The Holy Mountain of La Salette.pdf - the Catholic Kingdom!

28 THE HOLY MOUNTAIN OF
commission of enquiry, ss he knew of him
during the short time he was in his employment,
to be "an innocent, without malice,
without foresight. Before he started with
the cows to the mountain, we gave him hia
breakfast, and supplied his blouse or his sack
with provisions for the day. And, to be sure,
it has happened that we have .come upon
him on the way, and ,found he had already
eaten his provisions and given s large share
of them to the dog; and when we said to him,
' But what will you eat the rest of the day 7'
Maximin has answered, 'But I am not hungry.'
" When asked, some time after the
event of his life, " Maximin, I am told, that
before the Apparition of La Salette., you were
somewhat of a story-teller?" He smiled, and
honestly said, " They have told you true. I ,
told lies, and I swore when I flung stones
after my strayed cows." Such was Maximin
Giraud.
FRANCES MELANIE MATHIEU was also horn
at Corps on the 7th of November, 1831. Her
parents were of the very poorest, and at an
early age she had to earn her bread by guarding
cattle. She rarely entered a church. for
her employers kept her at work on Sundaye
and feetivals, as well as on week days. She
had scarcely any knowledge of religion, and
her ungrateful memory could not retain two
lines of her catechism. For the nine months
before the Apparition she had been in the
employment of Baptist Pra, another small
farmer of the Ablandins. When this worthy
.man was interrogated as to her character, he
,