sufferings intense?" he asked of his friend. "Alas!" replied the latter, "if the whole earth with its forests and mountains were on fire, it would not form a furnace such as the one into which I am plunged." Seized with fear, his faith revived, and thinking only of his own soul, he asked, "In what state am I in the eyes of God?" " In a bad state," replied the deceased, "and in a dangerous profession." " What have I to do? What advice do you give me?" "Quit the perverse world in which you are engaged, and occupy yourself only with the affairs of your soul." The lawyer, following this counsel, gave all his goods to the poor and took the habit of St. Dominic.
Let us see how a holy Religious of the Society of Jesus showed his gratitude, even after death, to the physician who had attended him during his last illness. Francis Lacci, a Brother Coadjutor, died in the College of Naples in 1598. He was a man of God, full of charity, patience, and tender devotion towards the Blessed Virgin. Some time after his death, Dr. Verdiano entered the church of the College to assist at Mass before beginning his visits. It was the day on which were celebrated the obsequies of King Philip II., who had died four months previous. When, on leaving the church, he was about to take holy water, a Religious approached and asked him why the catafalque had been prepared, and whose was the service about to be celebrated. "It is that of King Philip II.," he replied.
At the same time Verdiano, astonished that a Religious should ask such a question of a stranger, and not distinguishing the features of his interlocutor in the obscurity of the place where he stood, asked who he was. "I am," he answered, " Brother Lacci, whom you attended during my last illness." The doctor looked at him attentively, and recognised perfectly the features of Lacci. Stupefied with astonishment, he said, "But you died of that disease! Are you then suffering in Purgatory, and do you come to
