Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/402

378 378 RISE OF XIMENES. PART saint, instead of that of Gonzalo, by which he had ! been baptized. His ascetic No soonei* had this taken place, than his reputa- tion for sanctity, which his late course of life had diffused far and wide, attracted multitudes of all ages and conditions to his confessional ; and he soon found himself absorbed in the same vortex of w^orldly passions and interests, from which he had been so anxious to escape. At his solicitation, therefore, he was permitted to transfer his abode to the convent of our Lady of Castanar, so called from a deep forest of chestnuts, in which it was embosomed. In the midst of these dark mountain solitudes, he built wath his ow^n hands a little her- mitage or cabin, of dimensions barely sufficient to admit his entrance. Here he passed his days and nights in prayer, and in meditations on the sacred volume, sustaining life, like the ancient anchorites, on the green herbs and running waters. In this state of self-mortification, with a frame wasted by abstinence, and a mind exalted by spiritual con- templation, it is no wonder that he should have indulged in ecstasies and visions, until he fancied himself raised into communication with celestial intelligences. It is more wonderful that his under- standing was not permanently impaired by these distempered fancies. This period of his life, how- ever, seems to have been always regarded by him Avith peculiar satisfaction ; for long after, as his biographer assures us, when reposing in lordly palaces, and surrounded by all the appliances of luxury, he looked back with fond regret on the