THE DARK AGES 47 



of lawyers, and Saint Gertrude, gentlest of mystics, 

 had deigned to take her under their protection. 

 Moreover a pretty Italian legend softened in some 

 degree the asperity of her lot in that chosen land ; 

 for it was whispered that she was created — not to 

 mitigate the discomforts of the Ark — but to minis- 

 ter to the still greater needs of Saint Francis de 

 Paula, when the holy recluse was living in the 

 austere loneliness of his hermitage. Satan, having 

 failed many times to beguile the Saint from a rapt 

 ecstasy of prayer, sent, as a last resource, hundreds 

 of mice to torment him. They swarmed in his 

 narrow cell, gnawed his garments, nibbled at his 

 feet, and behaved with the shameless audacity of 

 vermin that knew their diabolic origin, and feared 

 no retribution. The monk's prayers seemed ended, 

 when suddenly there sprang from his loose sleeve 

 a small furry animal that attacked the invaders 

 with incredible speed and fury. So vigorous was 

 its onslaught, that only two mice escaped by hid- 

 ing in a crack of the wall ; and it is to find these 

 fugitives that the cat's descendants still sit motion- 

 less before every little hole and crevice, waiting, as 

 they have waited ever since, for their appointed 

 prey. 



But neither the gratitude of Saint Francis, nor 

 the lukewarm patronage of Saint Ives and Saint 

 Gertrude could save poor Pussy from black calumny 



