"He preached morning and evening, heard confessions daily, pledged 200 young teetotallers, and received about £14 in voluntary offerings, for which he seemed most grateful. This mission, he said, was his 242nd of the kind; and the number of his teetotallers, since he himself took the pledge from Father Mathew in 1842, was 60,000.
"Every moment of his time here (refection hours alone excepted), from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., was employed either in the mission exercises, or at his office, or in prayer, or in writing letters to arrange his future movements. He never rested. He seemed to have vowed all his time to some duty or other.
"Wood Cottage (late the Free Church Manse, but now the priest's house in Cartsdyke) rests on an eminence overlooking the town, harbour, and bay of Greenock, and is at a distance of from five to ten minutes' walk from St. Laurence's chapel. I noticed that the zigzag uphill walk fatigued him, and I offered to provide a conveyance; but he would not permit me, 'as he could not read his office so well in the carriage as when walking.'
"As he passed twice or thrice daily to and from my house and the chapel, his massive form and mild mien, his habit half concealed by his cloak, his broad-brimmed hat, and his breviary in hand, attracted the attention of the old and the curiosity of the young. One day, some of the latter followed him and eyed him closely, through the lattice-work in front of the cottage, until he had finished his office in the garden. He then turned towards the youngsters, and riveted his looks on them with intense interest and thoughtfulness. You might have imagined that they never had seen his like before, and that he had seen children for the first time in his long life. At length one of the lads broke the spell by observing to the others in a subdued and doubting tone, 'A big Hie-lander!' 'A Highlander,' said Father Ignatius, turning to me; 'they take my habit for an elongated kilt.'
"At dinner he was always very happy and communicative, that day in particular.
"'My religious habit,' said he, 'subjected me to many humorous remarks before the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and to annoyances after it. One time a boy would cry out at me, "There's the Great Mogul;" another, "There goes Robinson Crusoe." "That's Napoleon," a third would shout; whilst a fourth, in a strange, clear, wild, musical tone, would sing out: "No, that's the devil himself." But, he continued, 'nothing half so sharp was ever said of me as of a very tall, lath-like Oratorian, who stood leaning, one day, against a wall, musing on something or nothing. Some London wags watched him attentively for some time, and, being divided in their opinions about him, one of them at length ended the dispute by observing, in a dry and droll way, "Why, that fellow must have grown by contract!"'
"Even after his frugal refection, Father Ignatius would never rest. Then, too, he must either read his breviary, or say his rosary, or write letters. On the day he finished his mission (Sunday, September 18), I besought him, as he had allowed himself little or no sleep since he began it, before proceeding to Port-Glasgow, to commence a new mission there that same evening, to recline on the sofa, even for half an hour. 'Oh no!' said he; 'I shall try to have my nap in the carriage, on my way.' The distance from Cartsdyke to Port Glasgow being no more than two or three miles, and there being a toll-bar about midway, he could have very little of his nap.
"During his mission here, he remarked repeatedly, both publicly and in private, that his health was never better, and his mind never clearer. He promised himself yet twenty years to work for the conversion of England, the sanctification of Ireland, and the unity of all in the faith. Might he not live to see this realized? Twenty years might do it, and were not his physical and mental powers fresh enough?
"But, with all this hope of heart and soul, I could, now and then, notice a shade of apprehension passing over his countenance, and hear, not without tears, his humble, but earnest self-reproaches at his inability to 'brighten up.' The manner in which he did this showed me plainly that he had a strong presentiment of his approaching end.
"My cottage being at some distance from my chapel, the bishop had allowed me to fit up in my house a little oratory, where I might keep the Blessed Sacrament, and say mass occasionally. By the time that Father Ignatius had concluded his mission, I had completed my oratory, and asked him to bless it. 'Under what title?' he asked. 'Under that of "Our Lady of the Seven Dolors," this (Sunday, September 18) being that festival of hers,' I replied. Father Ignatius became silent and absorbed for a considerable time and then said:—