any regulations, programme of study, discipline that I wished—even free to adopt or not the 'closure' (excluding ladies). I then asked what was the debt, interest, income, &c. I was told not to trouble myself about them; the interest was undertaken by one of the definitors, who also promised to supply any deficit in my income. I ascertained afterwards that neither he nor the others had any idea of the financial condition of the institution. I warned him that the definitor in question was known to be religiously anxious for my ruin and humiliation (for my spiritual good), and that he and his council could not, in any case, shift their responsibility in that fashion. He smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and departed; and I never saw him again.
Under such auspicious circumstances I opened the College of St. Bernardine in October 1895: if betting had been prevalent in our province—we did bet prayers sometimes—it would have been ten to one against my success. During the five months I remained, I received no help from the friar they had spoken of: at the end of that time he stood in my debt. I had not expected it, for I knew that he had another candidate waiting for the rectorship, and that he had openly expressed his intention of letting me come to grief in the position. However, other superiors very kindly and generously came to my assistance—very often simply out of opposition to him—and the initial difficulties were satisfactorily
