XXIV AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
more security up to the regions of eternal bliss. 
After educating those entrusted to his charge with 
a care and affection truly paternal, he burst a blood- 
vessel, and retired to Palermo, for the benefit of a 
warmer climate. There he died the death of the 
just, in the habit of St. Ignatius. 
One day, when I was in the class of poetry, and 
which was about two years before I left the college 
for good and all, he called me up to his room. 
*‘ Charles,” said he to me, in a tone of voice perfectly 
irresistible, “ I have long been studying your dispo- 
sition, and I clearly foresee that nothing will keep 
you at home. You will journey into far distant 
countries, where you will be exposed to many dan- 
gers. There is only one way for you to escape them. 
Promise me that, from this day forward, you will 
never put your lips to wine, or to spirituous liquors. 
The sacrifice is nothing,” added he, “ but, in the end, 
it will prove of incalculable advantage to you.” I 
agreed to his enlightened proposal, and from that 
hour to this, which is now about nine and thirty 
years, I have never swallowed one glass of any kind 
of wine, or of ardent spirits. 
At Stonyhurst there are boundaries marked out 
to the students, which they are not allowed to pass ; 
and there are prefects always pacing to and fro 
within the lines, to prevent any unlucky boy from 
straying on the other side of them. Notwithstanding 
the vigilance of these lynx-eyed guardians, I would 
now and then manage to escape, and would bolt into 
a very extensive labyrinth of yew and holly trees, 
close at hand. It was the chosen place for animated 
