Page 74 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

54 A srART IS MADE
of anything more inexplicable, the deduction carried
weight.
Subsequent mysterious events proved even more in-
triguing. During the night of July 31, 1841, these
"strangers" packed up and stole away, stole away to
the next street, St. George's, where they took possession
of the property known as "Het Walletje." It consisted
o[ "The Castle," several smaller buildingp, and three
and one-half acres of land well stocked with fruit trees.
Brother Ignatius tells us how Mr. Ryken acquired
the property. "There was no money to buy the place.
The Founder applied to a banker in Bruges, by name
Dujardin, who naturally hesitated to advance the money.
"He argued that we were so poor and of no standing.
The Founder met this objection by saying 'If God de-
sires a thing, He will make it up,' and'When Our Lord
established His Church, He chose twelve poor persons
rc propagate it.'
"This reasoning took the banker's fancy."
Felix Dujardin, sole owner of the only private bank
in Bruges, advanced the thirty-four thousand francs
required for the purchase of the property: thirty thou-
sand to the seller and four thousand for legal fees and
sales tax.
Theodore Ryken, who had nothing, signed an agree-
ment to repay the loan in ten years at four per cent.
For the flight-by-night from Ezelstraat there is this
colorful description: "They had very little furniture,
and what they had was so pathetic that the poor men
were ashamed to move it in the daytime. They waited
for the fall of night when all cats are black.
"A neighbor lent them his sorry looking horse and
his twowheel cart.
"At eleven o'clock, 'Giddy upt' and the procession
started. They had gone but five steps when the heaped