Chapter IX.
“
About
the same
time, a cow which a demon harassed met Martin as he was returning from
Treves. That cow, leaving its proper herd, was accustomed to attack
human beings, and had already seriously gored many with its horns. Now,
when she was coming near us, those who followed her from a distance
began to warn us, with a loud voice, to beware of her. But after she
had in great fury come pretty near to us, with rage in her eyes,
Martin, lifting up his hand, ordered the animal to halt, and she
immediately stood stock-still at his word. Upon this, Martin perceived
a demon sitting upon her back, and reproving it, he exclaimed,
‘Begone,
thou deadly
being; leave the innocent beast, and cease any longer to torment
it.’ The evil spirit obeyed and departed. And the heifer had
sense enough to understand that she was set free; for, peace being
restored to her, she fell at the feet of the holy man; and on Martin
directing her, she made for her own herd, and, quieter than any sheep,
she joined the rest of the band. This also was the time at which he had
no sensation of being burnt, although placed in the midst of the
flames; but I do not think it necessary for me to give an account of
this, because Sulpitius there, though passing over it in his book, has
nevertheless pretty fully narrated it in the epistle which he sent to
Eusebius, who was then a presbyter, and is now a bishop. I believe,
Postumianus, you have either read this letter, or, if it is still
unknown to you, you may easily obtain it, when you please, from the
bookcase. I shall simply narrate particulars which he has omitted.
“Well, on a certain occasion, when he was going
round the various parishes, we came upon a band of huntsmen. The dogs
were pursuing a hare, and the little animal was already much exhausted
by the long run it had had. When it perceived no means of escape in the
plains spreading far on every side, and was several times just on the
point of being captured, it tried to delay the threatened death by
frequent doublings. Now the blessed man pitied the danger of the
creature with pious feelings, and commanded the dogs to give up
following it, and to permit it to get safe away. Instantly, at the
first command they heard, they stood quite still: one might have
thought them bound, or rather arrested, so as to stand immovable in
their own footprints. In this way, through her pursuers being stopped
as if tied together, the hare got safe away.