“On the mountain, your Reverence, but a few varas from where he attacked you.”

“How?—­you saw him then?” asked the Padre, in unfeigned astonishment.

“Saw him, your Reverence!  Mother of God, I should think I did!  And your Reverence shall see him too, if he ever comes again within range of Ignacio’s arquebuse.”

“What mean you, Ignacio?” said the Padre, sitting bolt-upright in his litter.

“Why, the bear, your Reverence,—­the bear, Holy Father, who attacked your worshipful person while you were meditating on the top of yonder mountain.”

“Ah!” said the Holy Father, lying down again.  “Chut, child!  I would be at peace.”

When he reached the Mission, he was tenderly cared for, and in a few weeks was enabled to resume those duties from which, as will be seen, not even the machinations of the Evil One could divert him.  The news of his physical disaster spread over the country; and a letter to the Bishop of Guadalaxara contained a confidential and detailed account of the good Father’s spiritual temptation.  But in some way the story leaked out; and long after Jose was gathered to his fathers, his mysterious encounter formed the theme of thrilling and whispered narrative.  The mountain was generally shunned.  It is true that Senor Joaquin Pedrillo afterward located a grant near the base of the mountain; but as Senora Pedrillo was known to be a termagant half-breed, the Senor was not supposed to be over-fastidious.

Such is the Legend of Monte del Diablo.  As I said before, it may seem to lack essential corroboration.  The discrepancy between the Father’s narrative and the actual climax has given rise to some scepticism on the part of ingenious quibblers.  All such I would simply refer to that part of the report of Senor Julio Serro, Sub-Prefect of San Pablo, before whom attest of the above was made.  Touching this matter, the worthy Prefect observes, “That although the body of Father Jose doth show evidence of grievous conflict in the flesh, yet that is no proof that the Enemy of Souls, who could assume the figure of a decorous elderly caballero, could not at the same time transform himself into a bear for his own vile purposes.”

THE ADVENTURE OF PADRE VINCENTIO

A legend of San Francisco.

One pleasant New Year’s Eve, about forty years ago, Padre Vicentio was slowly picking his way across the sand-hills from the Mission Dolores.  As he climbed the crest of the ridge beside Mission Creek, his broad, shining face might have been easily mistaken for the beneficent image of the rising moon, so bland was its smile and so indefinite its features.  For the Padre was a man of notable reputation and character; his ministration at the mission of San Jose had been marked with cordiality and unction; he was adored by the simple-minded savages, and had succeeded in impressing his individuality so strongly upon them that the very children were said to have miraculously resembled him in feature.