A Childs Book of Saints | Page 9

that grew in the fields or Spain.
"Then surely," he cried, "it was not merely a dream."
And looking at his hand, he saw that the palm bore blue tracings such
as one sees on the arms of wanderers and seafaring men. These marks,
Isidore learned afterwards, were the Hebrew letters that spelt the name
"JERUSALEM."
As long as he lived those letters recalled to his mind all the marvels that
had been shown him. And they did more than this, for whenever his
eyes fell on them he said, "Blessed be the promise of the Lord the
Redeemer of Israel, who hath us in His care for evermore!"
Now these are the words of that promise:
"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I
not forget thee. Behold, I have engraven thee upon the palms of my
hands."

The Ancient Gods Pursuing
I will now tell of Hilary and his companions, who came over the snowy
passes of the Alps, and carried the lamp of faith into the north; and this
was in the days of the ancient gods. Many of their shrines had Hilary
overturned, and broken their images, and cut down their sacred trees,
and denied their wells of healing. Wherefore terrible phantoms pursued
him in his dreams, and in the darkness, and in the haunted ways of the
woods and mountains. At one time it was the brute-god Pan, who
sought to madden him with the terror of his piping in desolate places; at
another it was the sun-god Apollo, who threatened him with fiery
arrows in the parching heat of noon; or it was Pallas Athene, who

appeared to him in visions, and shook in his face the Gorgon's head,
which turns to stone all living creatures who look on it. But the holy
Bishop made the sign of the cross of the Lord, and the right arm of their
power was broken, and their malice could not harm him.
The holy men traversed the mountains by that Roman road which
climbed up the icy rocks and among the snowy peaks of the Mountain
of Jove, and at sundown they came to that high temple of Jove which
had crowned the pass for many centuries. The statue of the great
father-god of Rome had been hurled down the ravine into the
snow-drift, and his altar had been flung into the little wintry mere
which shivers in the pass, and his last priest had died of old age a
lifetime ago; and the temple was now but a cold harbour for merchants
and soldiers and wandering men.
Here in the freezing air the apostles rested from their journey, but in the
dead of the night Hilary was awakened by a clamour of forlorn voices,
and opening his eyes he saw the mighty father-god of Olympus looking
down upon him with angry brows, and brandishing in his hand red
flashes of lightning. In no way daunted, the Bishop sprang to his feet,
and cried in a loud voice, "In the name of Him who was crucified,
depart to your torments!" And at the sound of that cry the colossal
figure of the god wavered and broke like a mountain cloud when it
crumbles in the wind, and glimmering shapes of goddesses and nymphs
flitted past, sighing and lamenting; and the Bishop saw no longer
anything but the sharp cold stars, and the white peaks and the ridges of
the mountains.
When they had descended and reached the green valleys, they came at
length to a great lake, blue and beautiful to look upon, and here they
sojourned for a while. It was a fair and pleasant land, but the people
were rude and barbarous, and drove them away with stones when they
would enter their hamlets. So, as they needed food, Hilary bade his
companions gather berries and wild herbs, and he himself set snares for
birds, and wove a net to cast into the lake, and made himself a raft of
pine-trees, from which he might cast it the more easily.
One night as he floated on this raft in the starlight, he heard the voice of

the Spirit of the Peak calling to the Spirit of the Mere. And the Spirit of
the Mere answered, "Speak, I am listening." Then the Mountain Spirit
cried, "Arise, then, and come to my aid; alone I cannot chase away
these men who are driving out all the ancient gods from their shrines in
the land." The Water Spirit answered, "Of what avail is our strength
against theirs? Here on the starry waters is one whose nets I cannot
break, and whose boat I cannot overturn. Without ceasing he prays, and
never