1644.] AMONG HIS BRETHREN. 237 



took him, by reason of his modest deportment, for 

 some poor, but pious Irishman, and asked him to 

 share their supper, after finishing his devotions, an 

 invitation which Jogues, half famished as he was, 

 gladly accepted. He reached the church in time 

 for the evening mass, and with an unutterable joy 

 knelt before the altar, and renewed the communion 

 of which he had been deprived so long. When he 

 returned to the cottage, the attention of his hosts 

 was at once attracted to his mutilated and distorted 

 hands. They asked with amazement how he could 

 have received such injuries ; and when they heard 

 the story of his tortures, their surprise and ven- 

 eration knew no bounds. Two young girls, their 

 daughters, begged him to accept all they had to 

 give, — a handful of sous ; while the peasant made 

 known the character of his new guest to his neigh- 

 bors. A trader from Kennes brought a horse to 

 the door, and oifered the use of it to Jogues, to 

 carry him to the Jesuit college in that town. He 

 gratefully accepted it ; and, on the morning of the 

 fifth of January, 1644, reached his destination. 



He dismounted, and knocked at the door of the 

 college. The porter opened it, and saw a man 

 wearing on his head an old woollen nightcap, and 

 in an attire little better than that of a beggar. 

 Jogues asked to see the Rector ; but the porter an- 

 swered, coldly, that the Rector was busied in the 

 Sacristy. Jogues begged him to say that a man 

 was at the door with news from Canada. The mis- 

 sions of Canada were at this time an object of pri- 

 mal interest to the Jesuits, and above all to the 



