him to interrupt, and continued in those exercises till the time of his
embarkment.

In the mean time, the war which was already kindled betwixt the Venetians
and the Turk, had broken the commerce of the Levant, and stopt the
passage to the Holy Land; insomuch, that the ship of the pilgrims of
Jerusalem went not out that year, according to the former custom.

This disappointment wonderfully afflicted Xavier; and the more, because
he not only lost the hope of seeing those places which had been
consecrated by the presence and the blood of Jesus Christ, but was
also bereft of an occasion of dying for his divine Master. Yet he
comforted himself in reflecting on the method of God's providence; and at
the same time, not to be wanting in his duty to his neighbour, he
disposed himself to receive the orders of priesthood, and did receive
them with those considerations of awful dread, and holy confusion, which
are not easy to be expressed.

The town appeared to him an improper place for his preparation, in order
to his first mass. He sought out a solitary place, where, being separated
from the communication of man, he might enjoy the privacies of God. He
found this convenience of a retirement near Monteselice, not far from
Padua: it was a miserable thatched cottage, forsaken of inhabitants, and
out of all manner of repair. Thus accommodated, he passed forty days,
exposed to the injuries of the air, lying on the cold hard ground,
rigidly disciplining his body, fasting all the day, and sustaining nature
only with a little pittance of bread, which he begged about the
neighbourhood; but tasting all the while the sweets of paradise, in
contemplating the eternal truths of faith. As his cabin did not unfitly
represent to him the stable of Bethlehem, so he proposed to himself