ASSORTED MIRACLES 27 



public place, in the town of his birth, I think, but I 

 forget about that; and no sooner had it been set up 

 than miracles began to happen on the spot. Thus, 

 if some starving beggar came along, and, plucking 

 off his hat, fell on his knees to worship the saint, he 

 would presently catch sight of a gleaming object in 

 the dust at his knees, which would turn out to be a 

 silver coin, which would serve to buy him food and 

 wine. But there were also miracles of a contrary 

 kind — miraculous punishments for those who had 

 hard, unbelieving hearts and spoke scornfully of the 

 saint and his works. Such a person would perhaps 

 bark his shins against some obstruction he had failed 

 to see, or would stumble and come down on his face 

 on the stony road. And one day two women came 

 by, and one, being of a frivolous and mocking disposi- 

 tion, made some derogatory remark about St. John 

 Gualberto, and had no sooner spoken than a sudden 

 violent gust of wind caught her and blew her gown 

 over her head, which was the cause of much laughter 

 and jeering from the onlookers, until she, over- 

 whelmed with shame and confusion, fled from 

 the spot. 



Many of the ponderous biographies of the saints, 

 writ by the monks of the Middle Ages, are like 

 that, unpleasant to read, and if we desire to keep 

 up any devotional sentiment about them, we must 

 confine our reading of their lives to the modern 

 bowdlerised versions. 



But let us go back to the wind — ^let it blow from 

 our brains the memory of saints and their miracles. 



