The French were invading Navarre; and he was engaged in the defense of its capital, Pampeluna.

On May 20, 1521, a bullet shattered his right leg, while his left foot was injured by a fragment of stone detached from a breach in the bastion.

Transported to his father's castle, he suffered protracted anguish under the hands of unskilled medical attendants.

The badly set bone in his right leg had twice to be broken; and when at last it joined, the young knight found himself a cripple.

This limb was shorter than the other; the surgeons endeavored to elongate it by machines of iron, which put him to exquisite pain.
After months of torture, he remained lame for life.
During his illness Ignatius read such books as the castle of Loyola contained.