Another event that gave him joy, and afterwards a good deal of sorrow, was the conversion of a well-known, clergyman. This remarkable convert lived some time in Oscott after his conversion. Father Spencer took him with him sometimes on his parish duties, and had great hopes of him. These were all disappointed when, in a couple of years, he went back again after being ordained priest and having said mass. Father Ignatius often spoke of him, often visited him, and asked others to pray for him. He used to tell us one curious anecdote about him. Shortly after his apostasy, {277} he was invited to a tea-party where Evangelical ladies assembled to congratulate themselves, and sip their tea with new relish by having it sugared with some telling remarks of the lately-rescued slave from Popery. He was put several questions, such as "What do you think of Transubstantiation?" He answered, "Oh, that's as plain as possible in the Bible," and so forth. They were, of course, egregiously disappointed. Father Ignatius used to lament with peculiar anguish over this sad case. He always hoped for his return to the Catholic faith, and, strange enough, one of the first pieces of news in the way of conversion which we heard after Father Ignatius's death, was his return to the faith he had deserted. In the middle of the year 1842, he visits Ireland for the first time; he preaches in several places, in Dublin; especially for the Jesuits, in Gardiner Street; the Franciscans, Merchant's Quay. All, of course, about the conversion of England. He says: "My argument was, that the Irish having been specially victims of oppression under England, if I could gain the Irish to pray for England, prayers springing from such charity would be irresistible." He made a kind of a tour through Ireland, and got as far as Tuam. He feared the Archbishop of Tuam, knowing his opposition to England, and his detestation of English rule. For that very reason Father Spencer was the more anxious to convert him, or make him return good for evil. What was his surprise when he found the Archbishop not only kind and Irish in his hospitality, but really favourable to his projects. His grace got Father Spencer to preach, and promised him that he would give the substance of the same sermon to his people in their own sweet ancient tongue on the next Sunday. He was so enchanted at this, that he wrote off almost to every friend he had in the world about it. Though he often felt afterwards the powerful blows Dr. McHale delivered at England's doings, he never could forget his kind reception of himself, and always mentioned his grace's name with gratitude and reverence, only wishing that he would not be so hard on England.