When Father Spencer was on his way to London to consult with Father Dominic about his reception, a musket went off by accident in the carriage he was in, and the ball passed through the skylight. This gave him rather a start, and made him think a little about the shortness of life. He appears to have found Father Dominic giving a retreat to the nuns of the Sacré Coeur, who are now at Roehampton. The saintly Passionist was delighted with the news, and Father Ignatius used to say that he seemed to be more delighted still at the fact that he was not bringing a penny to the order. On his return to Oscott, the first thing we heard {348} was that a Quaker had been converted by a sermon he preached in Birkenhead, which sermon he thought himself was about the worst he ever delivered. He meets a little opposition, however; they wish him to stay until his thoughts get settled into their original state after the retreat. He fears this to be a stratagem of the enemy, and, lest it might make him lose his vocation, he makes a vow of entering religion at or before Christmas. When this became known, nobody could in conscience oppose him, for only the Pope could dispense him from entering now. At length everything is settled. His £300 income remains to the Bishop and his brother promises to provide for his pensioners. All things being thus arranged, he visits all the poor people about Oscott and West Bromwich, to give them a parting advice and blessing, spiritual and temporal. He writes to all his friends, packs up his books and other smaller movables, receives two converts--Laing and Walker--gets Dr. Wiseman's blessing, and has his carriage to the train, takes third class to Stafford, and on his birthday, 21st December, 1846, at 8 o'clock in the evening, arrives at Aston Hall, to enter the Passionists' noviciate. {349} BOOK IV. _F. Ignatius, a Passionist._ {350} BOOK IV. _F. Ignatius, a Passionist._ CHAPTER I. The Noviciate. Religious orders in the Church may be compared to a vast army, composed of different regiments, with different uniforms, different tactics, and different posts in the kingdom of God, offensive and defensive, against the kingdom of Satan. The Pope is the head of all, and various generals bear rule, in his name, over the forces who have chosen them for their leaders. Some religious orders fill chairs in universities; others are charged with the instruction of youth. Some watch by the sickbed; others ransom captive slaves, or bring consolation to the miserable in prisons and asylums. Some, again, work at the rooting out of sin and disorders at home, whilst others carry the light of the Gospel to the heathen. Some pitch their tents in deserts or mountain fastnesses, whilst a more numerous body take up their abode in the abandoned purlieus of crowded cities.