He retired to a cell and there spent his time working very hard as a smith, and—so the report went—in devotion.
ST. DUNSTAN AND THE DEVIL.
Then the people said: “How humble and penitent Dunstan is! He has the back-ache all day, and the leg-ache all night, and he suffers all for the cause of purity and truth.”
Then Dunstan told the people that the Devil came to tempt him, which, with his aches for the good cause, made his situation very trying.
The Devil, he said, wanted him to lead a life of selfish gratification, but he would not be tempted to do a thing like that; he never thought of himself,—oh, no, good soul, not he.
The people said that Dunstan must have become a very holy man, or the Devil would not appear to him bodily.
One day a great noise was heard issuing from the retreat of this man, and filling all the air for miles, the like of which was never known before. The people were much astonished. Some of them went to Dunstan to inquire the cause. He told them a story of a miracle more marvellous than any that he had previously done.
The Devil came to him, he said, as he was at work at his forge, and tempted him to lead a life of pleasure. He quickly drew his pincers from the fire, and seized his tormentor by the nose, which put him in such pain that he bellowed so lustily as to shake the hills. The people said that it was the bellowing of the Evil One that they had heard.