the Virgin visibly conveyed the water-logged ship over the breakers safely to the shore; and voices, as dreadful as the storm, were heard from the sea, exclaiming, O this Dominic! he deprives us of our prey! he releases them with the Rosary! he chains us, he scourges us, he kills us with that Rosary! All the goods which they had thrown overboard to lighten the vessel, were found lying safely upon the strand; and the converts, being led in triumph to be baptized, became the first members of the Society of the Rosary. *

Neither the Law nor the Gospel were introduced with such appalling miracles as this device for making fingers and thumbs perform the work of prayer. When the same thaumaturgic St. Dominic was engaged in his crusade against the Albigenses, as he entered Thoulouse one day after one of his interviews with the Virgin, the bells, unmoved by human hands, rang to honour him; but the heretics neither heeded this manifestation of his sanctity, nor attended to his earnest exhortations that they should use the Rosary. Presently, therefore, a sudden darkness came over the heavens, a storm of wind and thunder arose, the whole firmament seemed ablaze with lightning, earth *Possadas, 50.

shook, and the howling of affrighted animals was mingled with the cries and supplications of the terrified multitude. People of Thoulouse, said Dominic, it is the voice of God! I see before me an hundred and fifty Angels, whom Christ and his Mother have sent for your chastisement. Abjure your heresies, and take her for your advocate! There was an Image of the Virgin in the Church, where this was said, who raised her arm with a threatening gesture as he spake. Mark me! he continued, not while you persist in your wickedness, not till you supplicate her by reciting the Rosary, will that menace be withdrawn! The Devils yelled audibly at this, the congregation disciplined themselves and told their beads in all the sincerity of fear;* till the Thaumaturge being assured of their conversion, knelt before the Image to intercede for them; the Virgin then was appeased and put down her hand, and the storm ceased.

The prodigious virtues of the Rosary were manifested in a manner not less astounding at Carcassonne, where there dwelt so active and pertinacious a heretic, that Dominic, not being able to convert him by reasoning, (and as it appears, not having at that time the efficacious

* Possadas, 118.

means of fire and faggot at command,) complained to the Virgin what mischief this monster was doing to the cause of the faith; upon which a whole host of devils was sent into the heretic to punish his obstinacy, and give the Saint an opportunity of displaying his power. The energumen was in a dreadful state; and well he might be; for when in the presence of the of the people he was brought before Dominic for help, and the Saint, throwing a Rosary round his neck, commanded the foul fiends by virtue of that Rosary to declare how many they were, it appeared that they were not less than fifteen thousand in number: the heretic had blasphemed the Rosary, and for every decade of that sacred bead-string, a whole legion had entered him. Grievously, however, as he was tormented, the Devils themselves were not less so, when, being thus put to the question, they were compelled to answer all that the Saint asked. Was what he preached of the Rosary false, or was it true? They howled in agony at this, and cursed the tremendous power which they confessed. ..Whom did they hate most?.. Whom but Dominic himself, who was their worst enemy on earth! ..Which Saint in Heaven did they fear most, and to which might prayers with most confidence be addrest, and ought the

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most reverence to be paid? So reluctant were they to utter the truth in this case, that they entreated he would be pleased to let them reply in private; and when he insisted upon a public answer, they struggled with such violence that fire issued from the eyes, mouth and nostrils of the miserable demoniac. Touched with compassion at the sight, Dominic adjured the Virgin by her own Rosary to have mercy upon him. Immediately Heaven opened, the blessed Virgin herself, surrounded with Angels, descended, touched the possessed with a golden wand, and bade the fiends make answer. terly complaining of the force which was put upon them, they exclaimed at last, Hear, O ye Christians! this Mary the Mother of God is able to deliver her servants from Hell: one supplication of hers is worth more than all the prayers of all the Saints; and many have had their sins, unjustly as we think, forgiven them, for invoking her at the point of death. If she had not interposed, we should ere this have destroyed Christianity; and we confess and proclaim that no one who perseveres in her service and in the use of the Rosary can perish." The Rosary was then recited by all present at Dominic's command, and the fifteen thousand Devils were seen swarming out from the

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body of the Energumen in sparks and flames of fire.*

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By such miracles had St. Dominic introduced the use of the Rosary, and by others not less extraordinary had he proved its saving virtue. There was a damsel in Aragon, Alexandra by name, who, in consequence of his preaching, provided herself with one, and told her beads with sufficient regularity, but manifested no other amendment of life. Two rival suitors fought for her, and so unhappily, that both were killed, in revenge for which, the relations seized her, cut off her head, and threw it into a well. Devils took possession of her soul, supposing they had a valid right to it; but therein they were deceived; for by using the Rosary she had obtained such favour in the eyes of the Virgin; that her soul was replevied and permitted to remain in the head and in the well, till an opportunity should offer for being confessed and shriven. Ere long the singular condition of this poor soul was revealed to Dominic, who incontinently repaired to the well and called upon Alexandra to come up. The bloody head rose, perched on the well side, and intreated his assistance, saying that she must pass two hundred

* Possadas, p. 126.