And shaking in disgust his head, the vision continued speaking in Castillian, but with a foreign accent.

“And are you they who call themselves my sons?  Has your haughtiness reached such a degree that you not only pretend to be feared and worshiped by governors and governed, but neither recognize nor respect me, whose name you dishonor, and whose condignity you abuse?  How do I find you?  Insolent with the unfortunate and cowardly towards those who do not fear you!  Surge et audi!”

His voice was so imperative and his command so expressive, that Friar Rodriguez, although shaking with tremor, made every effort to stand against a corner of the room.

Moved by this proof of obedience, so rarely found amongst those who make a vow of humility, the stranger, full of contempt, repressed a sigh and proceeded in a more familiar manner, but without losing dignity.

“For you and for your nonsense I have been obliged to leave that region, and come here!  And what trouble I had to distinguish and find you amongst the others!  With but little difference, you are all alike.  ‘Empty heads and replete stomachs!’ Up There, they did not cease to tease me about you all and most especially on your account.  It was useless to appear unconcerned.  It was not only Lopez de Recalde (Ignatius of Loyole) who with his eternal smile and humble looks made fun of me; nor Domingo (Dominic) with his aristocratic pretensions and little stars of false jewelry on his forehead, who laughed at me; but even the great simpleton of Francisco (Francis), do you understand? tried to poke fun at me; at me, who has thought, argued and written more than all of them together!

“Your order is great and powerful,” said Ignatius, bending his head.  “It resembles one of the Egyptian pyramids; great at the base (you are the base), but the higher it goes the smaller it becomes—­what a difference between the base and the apex!” he murmured, while walking away.  “Doctor,” said Dominic, “why did you not do with your science as I did with the nobility I left as inheritance to my sons?  We would all be better off!”

“Mon ami, came and said Francis.  If God should order me again to earth, to preach as before amongst brutes and animals, I would preach in your convents.”  And after saying this he roared in such a manner that although small and thin, it seemed as though he would burst.

“In vain I answered them that their sons were no better than you are, and that were we to look for skeletons in the closets, we had better wall every crevice.  But of no use.  How could I argue against three, moreover, having you to defend!  Three, did I say?  Why!  Even Peter, the old fisherman, attracted by the laughter, left his porter’s lodge and came to upbraid me for the trick you have played on his priests, taking away from them all their parishes, regardless of the fact that they had been in these islands long before you, and that they were the first to baptise in Cebu and in Luzon.