HOW BROTHER HECKER MADE HIS STUDIES AND WAS ORDAINED PRIEST THE day after the taking of the vows, Brothers Hecker and Walworth started by stage-coach for the house of studies, at Wittem in Dutch Limburg.

The route lay nearly east through a country pleasant on account of the fertility of its soil and the industry of its inhabitants, and interesting from its churches, monasteries, and curious old villages.

The travellers crossed the Meuse at Maestricht and reached their destination before nightfall.

Wittem is a small town, thirty miles east of St.Trond and about ten west of Aix-la-chapelle.

This part of Holland is entirely Catholic, and its people possess a fervor which has sent missionaries to the ends of the earth.