VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 



259 



who sends you to him.' Juan Diego answered : 4 Do not be of- 

 fended, my Queen and Holy Lady, at what I have said, which is 

 not intended to excuse me from this office.' Desiring to satisfy the 

 Most Holy Virgin, although fearful the bishop would not give credit 

 to his story, he pledged himself to repeat the message the next day ; 

 and promised, that at the setting of the sun, he would be at that 

 spot once more with the reply. Bidding adieu to the blessed appa- 

 rition with profound humility, he went to his village and his house, 

 but it is not known whether he mentioned to his wife, or other 

 person, his strange adventure. 



The following day, Sunday, December 10th, 1531, Juan Diego 

 went again to hear mass and participate in the Christian worship. 

 Upon the conclusion of the service, he went diligently to discharge 

 his mission, and although the servants of the bishop delayed him a 

 long time at the entrance of the palace, he succeeded at length in 

 coming into the prelate's presence. With lively expressions of 

 feeling, which made that dignitary shed tears of tender pleasure, he 

 prostrated himself before the bishop, and told him he had a second 

 time seen the Mother of God, who commanded him to return and 

 repeat that it was her will a temple should be built in honor of her 

 on the spot at which she appeared. The bishop listened with great 

 attention, and examined him with many questions, in the answers 

 to which he could detect no discrepancy ; and, in fine, knowing it 

 could neither be a dream nor fiction of the Indian, he told him that 

 what he had said was not sufficient to ensure credibility ; that he 

 must ask some sign from the Holy Lady, by which it might be 

 known that it was really the Mother of God who sent him. 



The Indian, with intrepid confidence, replied that he would ask 

 whatever the bishop desired ; when the latter, observing that he was 

 not abashed, but offered to ask for the signs, ordered him to go, but, 

 meanwhile, secretly despatched two confidential members of his 

 family to follow the Indian, and to observe w T ith whom Juan Diego 

 spoke on his arrival at the hill of Tepeyacac. They did so ; but 

 when they arrived at the bridge over the river that empties, at the 

 foot of the hill, into the lake which lies to the east of Mexico, 

 the Indian disappeared from the spies who were watching him. 

 They examined the summit, brow, and circumference of the hill, 

 without failing, in their anxious solicitude, to explore every ravine, 

 fissure, and fragment of it, but not finding him in any part, they con- 

 cluded that the native was a deceitful impostor, and confirmed in 

 that idea, they returned to the bishop, begging him to punish the 

 Indian if he repeated his imposition. 



