THE CHARM OF GARDENS 



his garden, now well grown, and, breaking a stick he 

 marked out far and wide the space of land he needed, 

 more than any man could in one day enclose with any 

 spade. And after that into the little oratory he went 

 and prayed for help. 



You may be sure every movement of this was carefully 

 observed. A woman envied him and spied on these 

 proceedings. I take it she was some woman to whom, 

 before the Saint grew famous, the peasants came for 

 spells and simples, a wise woman, a witch, whose reputa- 

 tion was at stake. 



The Saint's prayer was answered. The woman, evil 

 report on her tongue, made her journey to the Bishop 

 of Meaux, and accused Fiacre of magic, of dealings 

 with the Devil. Roused by the report, the Bishop 

 came to see the Saint and saw all that had happened. 

 In one day all the wide space Fiacre had marked out 

 had been enclosed. After that the oratory was denied 

 to all women. Even as late as 1641, nearly a thousand 

 years after his death, when Anne of Austria visited his 

 shrine in the Cathedral of Meaux she did not enter the 

 Chapel but remained outside the grating. It was the 

 legend, handed down all that time, that any woman 

 who entered there would go blind or mad. 



Where the Saint had dug his solitary garden, and on 

 the site of his cell a great Benedictine Priory was built 

 in after years, where his body was kept and did many 

 wonders of healing, especially in the cure of a certain 

 fleshy tumour, which they called " le fie de St. Fiacre." 

 After many years, in the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, his body was removed to the Cathedral at 

 Meaux. 



So it may be seen for how good a cause he became 

 known as Patron of Gardeners, and it must now be 

 shown why he is called the Patron of Cab Drivers. In 



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