He notes in his Journal that the place in Hampstead brought some sad thoughts into his mind, as it was within sight of where his sister, Lady Georgiana Quin, died in 1823. He tells us also that he was benighted somewhere in London, and had to beg for a bed for the first time in his life. On a fine summer's day he sauntered leisurely through the grounds of Eton, ruminating over the scenes of forty years before, when he first became a child of what proved to him a novercal institution. He was not destined to labour much, this time, for the London house. Father Dominic took the charge of it, and appointed Father Ignatius Rector of St. Michael's, Aston Hall, a post that became vacant by the death of Father Constantine. Father Ignatius thus mentions the matter in one of his letters:-- "It was just such a death as one might expect of him (Father Constantine). I was thinking and saying to some one before, he would be attending to his duties and giving directions in the house to the last. In his {364} agony, he heard the clock strike, and, mistaking the hour for another when some bell has to ring, he asked why the bell did not ring for such a duty. It is recorded that what was most remarkable in him was his gentleness and patience; and that indeed was very striking. He must have suffered heavily to die in a lingering way by a cancer, but he never was disturbed, and went on saying mass, and doing all that was to be done, as long as he could stand to it. His loss makes, as you have heard, a great change in my position. I never dreamt of being a Superior for years to come, and thought I had come to an end, almost for life, of keeping accounts and ruling household affairs. But God's will be done. It is a great comfort, as I find, to be in the rule of good religious, to what it would be to have people under one who seek their own gain and pleasure." Ruling, even thus, did not turn out so easy a matter; for it is recorded in the Journal, that Father Dominic gave him "a long lecture about the proper way of ruling," which he seems to have drawn down upon himself by some mistakes. In the beginning of September, this year, he gave his first retreat. It was to the students of Carlow College. This event gave him a fresh start in his great work. Since 1844, when he made the tour on the Continent, procuring prayers for England, his zeal in the cause seems to have slumbered somewhat. Not that he was the less anxious for the return of his countrymen to the faith of their fathers, but he did not, perhaps, see any opportunity open for moving others in a general way to help the work by their prayers. It is rather a wonderful disposition of Providence that his energies should be renewed in Ireland, and that, too, in '48. Extracts from a few letters will show how it happened. In a letter to Mrs. Canning, he says:--