. After the walls were destroyed, Ignatius stood fighting
bravely until a cannon ball of the enemy broke one of his legs and
seriously injured the other.

When he fell, the citadel was surrendered. When the French took
possession of the town, they showed great admiration for Ignatius.
After twelve or fifteen days at Pampeluna, where he received the best
care from the physicians of the French army, he was borne on a litter
to Loyola. His recovery was very slow, and doctors and surgeons were
summoned from all parts for a consultation. They decided that the leg
should be broken again, that the bones, which had knit badly, might be
properly reset; for they had not been properly set in the beginning,
or else had been so jostled on the journey that a cure was impossible.
He submitted to have his flesh cut again. During the operation, as in
all he suffered before and after, he uttered no word and gave no sign
of suffering save that of tightly clenching his fists.

In the meantime his strength was failing. He could take no food, and
showed other symptoms of approaching death. On the feast of St. John
the doctors gave up hope of his recovery, and he was advised to make
his confession. Having received the sacraments on the eve of the
feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul, toward evening the doctors said that if
by the middle of the night there were no change for the better, he
would surely die. He had great devotion to St. Peter, and it so
happened by the goodness of God that in the middle of the night he
began to grow better.

His recovery was so rapid that in a few days he was out of danger. As
the bones of his leg settled and pressed upon each other, one bone
protruded below the knee. The result was that one leg was shorter than
the other, and the bone causing a lump there, made the leg seem quite
deformed. As he could not bear this, since he intended to live a life
at court, he asked the doctors whether the bone could be cut away.
They replied that it could, but it would cause him more suffering than
all that had preceded, as everything was healed, and they would need
space in order to cut it. He determined, however, to undergo this
torture.

His elder brother looked on with astonishment and admiration. He said
he could never have had the fortitude to suffer the pain which the
sick man bore with his usual patience. When the flesh and the bone
that protruded were cut away, means were taken to prevent the leg from
becoming shorter