The Adventurer of the Blessed Virgin (I)

The Spaniards besieged Fontarabia, which was occupied by the French. The besiegers, in their idleness, fell into plundering and misconduct. Then one day, a soldier named John Ciudad managed to talk his captain out of abusing a young a girl. This act of courage caused John many future problems. The captain was furious and sought revenge, ordering John to do the most perilous and humiliating drudgeries. One day, John was sent on a recognition mission riding a captured horse, without a saddle or a bridle. He was ordered to ride over to the French border when, suddenly, hearing the signal of a trumpet, his horse undertook a furious gallop, bucked and threw his rider against a rock. John was so wounded that he could not lift himself up and suffered from an inexpressible type of torture. He thought he was a goner, doomed to fall into the hands of the French who would give him no grace. (...) In his distress, he prayed the One to whom, since his childhood, he had always asked for help and consolation, the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Only you can save me, Queen of Heaven, do not abandon me into the hands of the enemy," he said and then he fainted. When he came to, he saw a young French girl standing next to him, who spoke to him with compassion. She was dressed like a shepherdess, with a stick in her hand. She leaned towards him and held a ladle out to him. John drank greedily. ( ... ) The foreigner stretched her hand out to him and he took it hesitatingly. He got up, stumbling, but somehow managed to stand on his own two feet. The young girl held him up, and he took a few steps, staggering like a drunkard. All of a sudden, he felt a marvellous force that triumphed over his weakness. The shepherdess led him down the lane, and then left him alone. John was convinced that this foreigner was none other than the Virgin Mary or an angel sent by her. (…)