaps, as afterwards appeared,[303] he
would have been wiser to have kept it all; only he looked more to
humility than to peace.

14. So, then, by the command of Father Imar, taking with him about ten
brethren, he came to the place and began to build. And there, one day,
when he himself was cutting with an axe, by chance one of the workmen,
while he was brandishing the axe in the air, carelessly got into the
place at which the blow was aimed, and it fell on his spine with as much
force as Malachy could strike. He fell, and all ran to him supposing
that he had received a death-wound or was dead. And indeed his tunic was
_rent from the top to the bottom_,[304] but the man himself was found
unhurt, the skin so very slightly grazed that scarcely a trace appeared
on the surface. The man whom the axe had laid low, stood unharmed while
the bystanders beheld him with amazement. Hence they became more eager,
and were found readier for the work. And _this was the beginning of the
miracles_[305] of Malachy. Moreover the oratory was finished in a few
days, made of smoothed planks indeed, but closely and strongly fastened
together--a Scotic work,[306] not devoid of beauty.[307] And
thenceforward God was served in it as in the ancient days; that is,
with similar devotion, though not with like numbers. Malachy presided
over that place for some time,[308] by the ordinance of Father
Imar,[309] being at once the ruler and the rule of the brethren. They
read in his life how they should behave themselves, and he was their
leader _in righteousness and holiness before God_;[310] save that
besides the things appointed for the whole community he did many things
of an exceptional kind, in which he still more was the leader of all,
and none of the others was able to follow him to such difficult
practices.

At that time and place a certain man was sick, and the devil stood by
him and suggested in plain speech that he should never heed the
admonitions of Malachy, but if he should enter his house, he should
attack and kill him with a knife. And when this became known, those who
ministered to him, the sick man himsel