Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/481

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THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE.
475

judging it to be a dream or an imagination of the Indian, he sent him away, telling him to return in a few days, after he had had more time to consider it.

"Juan Diego, sad and disheartened, returned on the same day as the sun was setting. When he reached the hill, he found the Virgin again awaiting him.

"She repeated her commands, and the Indian promised to return on the following day.

"He kept his promise, and the Bishop told him to go back to the Virgin and ask for some sign, and sent with him a servant.

"When they reached the hill, the Virgin was there awaiting him. She still repeated her commands, and he then went home, finding one of his uncles dangerously ill. They sent him to the city for a priest to deliver extreme unction. He thought to avoid the Virgin by passing at the foot of the hill, and what was his surprise to find her descending the hill to meet him.

"At this, the fourth apparition, she gave him the desired sign, telling him to go to the rugged rocks, where nothing had ever been known to grow, and there he would find fresh, sweet, Spanish roses, covered with dew.

"The Indian did as he was bid, and found the roses as she had promised. He filled his blanket with them and took them to the Bishop.

"There in the presence of his worship and numerous attendants, he threw the roses on the floor, and as the blanket unfolded, they beheld with astonishment the image of the Virgin imprinted upon it.

"They then became convinced that the apparitions were genuine, and set about to erect the church on the Cerro del Tepazac, where the vision had appeared."

The tilma, or blanket, which received the marvelous imprint of the Virgin, is still preserved sacredly in the Cathedral of Guadalupe, and visitors, by paying a small fee to the sacristan, may see it.