204 ROYAL 80CIETY OF CANADA 



liends haunted the air, and their demoniac shrieks or blood-curdling 

 laughter could be heard in the wailing night-wind, or in the howling 

 of the wolves down the dim forest-aisles. More dreadful still, assum- 

 ing lovely siren forms, they assailed the missionary on the side of his 

 liuman weakness; but at the holy sign of the cross the baneful spell 

 was broken — the tempting presence melted into air.i 



Yet, with these intensely realistic conceptions of their ghostly 

 foes, the Jesuits shrank not' from the conflict with Hell itself. Em- 

 paradised in beatific vision, they beheld the glorious palace of the skies 

 prepared, a heavenly voice assured them, for those who dwelt in savage 

 hovels for the cause of God on earth. Angelic visitants, in visions of 

 the night, cheered their lonely vigils, and enbraved their souls for living 

 martyrdom.^ 



Nor were they without previsions of their future sufferings and of 

 the manner in which they should glorify God. Many years before his 

 martyrdom, Christ crowned with thorns and the blessed Virgin with 

 transpierced heart appeared in a vision to Brébeuf, and revealed to 

 him that he also should tread the thorny way of tHe holy Cross. Again, 

 the Saviour, with an infinite compassion, folded him in a loving em- 

 brace, pardoned all his sins, and, with the assurance that he was a 

 eho'sen vessel to bear his name unto the Gentiles, showed him how 

 great things he must suffer for His name's sake. 



In a transport of devotion the willing victim exclaimed : " Naught 

 shall separate me from the love of Christ, nor, tribulation, nor naked- 

 ness, not peril, nor the sword.^ His ardour for martyrdom rising into 

 a passion he writes, " I feel myself vehemently impelled to die for 

 Christ." * Wishing to miake himself a holocaust, says his biographer, 

 and a victim consecrated to death and to anticipate the happiness of 

 the fate that awaited him, he made a. vow never to refuse the grace of 

 martyrdom, but to accept the stroke of death with all the contentment 

 and joy of his heart. '''Yea, Lord," he exclaimed, "though all the 

 torments that captives in these lands can undergo in their cruel suffer- 

 ings should fall on me alone, I offer, with all my iheart, to endure them 

 in my own person 



»5 



' Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1649, p. 24. One chapter of the Rcla- 

 fions is headed Du règne de Satan en ces contrées, which the simple Fathers 

 designated the very fortre-^s and donjon -keep oif demons — "une des princLpailes 

 forteresses, et oonume un donjoii dies Démonis." 



= Relation. 1649, p. 24. 



' Kagueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1649, p. 23. 



* " Sentio me vehementer impelli ad moriendum pro Christo." Ih. 18. 



* " Guy, mon Dieu, si tous les tourmens que los captifs peuvent endurer 

 en ces pays, dans la cruauté des supplices, devroient tomber sur moy, le m'y 

 ofTre de tout mon cœur, et moy seul ie les souffriray." — Ih. 23. 



