here many years; this was Juan Guerin, who lived on this mountain alone, the austerity of whose life was such, that the people below believed he subsisted without eating or drinking.  As some very extraordinary circumstances attended this man’s life, all which are universally believed here, it may not be amiss to give you some account of him:—­You must know, Sir, then, that the devil envying the happiness of this good man equipped himself in the habit of a hermit, and possessed himself of a cavern in the same mountain, which still bears the name of the Devil’s Grot; after which he took occasion to throw himself in the way of poor Guerin, to whom he expressed his surprize at seeing one of his own order dwell in a place he thought an absolute desert; but thanked God, for giving him so fortunate a meeting.  Here the devil, and Guerin became very intimate, and conversed much together on spiritual matters; and things went on well enough between them for a while, when another devil chum to the first, possessed the body of a certain Princess, daughter of a Count of Barcelona, who became thereby violently tormented with horrible convulsions.  She was taken to the church by her afflicted father.  The daemon who possessed her, and who, spoke for her, said, that nothing could relieve her from her sufferings but the prayers of a devout and pious hermit, named Guerin, who dwelt on Montserrat.  The father, therefore, immediately repaired to Guerin, and besought his prayers and intercession for the recovery of his daughter.  It so happened (for so the devil would have it) that this business could not be perfectly effected in less than nine days; and that the Princess must be left that time alone with Guerin in his cave.  Poor Guerin, conscious of his frail nature, opposed this measure with all his might; but there was no resisting the argument and influence of the devil, and she was accordingly left.  Youth, beauty, a cave, solitude, and virgin modesty, were too powerful not to overcome even the chaste vows and pious intentions of poor Guerin.  The devil left the virgin, and possessed the saint.  He consulted his false friend, and told him how powerful this impure passion was become, and his intentions of flying from the danger; but the devil advised him to return to his cell, and pray to God to protect him from sin. Guerin took his council, returned and fell into the fatal snare.  The devil then persuaded him to kill the Princess, in order to conceal his guilt, and to tell her father she had forsaken his abode while he was intent on prayer. Guerin did so; but became very miserable, and at length determined to make a pilgrimage to Rome, to obtain a remission of his complicated crimes.  The Pope enjoined him to return to Montserrat, on all fours, and to continue in that state, without once looking up to heaven, for the space of seven years, or ’till a child of three months old told him, his sins were forgiven:  all which Guerin chearfully complied with, and accordingly crawled back to the defiled mountain.