diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15808.txt | 4293 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15808.zip | bin | 0 -> 78412 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 4309 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15808.txt b/15808.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4eb3e30 --- /dev/null +++ b/15808.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4293 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary, by +Robert Hugh Benson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary + + +Author: Robert Hugh Benson + +Release Date: May 10, 2005 [eBook #15808] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF RICHARD RAYNAL, +SOLITARY*** + + +E-text prepared by Geoffrey Horton, Tapio Riikonen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE HISTORY OF RICHARD RAYNAL SOLITARY + +by + +ROBERT HUGH BENSON + +PATRI.REVERENDISSIMO +*. *****. ******. *.*.*. +ET +CVIDAM.NESCIENTI +HVNC.LIBRVM +D. + + + + + + + +CONTENTS: + + Introduction + + How Sir John visited Master Hermit: and found him in contemplation + + Of the Word from God that came to Master Hermit: and of his setting + out + + How Master Richard fared: how he heard Mass in Saint Pancras' Church: + how he came to Westminster: and of his colloquy with the Ankret + + How Master Richard saw the King in Westminster Hall: and of the Mass + at Saint Edward's Altar + + How Master Richard cried out in Westminster Hall: and of his coming + to a Privy Parlour + + Of Master Richard's speaking with the King's Grace: and how he was + taken for it + + Of Master Richard's second speaking with his Grace: and of his + detention + + Of the Parson's Disquisition on the whole matter + + How Master Richard took his meat: and of Master Lieutenant's whipping + of him + + Of the Second Temptation of Master Richard: and how he overcame it + + Of the Dark Night of the Soul + + How Sir John went again to the cell: and of what he saw there + + How one came to Master Priest: how Master Priest came to the King's + Bedchamber: and of what he heard of the name of Jesus + + Of Sir John's Meditations in Westminster Palace + + How Master Richard went to God + + Of his Burying + + + + +Introduction + + +In the winter of 1903-4 I had occasion to pass several months in +Rome. + +Among other Religious Houses, lately bought back from the Government by +their proper owners, was one (whose Order, for selfish reasons, I prefer +not to specify), situated in the maze of narrow streets between the +Piazza Navona and the Piazza Colonna; this, however, may be said of +the Order, that it is one which, although little known in Italy, had +several houses in England up to the reign of Henry VIII. Like so many +other Orders at that time, its members moved first to France and then to +Italy, where it has survived in penurious dignity ever since. + +The Religious were able to take with them at the time of exodus, three +and a half centuries ago, a part of the small library that existed at +the English mother-house, and some few of these MSS. have survived to +the present day; many others, however, have certainly perished; for in +the list of books that I was looking over there one day in March, 1904, +I observed several titles, of which, the priest-librarian told me, the +corresponding volumes have disappeared. To some half-dozen of these +titles, however, there was appended a star, and on enquiring the meaning +of this symbol, I was informed that it denoted that a translation had +been made into French and preserved in the library. + +One of these titles especially attracted my attention. It ran as +follows: VITA ET OBITUS DNI RICARDI RAYNAL HEREMITAE. + +Upon my asking to see this and its companions, I was conducted to a +dusty shelf in the little upstairs book-room, and was informed that I +might do as I pleased there for two hours, until the _Ave Maria_ rang, +and the doors would be locked. + +When the librarian had gone with many nods and smiles, I took down +these half dozen books and carried them to the table by the window, and +until _Ave Maria_ rang I turned their pages. + +The volume whose title had especially attracted my attention was a +quarto MS., written, I should suppose from the caligraphy, about the end +of the sixteenth century; a later hand had appended a summary to each +chapter with an appropriate quotation from a psalm. But the book was in +a shocking condition, without binding, and contained no more than a +fragment. The last page was numbered "341," and the first page+ "129." +One hundred and twenty-eight pages, therefore, were certainly lost at +the beginning, and I know not how many at the end; but what was left was +sufficiently engrossing to hold me standing by the window, until the +wrinkled face of the priest looked in again to inform me that unless I +wished to sleep in the library, I must be gone at once. + +On the following morning by nine o'clock I was there again; and, after +an interview with the Superior, went up again with the keys in my own +possession, a quantity of foolscap and a fountain-pen in my hand, and +sandwiches in my pocket, to the dusty little room beneath the roof. + +I repeated this series of actions, with the exception of the interview, +every day for a fortnight, and when I returned to England in April I +took with me a complete re-translation into English of the "_Vita et +obitus Dni Ricardi Raynal Heremitae_," and it is this re-translation +that is now given to the public, with the correction of many words and +the addition of notes, carried out during the last eighteen months. + + * * * * * + +It is necessary to give some account of the book itself, but I will not +trouble my readers with an exhaustive survey of the reasons that have +led me to my opinions on the subject: it is enough to say that most of +them are to be found in the text. + +It is the story of the life of one of that large body of English +hermits who flourished from about the beginning of the fourteenth +century to the middle of the sixteenth; and was written, apparently for +the sake of the villagers, by his parish-priest, Sir John Chaldfield, +who seems to have been an amiable, devout, and wordy man, who long +outlived his spiritual son. Of all the early part of Master Richard +Raynal's life we are entirely ignorant, except of the facts that his +parents died in his youth, and that he himself was educated at +Cambridge. No doubt his early history was recorded in the one hundred +and twenty-nine pages that are missing at the beginning. It is annoying +also that the last pages are gone, for thereby we have lost what would +probably have been a very full and exhaustive list of the funeral +furniture of the sixteenth century, as well as an account of the +procession into the country and the ceremonies observed at the burial. +We might have heard, too, with some exactness (for Sir John resembles a +journalist in his love of detail) about the way in which his friend's +fame began to spread, and the pilgrims to journey to his shrine. It +would have been of interest to trace the first stages in the +unauthorised cult of one as yet uncanonised. What is left of the book is +the record of only the last week in Master Richard's life and of his +death under peculiar circumstances at Westminster in the bed-chamber +of the King. + +It is impossible to know for certain who was this king, but I am +inclined to believe that it was Henry VI., the founder of Eton College +and King's College, Cambridge, whose life ended in such tragedy towards +the close of the fifteenth century. His Queen is not mentioned from +beginning to end, and for this and other reasons I am inclined to +particularise still more, and conjecture that the period of which the +book treats must be prior to the year 1445 A.D., when the King married +at the age of twenty-three. + +Supposing that these conjectures are right, the cardinal spoken of in +the book would be Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and cousin +of the King. + +All this, however, must be doubtful, since the translator of the +original English or Latin appears to have omitted with scrupulous care +the names of all personages occurring in the narrative, with one or two +unimportant exceptions. We do not even know in what part of the country +Sir John Chaldfield held his living, but it appears to have been within +thirty or forty miles of London. We must excuse the foreign scribe, +however; probably the English names were unintelligible and barbarous to +his perceptions; and appeared unimportant, too, compared to the interest +of the mystical and spiritual experiences recorded in the book. + +Of these experiences it is difficult to write judiciously in this +practical age. + +Master Richard Raynal appears to have been a very curious young man, of +great personal beauty, extreme simplicity, and a certain magnetic +attractiveness. He believed himself, further, to be in direct and +constant communication with supernatural things, and would be set down +now as a religious fanatic, deeply tinged with superstition. His parson, +too, in these days, would be thought little better, but at the time in +which they lived both would probably be regarded with considerable +veneration. We hear, in fact, that a chapel was finally erected over +Master Raynal's body, and that pilgrimages were made there; and +probably, if the rest of the work had been preserved to us, we should +have found a record of miracles wrought at his shrine. All traces, +however, of that shrine have now disappeared--most likely under the +stern action of Henry VIII.--and Richard's name is unknown to +hagiology, in spite of his parson's confidence as regarded his future +beatification. + +It is, however, interesting to notice that in Master Raynal's +religion, as in Richard Rolle's, hermit of Hampole, there appears to +have been some of that inchoate Quietism which was apt to tinge the +faith of a few of the English solitaries. He was accustomed to attend +mass devoutly and to receive the sacraments, and on his death-bed was +speeded into the next world, at his own desire, by all the observances +prescribed by the Catholic Church. His attitude, too, towards the +priesthood, is somewhat uncharacteristic of his fellows, who were apt +to boast with apparent complacency that they were neither "monk, friar, +nor clerk." In other matters he is a good type of that strange race of +solitaries who swarmed in England at that time, who were under no vows, +but served God as it pleased them, not hesitating to go among their +fellows from time to time if they thought themselves called to it, who +were looked upon with veneration or contempt, according to the opinion +formed of them by their observers, but who, at any rate, lived a simple +and wholesome life, and were to some extent witnesses to the existence +of a supernatural Power at whose bidding (so they believed) they were +summoned to celibacy, seclusion, labour, and prayer. + +It is curious also to trace through Sir John's fanciful eyes the +parallels between the sufferings of Master Richard and those of +Christ. Of course, no irreverence is intended. I should imagine that, +if Sir John were put on his defence, he would say that the life of +every true Christian must approximate to the life of Christ so far as +his spirit is identified with the Divine Spirit, and that this is +occasionally fulfilled even in minute details. + +It is unnecessary to add much more in this introduction--(for the story +will tell its own tale)--beyond saying that the re-translation of the +French fragment into English has been to me a source of considerable +pleasure. I have done my best to render it into the English of its +proper period, including even its alliterations, while avoiding needless +archaisms and above all arbitrary spelling. But no doubt I am guilty of +many solecisms. I have attempted also to elucidate the text by a number +of footnotes, in which I have explained whatever seemed to call for it, +and have appended translations to the numerous Latin quotations in which +Sir John indulges after the manner of his time. I must apologise for +these footnotes--(such are always tiresome)--but I could think of no +other way by which the text could be made clear. They can always be +omitted without much loss by the reader who has no taste for them. + +Sir John's style is a little difficult sometimes, especially when he +treats in detail of his friend's mystical experience, but he has a +certain power of word-painting (unusual at his date) in matters both of +nature and of grace, and it is only when he has been unduly trite or +obscure that I have ventured, with a good deal of regret, to omit his +observations. All such omissions, however, as well as peculiar +difficulties of statement or allusion, have been dealt with in +foot-notes. + +With regard to the function of the book, at any rate since its first +translation into French, it is probably safe to conjecture that it may +have been used at one time for reading aloud in the refectory. I am led +to make this guess from observing its division into chapters, and the +quasi-texts appended to each. These texts are of all sorts, though all +are taken from the Book of Psalms; but their application to the matter +that follows is sometimes fanciful, frequently mystical, and +occasionally trite. + +If the book receives any sympathy from English readers--(an eventuality +about which I have my doubts)--I shall hope, at some future date, to +edit others of the MSS. still reposing in the little room under the roof +between the _Piazza Navona_ and the _Piazza Colonna_ in Rome, to which I +have been generously promised free access. + +I must express my gratitude to the Superior of the Order of ---- (to +whose genius, coupled with that of another, I dedicate this book), for +giving me permission to edit his MS.; to Dom Robert Maple, O.S.B., for +much useful information and help in regard to the English mystics; and +to Mme. Germain who has verified references, interpreted difficulties, +and assisted me by her encouragement. + +ROBERT BENSON. + +Cambridge, +Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, 1905. + + + + +How Sir John visited Master Hermit: and found him in contemplation + +_Protexit me in abscondito tabernaculi sui._ + +He hath protected me in the secret place of His tabernacle. +--Ps. xxvi. 5. + + +I + +[The Ms. begins abruptly at the top of the page.] + + +... It was at vespers on the fourth day afterwards, being Corpus +Christi, that saint Giles, as I suppose, moved me to visit Master +Richard. So I put on my cap again, and took my furred gown, for I +thought it would be cold before I came home; and set out through the +wood. I was greatly encouraged by the beauty of the light as I went +down; the sun shone through the hazels on my right, and the roof of +leaves was a fair green over my head; and to right and left lay a carpet +of flowers as blue as the Flanders' glass above the altar. I had learnt +from Master Richard, though he was thirty years my younger, many +beautiful lessons, and one of them that God's Majesty speaks to us by +the works of His almighty hands. So when I saw the green light and the +gold and the blue, and the little flies that made merry in the way, I +took courage. + +At the lower end of the wood, as you know, the path falls down steeply +towards the stream, and when it has left the wood there are meadows to +right and left, that were bright with yellow flowers at this time. In +front the stream runs across the road under hazels, and where the chapel +is still a-building over his body, on the left side, with its back +against the wood stood his little house. + +I will tell you of all this, as I saw it then; for the pilgrims have +trampled it all about now, and the stream is all befouled and the banks +broken, and the trees cut down by the masons that came to make the +second chapel where Master Richard was wont to bathe himself, against +the fiend's temptations at first, and afterwards for cleanness' sake, +too--(for I never heard of a hermit as cleanly as was this young man, +soon, and in spite of his washings, by the prayers of our Lady and saint +Giles, to be declared among the blessed servants of God.) + +The meadow was a fair circle of grass; with trees on every side but on +this where the gate stood. It sloped to the stream that ran shallow over +the stones, and down across it from the cell to the pool lay the path +trampled hard by Master Richard's feet; for he had lived there four +years at this time since his coming from Cambridge. Besides this path +there was another that circled the meadow, and it was on this that he +walked with God. I have seen him there sometimes from the gate, with his +hands clasped, fingers to fingers, and his eyes open but seeing nothing; +and if it had not been for the sin in my soul (on which God have pity!) +I might have seen, too, the heavenly company that often went with him +and of which he told me. + +Before the hut lay a long garden-bed, in which the holy youth grew beans +in their season, and other vegetables at other times; for it was on +these, with nuts from the hazelwood, and grasses of which I know not the +names (though he has told me of them many times), with water from the +stream, that he sustained his life. + +On either side of the hut stood a great may-tree; it was on account of +these that he had built his little house here, for he knew the +properties and divine significations of such things. + +The house itself was of wattles, plastered with mud from the brook, and +thatched with straw. There was a door of wood that he leaned against the +opening on this side when he prayed, but not when he slept, and a little +square window high up upon the other side that looked into the green +wood. It is of that same door that saint Giles' new altar was made, for +the house fell down after his going, and the wind blew about the mud and +the sticks, and the pilgrims have now carried all away. I took the door +myself, when I came back and had seen him go through the heavenly door +to our Lord. + +The house within was a circle, three strides across, with a domed roof +like a bee-hive as high as a man at the sides and half as high again in +the centre. On the left lay his straw for a bed, and above it on the +wall the little square of linen that he took afterwards with him to +London, worked with the five precious wounds of our Saviour. On the +right hand side was a wooden stool where he sat sometimes to pray and on +the wall against it a little press that held some bottles within, and in +another shelf some holy relics that are now in the church, and in +another his six books; and above, upon the top, a little cross with our +Lord upon it, very rude; for he said that the eyes of the soul should +not be hindered by the eyes of the body, and that our Lord showed +Himself often to him more clearly and truly than a craftsman could make +Him. Above the window was a little figure of the Mother of God, set +there, he told me, above the sight of the green wood, because she was +the mother of all living, and had restored what Eve had spoiled. + +I cannot tell you, my children, of the peace of this place. The little +house, and indeed the whole circle of the meadow set about with trees, +was always to me as a mansion in paradise. There were no sounds here but +the song of the birds and the running of the water and the wind in the +trees; and no sight of any other world but this, except in winter when +the hill over against the hut showed itself through the branches not +three hundred paces away. On all other sides the woods rose to the sky. +I think that the beasts knew the peace of the place. I have seen often a +stag unafraid watching Master Richard as he dug or walked on his path; +the robins would follow him, and the little furry creatures sit round +him with ears on end. And he told me, too, that never since he had come +to the place had blood fallen on the ground except his own when he +scourged himself. The hunting-weasel never came here, though the conies +were abundant; the stags never fought here though there was a fair +ground for a battlefield. It was a peace that passed understanding, and +what that peace is the apostle tells us. + +Here I came then on Corpus Christi evening, thirty years ago, as the sun +was near its setting behind the gate through which I came, and my shadow +lay half-across the meadow before me. + + * * * * * + +It appeared to me that somewhat was amiss, but I knew not what it was: I +was a little afraid. Master Richard was not to be seen, but his door was +wide, so I thought he would not be praying. As I came up the path I saw +something that astonished me. There was a circle of beasts about the +hut, little conies that sat in the sunlight and shadow, without feeding, +though it was the time for it; and as I came nearer I saw other beasts. +There was a wild cat crouched in the shadow of the hazels moving his +tail from side to side; a stag with his two does stood beneath a +beech-tree, and a boar looked over the bank against which stood the hut. + +They did not move as I came up and looked in at the door. + +This is what I saw within. + +The holy youth was seated on his stool with his hands gripping the sides +and his eyes open, and he was looking towards the image of our Saviour +on the right-hand side. + +You have seen his holy and uncorrupt body, but in life he was different +to that. He was not above twenty years old at this time, and of a beauty +that drew men's eyes to him. [This is the exact phrase used of Richard +Rolle, hermit of Hampole.] His hair was as you know it; a straight, +tawny, nut-brown head of hair that fell to his shoulders; and he had the +cleanest line of face that ever I have seen. + +His hair came low upon his straight forehead; his nose was straight, +with fine nostrils; he had a little upper lip on which grew no hair, a +full lip beneath very short, and a round cleft chin; his eyebrows were +dark and arched; his whole face smooth and thin, and of an extraordinary +clean paleness; he had a curved throat turned to a pale brown by the +sun, though the colour of his body, I have heard it said, was as white +as milk. He was dressed always in a white kirtle beneath, and a brown +sleeveless frock over it of the colour of his hair, that came to his +ankles, and was girt with a leather band. He went barefoot, but carried +a great hat on his shoulders when he walked. He moved slowly at such +times, and bore himself upright. His hands were fine and slender, and +were burned brown like his face and his throat. + +I tell you that I have never seen such a wonderful beauty in mortal man; +and his soul was yet more lovely. It is no wonder that God's Majesty +delighted in him, and that the saints came to walk with him. He was +like neither man nor woman. He had the grey eyes of a woman, the mouth +and chin of a man, the hands of a matron, and the figure of a strong +virgin. I was always a little man, as you know, and when I walked with +him, as I did sometimes, the top of my cap came just beneath his ear. + +Master Richard, as I have said, was seated now on his stool, with his +knees together, and his hands gripping the sides of his seat. His chin +was a little thrust out, and he was as still as a stock. This I knew, +was the manner in which sometimes he entered into strong contemplation; +and I knew, too, that he would neither hear me nor see me till he moved. +So I watched him a moment or two, and I grew yet more afraid as I +watched; for this is what I saw: + +Down from his temples across his cheeks ran little drops of sweat on to +his brown frock, and that though it was a cool evening, and his spade +was hung on its peg beneath the window. (It was the spade that you have +seen in the church with a cross-handle polished by his holy hands.) + +I looked for a while, and I grew yet more afraid. It seemed to me that +there was somewhat in the cell that I could not see. I looked up at the +window but there was nothing there but the still green hazel leaves; I +looked at his bed, at the smooth mud walls and floor, at the domed roof, +and, through the hole in the centre, where the smoke escaped when he +made a fire, I could see leaves again and the evening sky. Yet the place +was full of something; there was something of energy or conflict, I knew +not which: some person was striving there. + +Then I was suddenly so much afraid that I dared not stay, and I went +back again along the path, and walked at the lower end of the meadow +beside the stream. + + + + +Of the Word from God that came to Master Hermit: and of his setting out + + +_Vias tuas, Domine, demonstra mihi: et semitas tuas educe me._ + +Shew, O Lord, Thy ways to me: and teach me Thy paths.--_Ps. xxiv. 4._ + + +II + + +There are, as you have learned from me, and I from Master Richard +Raynal, a trinity of natures in man. There is that by which he has to do +with the things of matter--his five wits; that by which he has to do +with God Almighty and the saints--his immortal soul and her powers; and, +for the last, that by which he has to do with men--his lower +understanding, his mind, his power of speech, and the like. Each nature +has its proper end, though each ministers to the other. With his ears +he hears God's Word, with his immortal soul he perceives God Almighty in +what is seen with the eyes; with his understanding he comprehends the +nature of flowers and the proper time to sow or reap. This trinity may +be devoted to God or the fiend.... It is not true, as some have said, +that it is only with the soul that God is perceived or served, and that +the other two are unclean. We may serve God by digging with the hands, +by talking friendly with our neighbour, and by the highest of all which +is contemplation. + +This is what Master Richard did, following the Victorines but not +altogether. He strove to serve God alike in all, and I count his life, +therefore, the highest that I have ever known. He said that to dig, to +talk over the gate with a neighbour, and to contemplate the Divine +Essence, were all alike to serve God. He counted none wasted, for God +Almighty had made the trinity of natures in His own image, and +intended, therefore, a proper occupation for each. To refuse to dig or +to talk was not to honour contemplation; and this he said, though he +said besides that some could not do this through reason of finding that +one distracted the other. I count, however, that his own life was the +hardest, for he did all three, and did not suffer one to distract +another. + +The most difficulty of such a life is to know when to follow one and +when the other, when to dig, when to speak, and when to contemplate; and +he would tell me that for this there are two guides that God Almighty +sends--the one is that of exterior circumstance, and the other that of +an interior knowledge, and he would follow that which cried the louder. +If he desired to contemplate and a neighbour came to talk with him; if +he perceived the neighbour clearly he would give over his contemplation; +if not he would continue to contemplate. Again, if the imagination of a +spade came mightily before him, or if he remembered that the sun would +soon be up and his beans not watered, again he would give over his +contemplation and dig or carry water. + +For this there is needed one thing, and that a firm and quiet +simplicity. He would do nothing till his mind was quiet. The friend of +God must be as a little child, as the gospel tells us, and when the soul +is quiet there is no difficulty in knowing what must be done. The first +business then of a solitary's life is to preserve this quiet against the +fiend's assaults and disquiet. And, I think, of all that I have ever +known, Master Richard's soul was the most quiet, and most like to the +soul of a little child. + +As I walked now beside the stream I knew very well that it was for this +that he was striving in contemplation: the sweat that ran down his +cheeks was the sign of the fiend's assault, and I knew that I had done +well to come. I had followed, as Master Richard himself had taught me, +that loud interior voice. + +So I strove to become quiet myself; I signed myself with the cross, and +cried softly upon saint Giles to pray for me to God's Majesty that I +might know what to say and do. Then I placed myself, as I had learned, +at the divine feet; I looked at the yellow flowers and the clear running +water and the open sky, and presently I was aware that all was silence +within and without me. So I waited and walked softly to and fro, until +Master Richard came to the door of his hut. + +He stood there for a full minute, I suppose, with the sun on his face +and his brown frock and broad white sleeves, before he saw me; for I was +in the shadow of the hazels. Then he waved his hands a little, and came +slowly and very upright down the path in the middle, and as I went +towards him I saw the beasts had gone. They were content, I suppose, now +that their master was come out. + +He came down the path, very pale and grave, and knelt as usual for my +blessing, which I gave; then he kissed my skirt as he always did with a +priest, and stood up. + +Now I will try to tell you all that he said as he said it. + + * * * * * + +We went together without speaking, to the hut, and he brought out the +stool into the sunlight and made me sit upon it, and sat himself upon +the ground beneath me, with his hands clasped about his knee, and his +bare feet drawn beneath him. I could see no more of him but his brown +hair and his throat, and his strong shoulders bent forward. Then he +began to speak. His voice was always grave and steady. + +"I am glad you are come, Sir John; I have something to ask you. I do not +know what to do. I will tell you all." + +I said nothing, for I knew what he wished; so I looked down across the +meadow at the hazels and the pigeons that were coming down to the wood, +and desired saint Giles to tell me what to say. + +"It is this," he said. "Four days ago I was in contemplation, down +there by the stream. The sensible warmth of which I have told you was in +my heart; as it has been for over one year now, ever since I passed from +the way of illumination. I think that it had never been so clear and +strong. It was our Lord who was with me, and I perceived Him within as +He always shows Himself to me; I cannot tell you what He is like, but +there were roses on His hands and feet, and above His heart and about +His head. I have not often perceived Him so clearly. His Mother, I knew, +was a little distance away, behind me, and I wondered why it was so, and +the divine John was with her. Then I understood that He was lonely, but +no more than that: I did not know why. I said what I could, and then I +listened, but He said nothing to me, and then, after a while, I +understood that it was under another aspect that He was there; that +there was one in his place, crowned with gold instead of roses, and I +could not understand it. I was astonished and troubled by that, and the +warmth was not so strong at my heart. + +"Then He was gone; and I saw the stream again beneath me, and the leaves +overhead, and there was sweat on my forehead. + +"When I stood up there was a knowledge in my heart--I do not know +whether from our Lord or the fiend--that I must leave this place, and go +to one whom I thought must be the King with some message; but I do not +know the message." + + * * * * * + +My children, it was a dreadful thing to hear that. He had never spoken +so since his coming four years before, except once when he was in the +purgative way, and the fiend came to him under aspect of a woman. But he +had been in agony then, and he was quiet now. Before I could speak he +spoke again. + +"I said that I could not go; that God Almighty had brought me here and +caused me to build my house and given me the meadow and the water and +the beasts as my friends--that I was neither monk nor friar nor priest +to be sent hither and thither--that I could not go. I cried on Him to +help me and shew me His will; and then I went to dinner. + +"Since that time, Sir John, the warmth has left me. I see the flowers, +but there is nothing behind them; and the sunlight, but there is no +heavenly colour in it. My mind is disquiet; I cannot rest nor +contemplate as I should. I have been up the stairs that I have told you +of a thousand times; I have set myself apart from the world, which is +the first step, until all things visible have gone; then I have set +myself apart from my body and my understanding so that I was conscious +of neither hands nor heart nor head, nor of aught but my naked soul; +then I have left that, which is the third step; but the gate is always +shut, and our Lord will not speak or answer. Tell me what I must do, Sir +John. Is it true that this is from our Lord, and that I must go to see +the King?" + + * * * * * + +I was sick at heart when I heard that, and I strove to silence what my +soul told me must be my answer. + +"It has persevered ever since, my son Richard," I said? + +He bowed his head. + +"There is no savour in anything to me until I go," he answered. "This +morning as I looked from over the wall upon the sacrament, my eyes were +blinded: I saw nothing but the species of bread. I was forced to rest +upon the assent of my faith." + +Again I attempted to silence what my soul told me. It was the very power +that Master Richard had taught me to use that was turning against what I +desired. I had not known until then how much I loved this quiet holy lad +with grave eyes--not until I thought I should lose him. + +"There is no sin," I said, "that has darkened your eyes?" + +I saw him smile sideways at that, and he turned his head a little. + +"My sins are neither blacker nor whiter than they have always been," he +said; "you know them all, my father." + +"And you wish to leave us?" I cried. + +He unclasped his hands and laid one on my knee. I was terrified at its +purity, but his face was turned away, and he said nothing. + +I had never heard the wood at that time of the evening so silent as it +was then. It was the time when, as the lax monks say, the birds say +mattins (but the strict observants call it compline), but there was +neither mattins nor compline then in the green wood. It was all in a +great hush, and the shadows from the trees fifty paces away had crept up +and were at our feet. + +Then he spoke again. + +"Tell me what your soul tells you," he said. + +I put my hand on his brown head; I could not speak. Then he rose at +once, and stood smiling and looking on me, and the sunlight made a +splendour in his hair, as it were his heavenly crown. + +"Thank you, my father," he said, though I had not spoken one word. + +Then he turned and went into the hut, and left me to look upon the green +woods through my tears, and to listen to a mavis that had begun to sing +in one of the may-trees. I knew he was gone to make ready. + + * * * * * + +The sun had quite gone down before he came out again, and the shadows +were like a veil over the land; only the yellow flowers burned hot like +candle flames before me. + +He had four books in his hand and a little bottle, his hat on his +shoulders, and the wooden sandals on his feet that he had worn to walk +in four years before when he came to us. His little linen picture of the +five wounds was fastened over his breast with thorns. He carried across +his arm the second white-sleeved kirtle that he had, and his burse was +on his girdle. He held out two of the books to me. + +"These are for you, my father," he said; "the book of hours and the +_Regula Heremitarum_ I shall take with me, and all the rest of the +mobills and the two other books I shall leave at our Lord's disposal, +except the bottle of Quintessence." + +I took the two books and looked at them. + +There was Master Hoveden's _Philomela_, and a little book he had made on +Quinte Essence. + +"But you will need them!" I cried. + +"I carry _Philomela_ in my heart," he said, "and as for the Quinte +Essence I shall have enough if I need it, and here is the bottle that +holds that that has been made of blood.--The fifth--being of gold and +silver I have not. _Argentum et aurum non est mihi_." ["Silver and gold +I have none." (Acts iii. 6.)] + +(That was the little bottle that I have told you of before. It was +distilled of his own blood, according to the method of Hermes +Trismegistus.) + +"If I do not return," he said, "I bequeath all to you; and I wish six +masses to be said; the first to be sung, of _Requiem_; the second of the +five wounds; the third of the assumption; the fourth of all martyrs with +a special memory of saint Christopher; the fifth of all confessors with +a special memory of saint Anthony, hermit, and saint Giles, abbot; the +sixth of all virgins with a special memory of saint Agnes." + +You understand, my children, that he knew what would come to him, and +that he had foreseen all; he spoke as simply as one who was going to +another village only, looking away from me upon the ground. (I was glad +of that.) + +I begged of him to bid good-bye to his meadow. + +"I will not;" he said, "I bear it with me wherever I go." + +Then he took me by the arm, carrying his shod staff in his other hand, +and led me to the gate, for I was so blinded that I stumbled as I went. + +Once only did I speak as we passed upwards through the dark wood. + +"And what will be your message," I asked, "when you come to the King?" + +"Our Lord will tell it me when I come thither," he said. + +We went through the village that lay dark and fast asleep. I wished him +to go to some of the houses, and bid the folks good-bye, but he would +not. + +"I bear them, too, wherever I go," he said. + +After we had adored God Almighty in the church, [That is, God present in +the Blessed Sacrament.] and I had shriven the young man and blessed him, +we went out and stood under the lychgate where his body afterwards +rested. + +It was a clear night of stars and as silent as was once heaven for the +space of half-an-hour. The philomels had given over their singing near a +month before, and it was not the season for stags to bray; and those, +as you know, are the principal sounds that we hear at night. + +We stood a long time listening to the silence. I knew well what was in +my heart, and I knew presently what was in his. He was thinking on his +soul. + +He turned to me after a while, and I could see the clear pallour of his +face and the line of his lips and eyes all set in his heavy hair. + +"Do you know the tale of the Persian king, Sir John?" + +I told him No; he had many of such tales. I do not know where he had +read them. + +"There was once a king who had the open eyes, and he looked into heaven +and hell. He saw there two friends whom he had known in the flesh; the +one was a hermit, and the other another king. The hermit was in hell, +and the king in heaven. When he asked the reason of this, one told him +that the hermit was in hell because of his consorting with the king, and +the king in heaven because of his consorting with the hermit." + +I understood him, but I said nothing. + +"Pray for me then, Sir John," said Master Richard. + +Then we kissed one another, and he was gone without another word along +the white road. + + + + +How Master Richard fared: how he heard Mass in Saint Pancras' Church: +how he came to Westminster: and of his colloquy with the Ankret + + +_Abyssus abyssum invocat: in voce cataractarum tuarum_. + +Deep calleth on deep: at the noise of Thy flood-gates.--_Ps. xli. 8._ + + +III + + +The tale of his journey and of his coming to London he told me when I +saw him again at the end. He spoke to me for over an hour, and I think +that I have remembered near every word, but I cannot write down the +laughter and the tears that were in his voice as he told me. + +As he went along the road beneath the trees and the stars, carrying his +kirtle, with his books and other things in his burse, and his hat on his +shoulders, he was both happy and sorry. + +There are two kinds of happiness for mortal men: there is that which is +carnal and imperfect and hangs on circumstances and the health of the +body and such like things; and there is that which is spiritual and +perfect, which hangs on nothing else than the doing of the will of God +Almighty so far as it is known, so that a man may have both at once, or +either without the other. Master Richard had the one without the other. + +At first he could not bear to think of what he had left behind him--his +little quiet house and meadow and the stream where he washed, and the +beasts and men that loved him; and he threw himself upon the other +happiness for strength. By the time that he had arrived at the ford he +was so much penetrated by this better joy that he was able to look +back, and tell himself, as he had told me, that he bore with him always +wherever he went all that he had left behind him. It was ever his +doctrine that we lose nothing of what is good and sweet in the past, and +that we suck out of all things a kind of essence that abides with us +always, and that every soul that loves is a treasure-house of all that +she has ever loved. It is only the souls that do not love that go empty +in this world and _in saecula saeculorum_. He thought much of this on +his road, and by the time that he had come so far that he thought it +best to sleep by the wayside, the warmth had come back that had left him +for four days. + +He went aside then out of the road to find a hazel thicket, and by the +special guidance of God found one with a may-tree beside it. There he +groped together the dead leaves, took off his burse and his hat and his +girdle and his brown habit, and laid the habit upon the leaves, +unpinning the five wounds, and fastening them again upon his white +kirtle. Then he knelt down by the may-tree, and said his prayers, +beginning as he always did: + +_"Totiens glorior, quotiens nominis tui, JESU, recordor."_ ["I glory, so +often as I remember Thy Name, JESU."] + +Then he repeated the Name an hundred times, and his heart grew so hot +and the sweetness in his month so piercing that he could scarce go on. +Then he committed himself to the tuition of the glorious Mother of +Christ, and to that of saint Christopher, saint Anthony, hermit, and +saint Agnes, virgin, and lastly to that of saint Giles and saint Denis, +remembering me. Then he said compline with _paternoster, avemaria_, and +_credo_, signed himself with the cross, and lay down on his +kirtle--_specialissimus_, darling of God--and drew the second kirtle +over his body for fear of the dews and the night vapours; and so went to +sleep, striving not to think of where he had slept last night. (He told +me all this, as I have told you.) + +He awoke at dawn in an extraordinary sweetness within and without, and +as he walked in his white habit beneath the solemn beech-trees, his soul +opened wide to salute the light that rose little by little, pouring down +on him through the green roof. The air was like clear water, he said, +running over stories, brightening without concealing their colours; and +he drank it like wine. He had that morning in his contemplation what +came to him very seldom, and I do not know if I can describe it, but he +said it was the sense that the air he breathed was the essence of God, +that ran shivering through his veins, and dropped like sweet myrrh from +his fingers. There was the savour of it on his lips, piercing and +delicate, and in his nostrils. + +He set out a little later after he had washed, following the road, and +came to a timber chapel standing by itself. I do not know which it is, +but I think it must have been the church of saint Pancras that was +burned down six years after. The door was locked, but he sat to wait, +and after an hour came a priest in his gown to say mass. The priest +looked at him, but answered nothing to his good-day (there be so many of +these idle solitaries about that feign to serve God, but their heart is +in the belly). I do not blame the priest; it may be he had been deceived +often before. + +There was a fellow who answered the mass, and Master Richard knelt by +himself at the end of the church. + +When mass was over the two others went out without a word, leaving him +there. He said _ad sextam_ then, and was setting out once more when the +priest came back with a jug of ale and a piece of meat and bread which +he offered him, telling him he would have given him nothing if he had +begged. + +Master Richard refused the meat and the ale, and took the bread. + +The priest asked him his business, and he said he was for London to see +the King. + +The priest asked him whether he would speak with the King, and he told +him Yes if our Lord willed. + +"And what have you to say to him?" asked the priest. + +"I do not know," said Master Richard. + +The priest looked at him, and said something about a pair of fools, but +Master Richard did not understand him then, for he had not heard yet the +tale that the King was mad or near it. + +So he kissed the priest's skirt, and asked his blessing; then he went +down the steps to the little holy well (which makes me think it to be +saint Pancras's church) and drank a little water after signing himself +with it and commending himself to the saint, and went on his way. The +sun was now high and hot, but he told me that when he looked back at the +turn of the path the priest was at the gate in the full sun staring +after him. + +Of his journey that day there is not much to relate. He went by +unfrequented ways, walking sedately as his manner was, with devotion in +his heart. An hour before noon a woman gave him dinner as she came back +from taking it to her husband who burned charcoal in the forest, and +asked him a kiss for payment when he had done his meal, sitting on a +tree, with her standing by and looking upon him all the while. But he +told her that he was a solitary, and that he had kissed no woman but his +mother, who had died ten years before, so she appeared content, though +she still looked upon him. Then as he stood up, thanking her for the +dinner, she caught his hand and kissed that, and he reproved her gently +and went on his way again. + +For many miles after that it was the same; he saw no man, but only the +beasts now and then, walking beneath the high branches in the sylvan +twilight, over the dead leaves and the fern, and seeing now and again, +as he expressly told me, for it seemed he had some lesson from it, the +hot light that danced in the open spaces to right and left. + +He saw one strange sight, which I should not have believed if he had +not told me, and that was a ring of bulls in a clearing that tossed +something this way and that, one to the other: he drove them off, and +found that it was a hare, not yet dead, but it died in his hands. He +told me that this verse came to his mind as he laid the poor beast down +under a tree; _Circumdederunt me vituli multi: tauri pingues obsederunt +me_, ["Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me" +(Ps. xxi. 13)] and there is no wonder in that, for it is from a psalm of +the passion, and it was what befell him afterwards, as you shall hear. + +Soon after that he bathed himself in a pool, for he was hot with +walking, and desired to be at his ease when he saw folk again; and he +dipped his sandals, too, to cool them. + +Then he went in his white kirtle a little, until his hair was dried, and +when the heat of the day began to turn he was aware that he was coming +near to a village, for there was a herd of pigs that looked on him +without fear. + +The village was a very little one, but it stood upon a road, and here +he had his first sight of the town-folks, for as he rested by a gate a +company of fellows went by from the wars. I suppose that they were +lately come from France (maybe from Arfleet [that is, Harfleur]), for +he told me that there were pavissors among them--the men with the great +shields called pavices which are used only in sieges from the wooden +castles that they push against the walls of the town. They were stained +with travel, too, and were very silent and peevish. There were all +sorts there besides the pavissors--the men-at-arms in their plate +and mail-shirts, the archers in their body-armour and aprons, and +the glaivemen [Glaives were a kind of pike, but with long carved +cutting-blades. Bills had straight blades.] with the rest. He said that +one company that rode in front had the sign of the Ragged Staff upon +their breasts, by which he learned afterwards that they were my lord +Warwick's men. [The Ragged Staff was the emblem of Lord Warwick.] + +One cried out to him to know how far was it to London, but he shook his +head and said that he was a stranger. The fellow jeered and named him +bumpkin, but the rest said nothing, and looked on him as they passed, +and two at the end doffed their caps. They were about two hundred, and +one rode in front with a banner borne before him; but it was a still hot +day, and Master Richard could not see the device, for the folds hung +about the staff. + +He saw other folks after that here and there, although he avoided the +villages where he could; but he got no supper, and an hour before sunset +he came to the ferry over against Westminster. The wherries were drawn +up on the beach, and he came down to these past Lambeth House, wondering +how he was to get over. + +He besought one man for the love of Jesu to take him over, but he would +not; and another for the love of Mary, and a third for the sake of the +Rood of Bromholm, [a famous relic of the True Cross.] and a fourth for +the love of saint Anthony. And at that they laughed at him, coming round +him and looking on him curiously, and crying that they would have all the +saints out of him before _Avemaria_, and asking to know his business. +When he told them in his simplicity that he was to see the King, they +laughed the more, and said that the King was gone to be a monk at saint +Edmond's, and that he had best look for him there. + +Then he asked yet another, a great fellow with a hairy face and chest, +to take him over for the love of saint Denis and saint Giles, and the +fellow swore a great oath, elbowed his way out of the press that were +all staring and laughing, and bade him follow. + +So he got into the boat and sat there while the man carried down the +oars, and all the rest crowded to look and question and mock. He told me +that he supposed at the time that all the folks looked at him for that +they were not used to see solitaries, but I do not think it was that. I +tell you that one who looked a little on Master Richard would look long, +and that one who looked long must either laugh or weep, so surprising +was his beauty and his simplicity. + + * * * * * + +When they were half-way over the fellow told him which was the abbey +church, and Master Richard said that he knew it, for that he had seen it +four years before when he came under our Lord's hand from Cambridge, and +that he would ask shelter from the monks. + +"And there is an ankret [an ankret was a solitary, confined to one cell +with episcopal ceremonies.], is there not?" asked Master Richard. + +The man told him Yes, looking upon him curiously, and he told him, too, +where was his cell. Then he put him on shore without a word, save asking +for his prayers. + +I cannot tell you how Master Richard came to the ankret's cell, for I +was only at Westminster once when Master Richard went to his reward, +but he found his way there, marvelling at the filth of the ways, and +looked in through the little window, drawing himself up to it by the +strength of his arms. + +It was all dark within, he told me, and a stench as of a kennel came up +from the darkness. + +He called out to the holy man, holding his nostrils with one hand, and +with the other gripping the bars and sitting sideways on the sill of the +window. He got no answer at first, and cried again. + +Then there came an answer. + +There rose out of the darkness a face hung all over with hair and near +as black as the hair, with red-rimmed eyes that oozed salt rheum. The +holy man asked him what he wished, and why did he hold his nostrils. + +"I wish to speak with your reverence," said Master Richard, "of high +things. I hold my nostrils for that I cannot abide a stench." + +The red eyes winked at that. + +"I find no stench," said the holy man. + +"For that you are the origin of its propagation," said Master Richard, +"and dwell in the midst of it." + +It was foolish, I think, of the sweet lad to speak like that, but he was +an-angered that a man should live so. But the holy solitary was not +an-angered. + +"And in God's Majesty is the origin of my propagation," he said. +"_Ergo_." + +Master Richard could think of no seemly answer to that, and he desired, +too, to speak of high matters; so he let it alone, and told the holy man +his business, and where he lived. + +"Tell me, my father," he said, "what is the message that I bear to the +King. It may be that our Lord has revealed it to you: He has not yet +revealed it to me." + +"Are you willing to go dumb before the King?" + +"I am willing if God will," said Master Richard. + +"Are you willing that the King should be deaf and dumb to your +message?" + +"If God will," said Master Richard again. + +"What is that which you bear on your breast?" + +"It is the five wounds, my father." + +"Tell me of your life. Are you yet in the way of perfection?" + +Then the two solitaries talked together a long while; I could not +understand all that Master Richard told to me; and I think there was +much that he did not tell me, but it was of matters that I am scarce +worthy to name, of open visions and desolations, and the darkness of the +fourth Word of our Saviour on the rood; and again of scents and sounds +and melodies such as those of which Master Rolle has written; and above +all of charity and its degrees, for without charity all the rest is +counted as dung. + +_Avemaria_ rang at sunset, but they did not hear it, and at the end the +holy man within crept nearer and raised himself. + +"I must see your face, brother," he said. "It may be then that I shall +know the message that your soul bears to the King." + +Master Richard came out of his heavenly swoon then, and saw the face +close to his own, and what he said of it to me I dare not tell you, but +he bitterly reproached himself that he had ever doubted whether this +were a man of God or no. + +As he turned his own face this way and that, that the failing light +might fall upon it, he said that beneath him in the little street there +was a crowd assembled, all silent and watching the heavenly colloquy. + +When he looked again, questioning, at the holy old man, he saw that the +other's face was puckered with thought and that his lips pouted through +the long-falling hair. Then it disappeared, and a grunting voice came +out of the dark, but the sound of it was as if the old man wept. + +"I do not know the message, brother. Our Lord has not shewed it to me, +but He has shewed me this--that soon you will not need to wear His +wounds. That I have to say. _Oremus pro invicem._" ["Let us pray for one +another."] + + * * * * * + +The crowd pressed close upon Master Richard as he came down from the +window, and, going in the midst of them in silence, he came to saint +Peter's gate where the black monks dwell, and was admitted by the +porter. + + + + +How Master Richard saw the King in Westminster Hall: and of the Mass at +Saint Edward's Altar + + +_Revelabit condensa: et in templo ejus omnes dicent gloriam._ + +He will discover the thick woods: and in His temple all shall speak His +glory.--_Ps. xxviii. 9._ + + +IV + + +Master Richard did not tell me a great deal of his welcome in the +monastery: I think that he was hardly treated and flouted, for the +professed monks like not solitaries except those that be established in +reputation; they call them self-willed and lawless and pretending to a +sanctity that is none of theirs. Such as be under obedience think that +virtue the highest of all and essential to the way of perfection. And I +think, perhaps, they were encouraged in this by what had been said of +themselves by our holy lord ten years before, for he was ever a favourer +of monks. [This may have been Eugenius IV., called _Gloriosus_. If so, +it would fix the date of Richard at about 1444.] But Master Richard did +not blame them, so I will not, but I know that he was given no cell to +be private in, but was sent to mix with the other guests in the common +guest-house. I know not what happened there, but I think there was an +uproar; there was a wound upon his head, the first wound that he +received in the house of his friends, that I saw on him a little later, +and he told me he had had it on his first coming to London. It was such +a wound as a flung bone or billet of wood might make. He had now the +_caput vulneratum_, as well as the _cor vulneratum_ [wounded head ... +wounded heart.] of the true lover of Jesus Christ. + + * * * * * + +He desired, after his simplicity, on the following morning, to speak +with my lord abbot, but that could not be, and he only saw my lord at +terce before mass, afar off sitting in his stall, a great prelate with +his chain, and with one who bore a silver wand to go before him and do +him service. + +He prayed long in the church and at the shrine, and heard four or +five masses, and saw the new grave of the Queen in the midst of the +lady-chapel [This may have been Queen Katharine, whose body was +afterwards moved.], and did his devotions, hoping that our Lord would +show him what to speak to the King, and then went to dinner, and +after dinner set out to Westminster Hall, where he was told that the +King could be seen that day. + +He passed through the little streets that lay very nastily, no better +than great gutters with all the filth of the houses poured out there, +but he said that the folks there were yet more surprising, for these +were they who had taken sanctuary here, and were dwelling round the +monastery with their wives and children. There were all sorts there, +slayers of men and deer, thieves, strikers of the clergy _suadente +diabolo_ ["at the devil's persuasion"--a technical phrase], +false-coiners, harlots, and rioters; all under the defence of Religion, +and not suffered to go out but on peril of being taken. He had a little +company following him by the time that he came to the gate, some mocking +and some silent, and all looking on him as he went. + +When he came to the door of the hall the men that stood there would not +let him in until he entreated them. They told him that the King was now +going to dinner, and that the time was past, so he knew that it was not +yet his hour to give the message that he knew not. But they let him in +at last, and he stood in the crowd to see the King go by. + +There was a great company there, and a vast deal of noise, for the +audiences were done, and the bill-men were pushing the folks with their +weapons to make room for the great men to go by, and the heralds were +crying out. Master Richard stood as well as he could, but he was pushed +and trampled about, and he could not see very well. They went by in +great numbers; he saw their hats and caps and their furred shoulders +between the crooked glaives that were gilded to do honour to the King, +but there was such a crying out on all sides that he could not ask which +was the King. + +At last the shouting grew loud and then quiet, and men bowed down on all +sides; and he saw the man whom he knew must be the King. + +He had a long face (as I saw for myself afterwards), rather sallow, with +a long straight nose and small, full mouth; his eyebrows were black and +arched high, and beneath them his sorrowful eyes looked out on the +people; he was bowing his head courteously as he came. On his head he +wore a black peaked cap of velvet; there was ermine at his collar and a +gold chain lay across his shoulders. + +Now this is what Master Richard saw with the eyes of his body, but with +the eyes of his soul he saw something so strange that I know not how to +name or explain it. He told me that it was our Saviour whom he saw go by +between the gilded glaives, as He was when He went from Herod's hall. I +do not understand how this may be. The King wore no beard as did our +Saviour, he was full fourteen years younger at that time than was Jesu +Christ when He suffered His bitter passion. They were of a height, I +suppose, and perhaps the purple that the King wore was of the same +colour as that which our Lord had put on him, but that was all the +likeness that ever I could see, for the King's hair was black and his +complexion sallow, but our Lord's was corn colour, and His face white +and ruddy. [A reference, I suppose, to Cant. Cant. v. 10.] And, again, +the one was but a holy man, and the other God Almighty although made man +for our salvation. + +Yet perhaps I did not understand Master Richard aright, and that he +meant something else and that it was only to the eyes of the soul that +the resemblance lay. If this is so, then I think I understand what it +was that he saw, though I cannot explain it to you, any more than could +he to me. There be some matters so high that no mouth can tell them, +heart only can speak to heart, but I can tell you this, that Master +Richard did not mean that our Lord was in the hall that day as He is in +heaven and in the sacrament of the altar; it was something else that he +meant.... [There follows a doctrinal disquisition.] + + * * * * * + +When Master Richard came out from the hall, he told me that he was in a +kind of swoon, but having his eyes open, and that he knew not how he +came back to the guest-house. It was not until he knocked upon the door +that he saw that the crowd was about him again, staring on him silently. + +The porter was peevish as he pulled him in, and bade him go and cut wood +in the wood-house for his keep, so all that afternoon he toiled in his +white kirtle at the cutting with another fellow who cursed as he cut, +but was silent after a while. + +Yet, when supper and bed-time came and Master Richard had assisted at +compline in the abbey-church, still he knew not what the message was to +be on Monday, when he would see the King and speak with him. + +On Sunday he did no servile work, except that he waited upon the guests, +girt with an apron, and washed the dishes afterwards. He heard four +masses that day, as well as all the hours, and prayed by himself a long +while at saint Edward's shrine, hearing the folks go by to the tilting, +and that night he went to bed with the servants, still ignorant of what +he should say on the next day. + +I am sure that he was not at all disquieted by his treatment, for he did +not speak of it to me, except what was necessary, and he blamed no one. +When I saw the porter afterwards he told me nothing except that Master +Richard had worked well and willingly, and had asked for other tasks +when his were done. He had asked, too, for a plenty of water to bathe +himself, which he did not get. But whether he were disquieted or no on +that Sunday, at least he was content next day, for it was on the next +day at mass that our Lord told him what was the message that he was to +deliver to the King. + +There was a Cluniac monk from France who had obtained leave to say mass +at the shrine of the Confessor, and Master Richard followed him and his +fellow to the altar at five o'clock in the morning to hear mass there +and see his Maker. [This is the common mediaeval phrase. Men did not +then bow their heads at the Elevation.] + +He knelt down against the wall behind the high altar, and began to +address himself to devotion, but he was distracted at first by the +splendour of the tomb, the porphyry and the glass-work below, that +Master Peter the Roman had made, and the precious shrine of gold above +where the body lay, and the golden statues of the saints on either side. +All about him, too, were such marvels that there is little wonder that +he could not pray well for thinking on them--the kings that lay here and +there and their effigies, and the paved steps on this side and that, and +the fair painted glass and the high dark roof. Near where he knelt, too, +he could see the great relic-chest, and knew what lay therein--the +girdle of our Blessed Lady herself, mirror of chastity; the piece of +stone marked by Christ's foot as He went up to heaven; a piece of the +Very Rood on which He hanged; the precious blood that He shed there, in +a crystal vase; the head of saint Benet, father of monks. [Surely not!] +All these things have I seen, too, myself, so I know that they are truly +there. + +Behind him, as he kneeled on the stones, sounded the singing of the +monks, and the noise of so much praise delighted him, but they ended +soon, and at _Sanctus_ his spirit began to be rapt into silence, and the +holy things to make heaven about him. + +He told me that he did not know what befell him until it came to the +elevation of the sacring: only he knew that his soul was filled with +lightness and joyousness, as when he had walked in the wood at dawn +three days before. + +But as he lifted up his hands to see his God and to beat upon his +breast, it appeared to him, he said, as if his feet rested again on some +higher place: until then he had been neither on earth nor in heaven. + +Now there was no visible imagination that came to him then; he said +expressly that it was not so. There was none to be seen there but the +priest in the vestment with his hood on his shoulders, and the _frater +conversus_ [that is, the lay brother.] who held the skirt and shook the +bell. Only it appeared to him that the priest held up the Body for a +great space, and in that long time Master Richard understood many things +that had been dark to him before. Of some of the things I have neither +room nor wit to write; but they were such as these. + +He understood how it was that souls might go to hell, and yet that it +was good that they should go; how it was that our Saviour was born of +His blessed Mother without any breaking of her virginity; how it is that +all things subsist in God; in what manner it is that God comes into the +species of the bread. But he could not tell me how these things were so, +nor what it was that was shewed him.... [There follow a few confused +remarks on the relations of faith to spiritual sight.] + +There were two more things that were shewed him: the first, that he +should not return home alive, but that his dead corpse should be carried +there, and the second, what was the tidings that he should bear to the +King. + +Then he fell forward on his face, and so lay until the ending of the +mass. + + + + +How Master Richard cried out in Westminster Hall: and of his coming to +a Privy Parlour + + +_Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum: dico ego opera mea regi._ + +My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the king.--_Ps. +xliv. 1._ + + +V + + +It would be about half an hour before the King's dinner-time, which was +ten o'clock, that Master Richard came again to the hall. + +There was not so great a press that day, and the holy youth was able to +make his way near to the barrier that held back the common folk, and to +see the King plainly. He was upon his seat beneath the cloth-of-estate +that was quartered with the leopards and lilies, and had his hat upon +his head. About him, beneath the scaffold on which he sat were the great +nobles, and my lord cardinal had a chair set for him upon the right-hand +side, on the step below the King's. + +All was very fair and fine, said Master Richard, with pieces of rich +stuff hanging upon the walls on this side and that beneath the windows, +and, finest of all were the colours of the robes, and the steel and the +gold and the white fur and the feathers, and the gilded glaives and +trumpets, and coat-armour of the heralds. + +There was a matter about to be concluded, but Master Richard could not +tell what it was, for there was a din of talking all about him, and he +saw many clerks and Religious very busy together in the crowd, shaking +their fingers, lifting their brows, and clacking like rooks at +sunset--so the young man related it. There were two fellows with their +backs to him, standing in an open space before the scaffold with guards +about them. One of the two was a clerk, and wore his square cap upon +his head, and the other was not. + +The King looked sick; he was but a young man at that time, not two years +older than Master Richard. He was listening with his head down, to a +clerk who whispered in his ear, kneeling by his side with papers and a +great quill in his hand, and the King's eyes roved as he listened, now +up, now down, and his fingers with rings upon them were arched at his +ear. My lord cardinal had a ruddy face and bright holy eyes, and sat in +his sanguine robes with his cap on his head, looking out with his lips +pursed at the clerks and monks that babbled together beyond the barrier. +He was an old man at this time, but wondrous strong and hearty. + +At the end the King sat up, and there was a silence, but he spoke so low +and quick, with his eyes cast down, and the shouting followed so hard +upon his words, that Master Richard could not hear what was said. But it +seemed to content the clerks and the Religious [King Henry VI. was a +great favourer of ecclesiastics.], for they roared and clamoured and one +flung up his cap so that it fell beyond the barrier and he could not +come at it again. Then the two prisoners louted to the King, and went +away with their guards about them; and the King stood up, and the +cardinal. + +Now this was the time on which Master Richard had determined for +himself, but for a moment he could not cry out: it seemed as if the +fiend had gripped him by the throat and were hammering in his bowels. +The King turned to the steps, and at that sight Master Richard was +enabled to speak. + +He had not resolved what to say, but to leave that to what God should +put in his mouth, and this is what he cried, in a voice that all could +hear. + +"News from our Lord! News from our Lord, your grace." + +He said that when he cried that, that was first silence, and then such a +clamour as he had never heard nor thought to hear. He was pushed this +way and that; one tore at his shoulder from behind; one struck him on +the head: he heard himself named madman, feeble-wit, knave, fond fellow. +The guards in front turned themselves about, and made as though they +would run at the crowd with their weapons, and at that the men left off +heaving at Master Richard, and went back, babbling and crying out. + +Then he cried out again with all his might. + +"I bring tidings from my Lord God to my lord the King," and went forward +to the barrier, still looking at the King who had turned and looked back +at him with sick, troubled eyes, not knowing what to do. + +A fellow seized Master Richard by the throat and pulled him against the +barrier, menacing him with his glaive, but the King said something, +raising his hand, and there fell a silence. + +"What is your business, sir?" asked the King. + +The fellow released Master Richard and stood aside. + +"I bring tidings from our Lord," said the young man. He was all out of +breath, he told me, with the pushing and striking, and held on to the +red-painted barrier with both hands. + +The King stooped and whispered with at cardinal, who was plucking him by +the sleeve, for the space of a _paternoster_, and the murmuring began to +break out again. Then he turned, and lifted his hand once more for +silence. + +"What are the tidings, sir?" + +"They are for your private ear, your grace." + +"Nay," said the King, "we have no private ear but for God's Word." + +"This is God's Word," said Master Richard. + +There was laughter at that, and the crowd came nearer again, but the +King did not laugh. He stood still, looking this way and that, now on +Master Richard, and now on the cardinal, who was pulling again at +sleeve. It seemed as if he could not determine what to do. + +Then he spoke again. + +"Who are you, sir?" + +"I am a solitary, named Richard Raynal," said the young man. "I come +from the country, from ... [It is most annoying that the name of the +village is wanting.] Sir John Chaldfield, the parson, will +undertake for me, your grace." + +"Is Sir John here?" asked my lord cardinal, smiling at the clerks. + +"No, my lord," said Master Richard, "he has his sheep in the wilderness. +He cannot run about to Court." + +There was again a noise of laughter and dissent from the crowd of +clerks, and my lord cardinal smiled more than ever, shewing his white +teeth in the midst of his ruddy face. + +"This is a witty fellow, your grace," said my lord cardinal aloud to the +King. "Will your grace be pleased to hear him in private?" + +The King looked at Master Richard again, as if he knew not what to do. + +"Will you not tell us here, sir?" he asked. + +"I will not, your grace." + +"Have you weapons upon you?" said my lord cardinal, still smiling. + +Master Richard pointed to the linen upon his breast. + +"I bear wounds, not weapons," he answered; which was a brave and shrewd +answer, and one that would please the King. + +His grace smiled a little at that, but the smile passed again like the +sunshine between clouds on a dark and windy day, and the crowd crept up +nearer, so that Master Richard could feel hot breath upon his bare neck +behind. He committed his soul again to our Lady's tuition, for he knew +not what might be the end if he were not heard out. + + * * * * * + +Well, the end of it was as you know, it was not possible for any man +with a heart in his body to look long upon Master Richard and not love +him, and the King's face grew softer as he looked upon that fair young +man with his nut-brown hair and the clear pallour of his face and his +pure simple eyes, and then at the coarse red faces behind him that crept +up like devils after holy Job. It was not hard to know which was in the +right, and besides the brave words that had stung the clerks to anger +had stung the King to pity and pleasure; so the end was that the guards +were bidden to let Master Richard through, and that he was to follow on +in the procession, and be gently treated, and admitted to see the King +when dinner was done. + + * * * * * + +So that, my children, is the manner in which it came about that my name +was cried aloud before the King's presence, and the cardinals and the +nobles, in Westminster Hall on the Monday after _Deus qui nobis_. +[So the collect of Corpus Christi begins. It was a common method, even +among the laity, of defining dates.] + + + + +Of Master Richard's speaking with the King's Grace: and how he was +taken for it + + +_Et nunc reges intelligite: erudimini qui judicatis terram._ + +And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, ye that judge the +earth.--_Ps. ii. 10._ + + +VI + + +They searched Master Richard for weapons, in spite of what he had said, +when they had him alone in a little chamber off the King's closet, but +not unkindly, after what had been ordered, but they found nothing +beneath the white kirtle save the white skin, and nothing in the burse +but the book of hours and a little pen-knife, and the bottle of Quinte +Essence. One of them held that up, and demanded what it was. + +"That is the cordial called Quinte Essence," said Master Richard, +smiling. + +They thought it to be a poison, so he was forced to explain that it was +not. + +"It is made from man's blood," he said, "which is the most perfect part +of our being, and does miracles if it is used aright." + +They would know more than that, so he told them how it was made, with +salt, and set in the body of a horse, and afterwards distilled, and he +told them what marvels it wrought by God's grace; how it would draw out +the virtues and properties of things, and could be mixed with medicines, +and the rest, as I have told to you before. That is the bottle you have +seen at the parsonage. + +But they would not give it back to him at that time, and said that he +should have it when the King had done talking with him. Then they went +out and left him alone, but one stood at the door to keep him until +dinner was over. + +It was a little room, Master Richard said, and looked on to the river. +It was hung with green saye, and was laid with rushes. There was a round +table in the midst of the floor, and a chair on this side and that; and +there was an image of Christ upon the rood that stood upon the table. +There was another door than that through which he had been brought from +the hall. + +Master Richard, when he was left alone, tried to compose himself to +devotion, but he was too much distracted by all that he had seen, until +he had said _ad sextam_, and then he was quieter, and sat down before +the table, looking upon the rood, and he did not know how long had +passed before the King came in. + + * * * * * + +My children, I like to think of Master Richard then; it was his last +peaceful hour that he spent until near the end when I came to him. But +the peace of his heart did not leave him (except at one time), in spite +of all that happened to him, for he told me so himself. Yet, save for +the little wound upon his head, he was clean of all injury at this +time, and I like to think of him in his strength and loveliness as he +was then, content to give his tidings from our Lord to the King, and to +abide what was to follow. + +As the clock beat eleven, the King came suddenly through from his +parlour, but he was not alone: my lord cardinal was with him. + +As Master Richard knelt down on the floor to do them homage, he observed +the King's dress: it was not as that of the other great men, for the +King loved plain dress, and folks said that the clothing he would have +liked best to wear was a monk's cowl or a friar's frock (and I doubt not +that there be many a monk and friar, and clerk too, who would have been +glad to change with him, for not every Religious man has a Religious +heart!).... [There follows a little sermon on Vocation.] + +The King's dress was a plain doublet with a collar of ermine, and over +it a cloak of royal purple lined and trimmed with fur, but cut very +plainly with a round cape such as priests wear. He had the collar of +_Sanctus Spiritus_ over his shoulders, his cap on his head, with a peak +to it, and little plain round shoes (not like those pointed follies that +some wear, and that make a man's foot twice as long as God made it by +His wisdom). My lord cardinal was in his proper dress, and bore himself +very stately. + +The King bade Master Richard stand up, and himself and my lord sat down +in the two chairs beside one another, so that half their faces were in +shadow and half in light. Master Richard saw again that the King looked +somewhat sick, and very melancholy. + +Then the King addressed himself to Master Richard, speaking softly, but +with an appearance of observing him very closely. My lord, too, watched +him, folding his hands in his lap. + +"Now tell me, sir," said the King, "what is this tidings that you bear?" + +Master Richard was a little dismayed at my lord's coming: he had +thought it was to be in private. + +"It was to your ear alone, your grace, that I was bidden to deliver the +message," he said. + +"My lord here is ears and eyes to me," said the King, a little stiffly, +and my lord smiled to hear him, and laid his hand on the King's knee. + +That was answer enough for the holy youth, who was attendant only for +God's will; so he began straightway, and told the King of his +contemplation of eight days before, and of the dryness that fell on him +when he strove to put away his thoughts, and of his words with me who +was his priest, and his coming to London and an the rest. Then he told +him of how he heard mass at saint Edward's altar, and how at the +elevation of the sacring our Lord had told him what tidings he was to +take. + +The King observed him very closely, leaning his head on his hand and his +elbow on the table, and my lord, who had begun by playing with his +chain, ceased, and watched him too. + +Master Richard told me that there was a great silence everywhere when he +had come to the matter of saint Edward's altar; it was such an exterior +silence as is the interior silence that came to him in contemplation. +There appeared no movement anywhere, neither in the room, nor the +palace, nor the world, nor in the three hearts that were beating there. +There was only the great presence of God's Majesty enfolding all. + +When he ceased speaking, the King stared on him for a full minute +without any words, then he took his arm off the table and clasped his +hands. + +"And what was it that our Lord said to you, sir?" he asked softly, and +leaned forward to listen. + +Master Richard looked on the sick eyes, and then at the ruddy prelate's +face that seemed very stern beside it. But he dared not be silent now. + +"It is this, your grace, that our Lord shewed to me," he began slowly, +"that your grace is not as other men are, neither in soul nor in life. +You walk apart from all, even as our Saviour Christ did, when He was +upon earth. When you speak, men do not understand you; they take it +amiss. They would have you make your kingdom to be of this world, and +God will not have it so. _Regnum Dei intra te est._ ['The kingdom of God +is within thee' (from Luke xvii. 21.)] It is that kingdom which shall be +yours. But to gain that kingdom you must suffer a passion, such as that +which Jesu suffered, and this is the tidings that He sends to you. He +bids you make ready for it. It shall be a longer passion than His, but I +know not how long. Yet you must not go apart, as you desire. You must go +this way and that at all men's will, ever within your _portans stigmata +Domini Jesu_. ['Bearing the marks of the Lord Jesu' (from Gal. vi. 17.)] +And the end of it shall be even as His, and as His apostles' was who now +rules Christendom. _Cum senueris, extendes manus tuas, et alius te cinget, +et ducet quo tu non vis._ ['When thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch +forth thy hands; and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou +wouldst not' (John xxi. 18.)] And when you come before the heavenly +glory, and the blessed saints shall ask you of your wounds, you shall +answer them as our Lord answered, '_His plagatus sum in domo eorum qui +diligebant me._'" ["With these I was wounded in the house of them that +loved me" (Zach. xiii. 6.)] + + * * * * * + +When Master Richard had finished speaking, his head and body shook so +much that he could scarce stand, or see the King plainly, and by this he +perceived for a certainty that God was speaking by him. But he was aware +that my lord cardinal was standing up with his hand outstretched and an +appearance of great anger on his face. For indeed those were terrible +things that Master Richard had said--that he should foretell the King's +death in this manner, and all the sorrows that he should go through, +for, as you know, all these words came about. + +Yet it seemed that something restrained my lord from speaking till the +other was done; but when Master Richard went back a step, shaking under +the spirit of God, my lord burst out into words. + +Master Richard could not understand him; there was drumming in his ears, +and the sweat poured from him, but when sight came back he observed my +lord's face, red with passion, turning now to him, now to the King, who +sat still in his place; his white eyebrows went up and down, and his +scarlet cape and his rochet flapped this way and that as he shook his +arms and cried out. + +When he had done there was silence again for a full minute. Master +Richard could hear the breathing of one in the gallery without. + +Then the King rose up without speaking, but looking intently upon the +young man, and still without speaking, went out from the room, and my +lord went after him. + +When Master Richard had stood a little while waiting, and there was no +sound (for the door into the King's parlour was now shut again), he +turned to the other door to go out; for he had delivered his message, +and there was no more to be said. + +The man that kept the door, and whose breathing Master Richard had heard +just now, barred the way, and asked him his business. + +"My business is done," said Master Richard, "I must go home again." + +"And the King?" asked the fellow. + +"The King and my lord are gone back into the parlour." + +There was no cause to keep Master Richard any longer, so the fellow let +him past, and he went down the gallery and the stairs towards the court +that opened upon the hall. + +But before he reached the door, there was a great tumult overhead, and a +noise of men moving and crying, and Master Richard stayed to listen. (I +had almost said that it had been better if he had not stayed, but made +his way out quickly and escaped perhaps; but it is not so, as I now +believe, for our Lord had determined what should be the end.) + +Two fellows came running presently down the stairs up which Master +Richard was looking. One of them was a page of my lord's, a lad dressed +all in purple with the pointed shoes of which I have written before, and +the other the man-at-arms that had kept the door. The lad cried out +shrilly when he saw him standing there, and came down the steps four at +a leap, with his hands outstretched to either wall. Master Richard +thought that he would fall, and stepped forward to catch him, but the +lad recovered himself on the rushes, and then, screaming with anger, +sprang at the young man's throat, seizing it with one hand, and striking +him in the face again and again with the other. + +For an instant Master Richard stood amazed, then he caught the lad's +hands without a word and held them so, looking at the man-at-arms who +was now half-way down the stairs in his plate and mail, and at others +who were following as swiftly as they could. In the court outside, too, +there were footsteps and the sound of talking, and presently the door +was darkened by half a dozen others, who ran up at the tumult, and all +in a moment Master Richard found himself caught from behind and his +hands pulled away, so that the lad was able to strike him again, which +he did, three or four times. + +So he was taken by the men and held. + +Master Richard could not understand what the matter was, as he looked at +the press that gathered every moment on the stairs and in the court. So +he asked one that held him, and the page screamed out his answer above +the tumult of voices and weapons. + +So Master Richard understood, and went upstairs under guard, with the +blood staining his brown and white dress, and his face bruised and +torn, to await when the King should come out of the fit into which he +had fallen, and judge him for the message which he had brought. + + + + +Of Master Richard's second speaking with his Grace: and of his +detention + + +_Abscondes eos in abscondito faciei tuae: a conturbatione hominum._ + +Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy face: from the disturbance of +men.--_Ps. xxx. 21._ + + +VII + + +I scarcely have the heart to write down all that befell Master Richard; +and yet what it pleased God's Majesty that he should suffer, cannot +displease Him to write down nor to think upon.... [There follows a +curiously modern discussion on what I may call the gospel of Pleasure, +which is a very different thing from the gospel of Joy. The former, as +Sir John points out, disregards and avoids pain, the latter deals with +it. He points out acutely that this difference is the characteristic +difference between Greek and Christian philosophy.] + +Master Richard was taken back again by two of the men-at-arms into the +parlour where he had lately seen the King, and was allowed to stand by +the window, looking out upon the river, while one fellow kept one door, +and one the other. + +He strove to keep quiet interiorly, keeping his eyes fixed upon the +broad river in the sunshine and the trees on the other side, and his +heart established on God's Will. He did not know then what kind of a fit +it was into which the King had fallen, nor why it was that himself +should be blamed for it; and when he spoke to the men they gave him +nothing but black looks, and one blessed himself repeatedly, with his +lips moving. + +There came the sound of talking from the inner room, and once or twice +the sound of glass on glass. Without it was a fair day, very hot and +with no clouds. + +Master Richard told me that he had no fear, neither now nor afterwards; +it seemed to him as if all had been done before; he said it was as if he +were one in a play, whose part and words are all assigned beforehand, +as well as the parts and words of the others, by the will of the +writer; so that when violence is done, or injustice, or hard words +spoken, or death suffered, it is all part of the agreed plan and must +not be resisted nor questioned, else all will be spoiled. It appeared to +him too as if the ankret in the cell were privy to it all, and were +standing, observing and approving; for Master Richard remembered what +the holy man had said as to the five wounds marked upon the linen, and +how he would not need to wear them much longer. + + * * * * * + +After about half-an-hour, as he supposed, the voices waxed louder in the +other room; and presently one came out from it in the black dress of a +physician. He was a pale man, shaven clean, a little bald, and very +thin. It was that physician that died last year. + +He said nothing, though his face worked, and he beckoned sharply to +Master Richard. + +Master Richard went immediately across the floor and through into the +further room. + +There were a dozen persons gathered there, all staring upon the King, +who sat in a great chair by the table. Two or three of these were +servants, and the rest of them, with my lord cardinal, the nobles that +had been in the palace at the time of the King's seizure. My lord +cardinal was standing by the chair, very stern and anxious-looking; and +all turned their faces, and there was an angry whisper from their +mouths, as the young man came forward and halted; and the physician shut +to the door. + +But Master Richard did not observe them closely at that time; for he was +looking upon the King. + +The King sat very upright in his chair; his hands rested on the carved +arms; and his face and eyes were as if made of Caen stone, chalky and +hard. He was looking out from the room, Master Richard said; and Master +Richard knew at once what it was that he was seeing. It was that of +which the holy youth had spoken; and was nothing else than the passion +and death that came upon him afterwards. The words that the King had +heard had opened the eyes of his soul, and he was now seeing for +himself. + +Before that any could speak or hinder, Master Richard was on his knees +by the King, and had laid his lips to the white right-hand, seeing as he +did so the red ring on the first finger. My lord cardinal sprang forward +to tear him off, but the King turned his stony eyes; and my lord fell +back. + +Then Master Richard knew that he had not given the whole message; and +that our Lord had not intended it at first. The message of the passion +and death was to be first; and the second, second--first the wound, and +then the balm. + +So he began to speak; and these were the words as he told them to me. + +"My lord King," he said, "Our Lord does not leave us comfortless when He +sends us sorrow. This is a great honour, greater than the crown that +you bear, to bear the crown of thorns. That bitter passion of Christ +that He bore for our salvation is wrought out in the Body which is His +Church, and especially in those members, which, like His sacred hands +and feet, receive the nails into themselves. Happy are those members +that receive the nails; they are the more honourable; it was on His feet +that He went about to do good; and with His hands that He healed and +blessed and gave His precious body; and with His burning heart that He +loves us. + +"My lord King; men will name you fool and madman and crowned calf; it is +to their shame that they do so, and to your honour. For so they named +our Saviour. All who set not their minds on this world are accounted +fools; but who will be the merrier in the world that is to come? + +"And, last, our Lord has bestowed on your highness an honour that He +bestows upon few, but which Himself suffered; and that, the knowledge of +what is to be. In this manner the passion is borne a thousand times a +day, by foreknowledge; and for every such pain there is a joy awarded. +It is for this reason that you may bear yourself rightly, and that He +may crown you more richly that our Lord has sent me to you, and bidden +me tell you this." + + * * * * * + +All this while Master Richard was looking upon the King's face, but +there was no alteration in his aspect. It was as the colour of ashes, +and his eyes like stone; and yet Master Richard knew very well that his +grace heard what was said, but could not answer it. (It was so with him +often afterwards: he would sit thus without speaking or answering what +was said to him: he would go thus to mass and dinner and to bed, as pale +as a spirit: he would even ride thus among his army, with his crown on +his head, and his sword in his hand, dumb but not deaf; and looking upon +what others could not see: and all, as those about him knew very well, +began from the hearing of the message that Master Richard Raynal +brought to him from God's Majesty). + +While Master Richard was speaking the rest kept silence: for I think +that somewhat held them for pity of those two young men--for the one +that sat in such stiff agony, and for the other near as pale, and red +with his own blood, that spoke so eloquently. But when he had done and +had kissed the white hand again, my lord cardinal came forward, pushed +him aside, and himself began to speak in a voice that was at once +pitiful and angry, crying upon the King to answer, telling him that he +was bewitched and under the power of Satan through the machinations of +Master Richard, and blessing him again and again. + +Master Richard stood aside watching, and wondering that my lord could +speak so, and not understand the truth; and he looked round at the +others to see if any there understood. But they were all dumb, except +for muttering, and gave him black looks, and blessed themselves as their +eyes met his; so he committed himself to prayer. [Sir John preaches a +little sermon here on internal recollection, and the advantages of the +practice.] + +It was of no avail; the King could not speak; and presently the +physician, Master Blytchett, [this is an extraordinary name, and is +obviously a corruption of some English name, but I do not know what it +can be, nor why it was retained, when all others were erased.] came +and whispered in my lord's ear as he knelt at the King's knees. My +lord turned his head and nodded, and Master Richard was seized from +behind and pulled through the door. The man who had pulled him was one +of the servants. I saw him afterwards and spoke with him, when he was +sorry for what he had done; but now he spat on Master Richard fiercely, +for the door was shut; and blessed himself mightily meanwhile. + +Then he spoke to the man that kept the door; and said that Master +Richard was to be taken down and kept close, until there was need of him +again; for that the King was no better. + +So Master Richard was brought downstairs, and through the guard-room +into one of the little cells: and as he went he was thinking on the +words of our Saviour. + +_Si male locutus sum, testimonium perhibe de malo: si autem bene, quid +me caedis?_ ["If I have spoken ill, give testimony of the evil, but if +well, why strikest thou me?" (John xviii. 23.)] + + + + +Of the Parson's Disquisition on the whole matter + + +_In columna nubis loquebatur ad eos._ + +He spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud.--_Ps. xcviii. 7._ + + +VIII + + +{At this point of the narrative, in consideration of what has preceded +and what is yet to follow, Sir John Chaldfield thinks it proper to +enlarge at great length upon the threefold nature of man, and the +various characters and functions that emerge from the development of +each part. + +For the sake of those who are more interested in the adventures of +Master Richard and the King than in a medieval priest's surmises as to +their respective psychological states, I shall take leave to summarise a +few of his remarks and omit the rest. The whole section, in fact, might +be omitted without any detriment to the history; and may be ignored by +those who have arrived as far as this point in the reading of the book. + +Sir John is somewhat obscure; and I suspect that he does not fully +understand the theory that he attempts to state, which I suppose was +taught him originally by Richard Raynal himself, and subsequently +illustrated by the priest's own studies. He instances several cases as +examples of the classes of persons to which he refers; but his obscurity +is further deepened by the action of the zealous and discreet scribe, +who, as I have said in the preface, has been careful to omit nearly all +the names in Sir John's original manuscript. + +Briefly, his theory is as follows--at least so far as I can understand +him. + + * * * * * + +It is at once man's glory and penalty that he is a mixed being. By the +possession of his complex nature he is capable of both height and +depth. He can devote himself to God or Satan; and there are two methods +by which he can attain to proficiency in either of those services. He +can issue forth through his highest or lowest self, according to his own +will and predispositions. + +Most men are predisposed to act through the lower or physical self; and +by an interior intention direct their actions towards good or evil. +Those that serve God in this manner are often incapable of high mystical +acts; but they refrain generally from sin; and when they sin return +through Penance. Those who so serve Satan sin freely, and make no +efforts at reformation. A few of these, by a wholehearted devotion to +evil, succeed in establishing a relation between themselves and physical +nature, and gain a certain control over the lower powers inherent in it. +To this class belong the less important magicians and witches; and even +some good Christians possess such powers (which we now call psychical) +which, generally speaking, they are at a loss to understand. Such +persons can blast or wither by the eye; they have a strange authority +over animals; [I append a form of words which Sir John quotes, and +which, he says, may be used sometimes lawfully even by christened men. +It is to be addressed in necessity to a troublesome snake. "By Him who +created thee I adjure thee that thou remain in the spot where thou art, +whether it be thy will to do so or otherwise. And I curse thee with the +curse wherewith the Lord hath cursed thee."] and are able to set up a +connection between inanimate material objects and organic beings. [He +instances the wasting of an enemy by melting a representation of him +fashioned in wax.] But such magic, even when malevolent, need not be +greatly feared by Christian men living in grace: its physical or +psychical influence can be counteracted by corresponding physical acts: +such things as the sign of the cross, the use of sacramentals, the +avoidance of notoriously injurious follies such as beginning work on +Friday, the observance of such matters as wearing Principium Evangelii +secundum Joannem on the person, and the paying of ocular deference to +Saint Christopher on rising--these precautions and others like them are +usually a sufficient safeguard. [I am afraid it is impossible to clear +Sir John wholly of the charge of superstition. The "Beginning of the +Gospel according to John" was the fourteen verses read as the last +Gospel after mass. A copy of this passage was often carried, sewn into +the clothes, to protect from various ills. The image of St. Christopher +usually stood near the door of the church to ensure against violent +death all who looked on it in the morning.] + +But all this is a very different matter from the high mysticism of +contemplatives, ascetics, and Satanic adepts. + +These are persons endowed with extraordinary dispositions, who have +resolved to deal with invisible things through the highest faculty of +their nature. The Satanic adepts are greatly to be feared, even in +matters pertaining to salvation, for, although their power has been +vastly restricted by the union of the divine and human natures in the +Incarnation of the Son of God, yet they are capable by the exercise of +their power, of obscuring spiritual faculties, and bringing to bear +grievous temptations, as well as of afflicting by sickness, misfortune +and death. + +These select souls are the great mages of all time; and their leader, +since the year of redemption, Simon Magus himself, could be dealt with +by none other than the Vicar of Christ and prince of apostles. + +It is not every man, even with the worst will in the world, who is +capable of rising to this sinister position: for it is not enough to +renounce the faith, to make a league with Satan, to insult the cross and +to commit other enormities: there must also be resident in the aspirant +a peculiar faculty, corresponding to, if not identical with, the +glorious endowment of the contemplative. If, however, all these and +other conditions are fulfilled, the initiated person is severed finally +from the Body of Christ and incorporated into that of Satan, through +which mysterious regeneration it receives supernatural powers +corresponding to those of the baptised soul. + +Finally Sir John considers those whom he calls "God's adepts," and +among those, though in different classes, he places Richard Raynal +and the King. [A little later on he also mentions King Solomon as an +eminent pre-Christian adept, and Enoch.] These adepts, he says, are of +every condition and character, but that which binds them together is the +fact that they all alike deal directly with invisible things, and not, +as others do, through veils and symbols. Since the Incarnation, however, +all baptized persons who frequent the sacraments are in a certain degree +adepts, for in those sacraments they may be truly said to see, handle, +hear and taste the Word of Life. Other powers, however, are still +reserved to those who are the masters of the spiritual life;--for not +all persons, however holy, are contemplatives, ecstatics, or seers. + +Now contemplation is an arduous labour; it is not, as some ignorant +persons think, a process of idle absorption; it is rather a state of +strenuous endeavour, aided at any rate in its first stages by acts of +steady detachment from the world of sense. Richard Raynal had passed +through the first rigour of that purgative stage in the short period of +one year, and although he still lived a detached life, and practised +various austerities, he was so far free of danger that he was able, as +has been already remarked, to dig and talk without interrupting the +exercise of his higher faculties. He had then passed to the illuminative +stage, and had remained, again for one year, in the process of being +informed, taught and kindled in preparation for the third and last stage +of union with the Divine--elsewhere named the Way of Perfection. He had +been rewarded by various sensible gifts, particularly by that of +Ecstasy, by which the soul passes, as fully as an embodied soul can +pass, into the state of eternity. Here mysteries are seen plainly, +though they seldom can be declared in words, or at least only haltingly +and under physical images that are not really adequate to that which +they represent. [That which Richard calls Calor, or Warmth, appears +to be one of these.] + +With the King, however, it was different. By the exigencies of his +vocation he was unable to live the properly contemplative life; +solitude, an essential to that life, was impossible to him: but he had +done what he could by asceticism and the habit of recollection; and, +further, his soul had been naturally one of those which had the +necessary endowments of the contemplative. + +The purgative, illuminative and unitive stages had therefore been +confused, and had come upon him simultaneously, though gradually; and +this as was to be expected, had resulted in intense suffering. There was +for him no gradation by which he passed slowly upwards from detachment +to union. Richard Raynal's words to him had coincided with the +struggling emergence of his own soul on to the higher plane; and he had +opened his spiritual eyes on to a terrible future for which he had had +but little preparation. The result had been a kind of paralysis of his +whole nature, and henceforward the rest of his life, Sir John +maintains, had been darkened by his first definite experience in the +mystical region. If indeed this King was none other than Henry the +Sixth, Sir John's explanation is an interesting commentary on that +melancholy personage. Richard then, according to this hypothesis, +found joy in his contemplation because he had been trained to look for +it; and Henry had found sorrow because he had been overwhelmed by the +suddenness of the revelation and his men unpreparedness. Sir John adds +that it is difficult to know which of the two lives would be more +pleasing to God Almighty. + +As regards his whole statement I feel it is impossible to say more than +to quote the opinion of a modern mystic to whom I submitted the +original; which was to the effect that it contains a little nonsense, a +good deal of truth, and a not intolerable admixture of superstition. He +added further that Sir John must not be judged hardly; for he was +limited by an inadequate vocabulary and an ignorance of many of the +terms that his scanty reading enabled him to employ.} + + + + +How Master Richard took his meat: and of Master Lieutenant's whipping +of him + + +_Domine, ante te omne desiderium meum; et gemitus meus a te non est +absconditus._ + +Lord, all my desire is before Thee: and my groaning is not hidden from +Thee.--_Ps. xxxvii. 10._ + + +IX + + +It was a little cell in which Master Richard found himself that +afternoon, after he had passed through the guardroom and heard the anger +and laughter of the men-at-arms, and sustained their blows, and when he +had looked about it, at the little narrow window high up upon the wall, +and the water that dripped here and there from the stones, and the +strong door shut upon him, the first thing that he did was to go down +upon his knees in the puddle, and thank God for solitude. + +(There be two kinds of men in the world, those that love solitude, and +those that hate it; for there be two kinds of souls, the full and the +empty. Those that be full have enough to occupy them with, and those +that be empty are for ever seeking somewhat wherewith to occupy them.) + +When he had done that he looked round again upon the walls and the +ceiling and the floor, and sitting down upon the wood that was to be his +pillow, first girding up his kirtle that it might not be fouled, he +sought to unite himself with all that he saw, that it might be his +friend and not his foe. So he told me when I asked him, but I do not +know if I understood him aright. + +There he sat then a great while, communing with God, and the saints, +with his cell and with his soul, and after a little time his interior +quiet was again restored. Then, as he knew he would have no light that +night, and that the cell would grow dark early, for his window looked +eastwards, and was a very little one, he made haste to say the rest of +his office from the book that he had with him. But he said it slowly, as +the Carthusians use, sucking the sweetness out of every word, and saying +_Jesu_ or _Mary_ at every star [the break in each verse of the psalter +is marked with an asterisk], and after a while the sweetness +was so piercing that he could scarcely refrain from crying out. + +When he had done he looked again at his window, and saw that the strip +of sky was becoming green with evening light, and he thought upon his +hazels at home. + +Half an hour afterwards a fellow came with his bread and water for +supper, on a wooden plate and in a great jug, set them down and went out +without speaking. + + * * * * * + +Now I will tell you all that Master Richard did; it was his custom when +he was at home, and he observed it here too. + +He first poured water upon his hands, saying the psalm _lavabo_, and he +dried them upon the sleeves of his habit, for he had no napkin; then he +set the second stool before him, and broke the bread upon it into five +parts, in memory of the five wounds, setting two portions here and two +there, and the fifth in the middle. Then he blessed the food, looking +upon it a great while, and seeing with the eyes of his soul his +Saviour's body stretched upon the rood. Then he began to eat, dipping +each morsel into its proper wound, so that it tasted to him sweet as +wine, and last of all he ate that which lay in the middle, thinking on +the heart that was pierced for love of him. Then he drank water, blessed +himself, and gave thanks to God, and last of all poured water once more +upon his hands. + +Master Richard has often told me that there is no such sweet food to be +found anywhere--(save only the sacrament of the altar)--as that which is +so blessed and so eaten, and indeed I have found it so myself, when I +have had patience to do so with it. [Sir John makes here a few rather +trite remarks upon holy bread and ashes and upon various methods of +devotion. His words are quite irrelevant, therefore I omit them. He is +careful, however, to warn his flock that not every form of devotion is +equally suitable for every soul.].... + +Now God was preparing three trials for Master Richard, and the first +came on the following morning very early. + +He had not slept very well; the noise from the guard-room without was +too great, and when that was quiet there was still the foulness of the +place to keep him awake, for all the floor was strewn with rotten rags +and straw and bones, as it were a kennel. His wounds, besides, had not +been tended, and he was very sick when he awoke, and for a while scarce +knew where he was. I think, perhaps, he had taken the fever then. + +He heard presently steps in the way that led to his cell, and talking, +and immediately his door was unlocked and opened. There came in a +lieutenant of the King's guard, richly dressed, and in half-armour, with +his sword at his side. He had a heavy, hairy face, and as Master +Richard sat up on his blanket he perceived that the man was little +better than an animal--gross-bodied and gross-souled. I saw the fellow +later, though I did not speak with him, and I judge as Master Richard +judged. There were four men behind him. + +Master Richard stood up immediately to salute the King's officer, and +stood awaiting what should follow, but he swayed with sickness as he +stood. + +The officer said a word to his men, and they haled Master Richard forth, +pulling him roughly, although he went willingly, as well he was able for +his sickness, through the passage and into the guard-room. + +There was a table set there on a step at the upper end with a chair +behind it; and at the lower end was a couple of men cleaning their +harness beneath a gallery that was held up by posts; the rest were out +changing guard. The door into the court was wide at first, and the sweet +air streamed in, refreshing Master Richard like wine after the stench +that was in his nostrils, and making him think upon the country again +and running water and birds, but Master-Lieutenant, when he had taken +his seat, bade them close it, and to set Master Richard before him; all +of which they did, and so held him. + +Then he began to speak. + +"Now, sir," he said roughly, "my lord King is at the point of death, and +I am here to examine you. What is it that you have done to his grace?" + +Now Master Richard knew that the King could not die, else where were the +passion he was to undergo? And if the officer could lie in this matter, +why should he not lie in other matters? + +"Where is your authority," he said "to examine me?" + +"What sir! do you question that? You shall see my authority by and bye." + +"I am willing to answer you as one man to another" said Master Richard +softly, "but not to plead, until I have seen your authority." + +"Oh! you are willing to answer!" said the officer, smiling like an angry +dog. "Very well, then. What have you done to his grace?" + +"I have done nothing," said Master Richard, "save give the message that +our Lord bade me give." + +Master-Lieutenant laughed short and sharp at that, and the two men that +held Master Richard laughed with him. (The other two men were gone to +the other end of the hall, and Master Richard could not see what they +were doing.) + +"Oho!" said the officer, "that is all that you have done to his grace! I +would advise you, sir, not to play the fool with me. We know very well +what you have done; but we would know from you how and when you did it." + +Master Richard said nothing to that. He felt very light in the head, +what with his wounds and the bad air, and the strangeness of the +position. He knew that he was smiling, but he could not prevent it. His +smiling angered the man. + +"You dare smile at me, sir!" he cried. "I will teach you to smile!"--and +he struck the table with his hand, so that the ink-horn danced upon it. + +"I cannot help smiling," said Master Richard. "I think I am faint, sir." + +One of the men shook him by the arm, and Master Richard's sense came +back a little. + +When he could see again clearly (for just now the face of the officer +and the woodwork behind him swam like images seen in water), +Master-Lieutenant had a little bottle in his hand. He bade Master +Richard look upon it and asked him what it was. + +"I think it to be my Quinte Essence" said Master Richard. + +"You acknowledge that then!" cries the man. "And what is Quinte +Essence?" + +"It is distilled of blood" said Master Richard. + +The officer set the bottle down again upon the table. + +"Now sir" he said, "that is enough to cast you. None who was a Christian +man would have such a thing. Say _paternoster_." [This seems to have +been one of the tests in trials for witchcraft.] + +"_Paternoster_ ..." began Master Richard. + +Now, my children, I cannot explain what this signified, but Master +Richard could get no further than that. I know that I myself cannot say +any of the prayers of mass when I am away from the altar, and other +priests have told me the same of themselves, but it seems to me very +strange that a man should not at any time be able to say _paternoster_. +Whether it was that Master Richard was sick, or that the officer's face +troubled him, or whether that God Almighty desired to put him to a +grievous test, I know not. But he could not say it. He repeated over and +over again, _Paternoster ... Paternoster_, and swayed as he stood. + +The officer's face grew dark and a little afraid; he blessed himself +three or four times, and breathed through his nostrils heavily. Master +Richard felt himself smiling again, and presently fell to laughing, and +as he laughed he perceived that the men who held him drew away from him +a little, and blessed themselves too. + +"I cannot help it," sobbed Master Richard presently, "to think that I +cannot say _paternoster_!" + +When he had recovered himself somewhat, he perceived that the two other +men were come up behind him. + +Then the officer bade him turn and look, and he did so, with the tears +of that dreadful laughter still upon his cheeks. + +The two men were standing there; one had a great hangman's whip of +leather in his hand, and the other a rope. + +"Now, sir;" said the officer behind him, "here is enough authority for +you and me. Shall I bid them begin, or will you tell us what it is that +you have done to the King?" + +Now, Master Richard had nothing to tell, as you know; he could not have +saved himself in any case from the torment, but our Lord allowed him to +have this trial, to see how he would bear himself. He might have cried +out for mercy, or told a false tale as men so often have done, but he +did neither of these things. The laughter again rose in his throat, but +he drove it down, and after looking upon the men's faces and the arms of +the man that held the whip, he turned once more to the officer. + +"I have scourged myself too often," he said, "to fear such pain; and our +Saviour bore stripes for me." + +Then (for the men had released him that he might turn round) he undid +the button at his throat, and threw back the kirtle, knotting the +sleeves about his waist, and so stood, naked to his middle, awaiting the +punishment. + +He told me afterwards that never had he felt such lightness and freedom +as he felt at this time. His body yearned for the pain, as it yearned +for the sting and thrill of cold water on a cold day. When he was +telling me, I understood better how it was that the holy martyrs were so +merry in the midst of their torments. [Sir John relates at considerable +length the Acts of St. Laurence and St. Sebastian.].... + +When the officer had looked on him a moment, he bade him turn round, and +so, I suppose, sat staring upon the youth's holy shoulders that were +covered with the old stripes that he had given himself. At last Master +Richard faced about again; and again, as he looked upon the solemn face +of the man, he began to laugh. It seemed a marvellous jest, he thought, +that so long a consideration should be given to so small a matter as a +whipping. I am glad I was not there to bear that laughter; I think it +would quite have broken my heart. + + * * * * * + +Well, my children, I cannot write what followed, but the end of it was +that the post to which Master Richard's hands were tied, and the face of +Master-Lieutenant standing behind it, and the wall behind him with the +weapons upon it, grew white and frosted to the young man's eyes, and +began to toss up and down, and a great roaring sounded in his ears. He +thought, he told me afterwards, that he was on Calvary beneath the rood, +and that the rocks were rending about him. + +So he swooned clean away, and was carried back again to his prison. + + * * * * * + +Now I learned afterwards that the officer had no authority such as he +pretended, but that he had sworn to his fellows that he could find out +the truth by a pretence of it, thinking Master Richard to be a poor +crazed fool who would cry out and confess at the touch of the whip. + +But Master Richard did not cry out for mercy. And I hold that he passed +this first trial bravely. + + + + +Of the Second Temptation of Master Richard: and how he overcame it + + +_Exacuerunt ut gladium linguas suas: interderunt arcum rem amaram: ut +sagittent in occultis immaculatum._ + +They have whetted their tongues like a sword: they have bent their bow a +bitter thing, to shoot in secret the undefiled.--_Ps. lxiii, 4, 5._ + + +X + + +As Master Richard had striven to serve God in the trinity of his nature, +so was he to be tried in the trinity of his nature. It was first in his +body that he was tempted, by pain and the fear of it; and his second +trial came later in the same day--which was in his mind. + +He lay abed that morning till his dinner was brought to him, knowing +sometimes what passed--how a rat came out and looked on him awhile, +moving its whiskers; how the patch of sunlight upon the wall darkened +and passed; and how a bee came in and hummed a great while in the room; +and sometimes conscious of nothing but his own soul. He could make no +effort, he told me, and he did not attempt it. He only lay still, +committing himself to God Almighty. + +He could not eat the meat, even had he wished it, but he drank a little +broth and ate some bread, and then slept again. + + * * * * * + +He did not know what time it was when he awoke and found one by his bed, +looking down on him, he thought, compassionately. It was growing towards +evening, for it way darker, or else his eyes were heavy and confused +with sickness, but he could not see very clearly the face of the man who +stood by him. + +The man presently kneeled down by the bed, murmuring with pity as it +seemed, and Master Richard felt himself raised a little, and then laid +down again, and there was something soft at the nape of his neck over +the wooden pillow and against his torn shoulders. There was something, +too, laid across his body and legs, as if to keep him from chill. + +He said nothing for a while; he did not know what to say, but he looked +steadily at the face that looked on him, and saw that it was that of a +young man, not five years older than himself, shaven clean like a clerk, +and the eyes of him seemed pitiful and loving. + +"_Laudetur Jesus Christus!_" said Master Richard presently, as his +custom was when he awoke. + +"_Amen_," said the man beside the bed. + +That comforted Master Richard a little--that the man should say _Amen_ +to his praise of Jesu Christ, so he asked him who he was and what he did +there. + +The young man said nothing to that, but asked him instead how he did, +and his voice was so smooth and tender that Master Richard was further +encouraged. + +"I do far better than our Lord did," he answered. "He had none to +minister to Him." + +It seemed that the young man was moved at that, for he hid his face in +his hands a moment. + +Then he began to pity Master Richard, saying that it was a shame that he +had been so evilly treated, and that Master-Lieutenant should smart for +it if it ever came to his grace's ears. But he said this so strangely +that Master Richard was astonished. + +"And how does the King do?" he asked. + +"The King is at the point of death," said the young man solemnly. + +"It is no more than the point then," said Master Richard confidently, +"and a point that will not pierce him, else what of the passion that he +must suffer?" + +The young man seemed to look on him very steadily and earnestly at that. + +"Why do you look at me like that?" he asked him. "I have done nothing to +his grace save give my tidings." + +"Master Hermit," said the young man very gravely, "I entreat you not to +speak like that." + +"How should I speak then?" he asked. + +The young man did not answer immediately, but he moved on his knees a +little closer to the bed, and took Master Richard's hand softly between +his own, and so held it, caressing it. Master Richard told me that this +action moved him more than all else; he felt the tears rise to his eyes, +and he gave a sob or two. It is always so with noble natures after great +pain. [Sir John relates here the curious history of a girl who was +nearly burned as a witch, and that when she was reprieved she yielded at +once to the solicitations of marriage from a man whom she had always +hated, but who was the first to congratulate her on her escape. But the +story sadly interrupts the drama of the main narrative, and therefore I +omit it.].... + +Then the young man spoke very sweetly and kindly. + +"Master Hermit," he said, "you must bear with me for bringing sad +tidings to you. But will you hear them now or to-morrow?" + +"I will hear them now," said Master Richard. + +So the young man proceeded. + +"One came back to-day from your home in the country. He was sent there +yesterday night by my lord cardinal. He spoke with your parson, Sir +John, and what he heard from him he has told to my lord, and I heard +it." + +(This was a lie, my children. No man from London had spoken with me. But +you shall see what follows.) + +"And what did Sir John tell him," asked Master Richard quietly. "Did he +say he knew nothing of me?" + +Now he asked this, thinking that perhaps this was a method of tempting +him. And so it was, but worse than he thought it. + +"No, poor lad," said the young man very pitifully, "Sir John knew you +well enough. The messenger saw your little house, too, and the hazels +about it; and the stream, and the path that you have made; and there +were beasts there, he said, a stag and pig that looked lamentably out +from the thicket." + +Now observe the Satanic guile of this! For at the mention of all his +little things, and his creatures that loved him, Master Richard could +not hold back his tears, for he had thought so often upon them, and +desired to see them again. So the young man stayed in his talk, and +caressed his hand again, and murmured compassionately. + +Presently Master Richard was quiet, and asked the young man to tell him +what the parson had said. + +"To-morrow," said the young man, making as if to rise. + +"To-day," said Master Richard. + +So the young man went on. + +"He went to the parsonage with Sir John, and talked with him there a +long while--" + +"Did he see my books?" said Master Richard in his simplicity. + +"Yes, poor lad; he saw your books. And then Sir John told him what he +thought." + +"And what was that?" said Master Richard, faint with the thought of the +answer. + +The young man caressed his hand again, and then pressed it as if to give +him courage. + +"Sir John told him that you were a good fellow; that you injured neither +man nor beast; and that all spoke well of you." + +Then the young man stayed again. + +"Ah! tell me," cried Master Richard. + +"Well, poor lad; as God sees us now, Sir John told the messenger that he +thought you to be deluded; that you deemed yourself holy when you were +not, and that you talked with the saints and our Lord, but that these +appearances were no more than the creations of your own sick brain. He +said that he humoured you; for that he feared you would be troublesome +if he did not, and that all the folk of the village said the same thing +to you, to please you and keep you quiet.--Ah! poor child!" + +The young man cried out as if in sorrow, and lifted Master Richard's +hand and kissed it. + +Master Richard told me that when he heard that it was as a blow in the +face to him. He could not answer, nor even think clearly. It was as if a +gross darkness, full of wings and eyes and mocking faces pressed upon +him, and he believed that he cried out, and that he must have swooned, +for when he came to himself again his face was all wet with water that +the young man had thrown upon it. + +It was a minute or two more before he could speak, and during that time +it appeared to him that he did not think himself, but that ideas moved +before his eyes, manifesting themselves. At first there was a doubt as +to whether the young man had spoken the truth, and whether any messenger +had been to the village at all, but the mention of the hazels, the stag +and the pig, and his books, dispelled that thought. + +Again it did not seem possible that the young man should have lied as +to what it was that I was said to have answered; if they had wished to +lie, surely they would have lied more entirely, and related that I had +denied all knowledge of him. But the falsehood was so subtle an one; it +was so well interwoven with truth that I count it to have been +impossible for Master Richard in his sickness and confusion to have +disentangled the one from the other. I have heard a physician say, too, +that the surest manner to perplex a man is to suggest to him that his +brain is clouded; at such words he often loses all knowledge of self; he +doubts his own thoughts, and even his senses. + +This, then, was Master Richard's temptation--that he should doubt +himself, his friends, and even our Lord who had manifested Himself so +often and so kindly to the eyes of his soul. + +Yet he did not yield to it, although he could not repel it. He cried +upon Jesu in his heart, and then set the puzzle by. + +He looked at the young man once more. + +"And why do you tell me this?" he asked. + +The clerk (if he were a clerk) answered him first by another +Judas-caress or two, and then by Judas-words. + +"Master Hermit," he said, "I am but a poor priest, but my words have +some weight with two or three persons of the court; and these again have +some weight with my lord cardinal. I asked leave to come and tell you +this as kindly as I could, and to see what you would say. I observed you +in the hall the other day, and I have a good report of your +reasonableness from the monastery. I conceived, too, a great love for +you when I saw you, and wish you well; and I think I can do you a great +service, and get you forth from this place that you may go whither you +will,--to your house by the stream or to some other place where none +know you. Would it not be pleasant to you to be in the country again, +and to serve God with all your might in some sweet and secret place +where men are not?" + +"I can serve God here as there," answered Master Richard. + +"Well--let that be. But what if God Almighty wishes you to be at peace? +We must not rush foolishly upon death. That is forbidden to us." + +"I do not seek death," said Master Richard. + +The clerk leaned over him a little, and Master Richard saw his eyes bent +upon him with great tenderness. + +"Master Hermit," he said, "I entreat you not to be your own enemy. You +see that those that know you best love you, but they do not think you to +be what you think you are---" + +"I am nothing but God's man, and a sinner," said the lad. + +"Well, they think your visions and the rest to be but delusions. And if +they be delusions, why should not other matters be delusions too?" + +"What matters?" asked Master Richard. + +"Such matters as the tidings that you brought to the King." + +"And what is it you would have me to do?" asked Master Richard again +after a silence. + +"It is only a little thing, poor lad--such a little thing! and then you +will be able to go whither you will." + +"And what is that little thing?" + +"It is to tell me that you think them delusions too." + +"But I do not think them so," said Master Richard. + +"Think as you will then, Master Hermit; but, you know, when folks are +sick we may tell them anything without sin. And the King is sick to +death. I do not believe that you have bewitched him: you have too good a +face and air for that--and for the matter of the _paternoster_ I do not +value it at a straw. The King is sick with agony at what he thinks will +come upon him after your words. He will not listen to my lord cardinal: +he sits silent and terrified, and has taken no food to-day. But if you +will but tell him, Master Hermit, that you were mistaken in your +tidings--that it was but a fancy, and that you know better now--all will +be well with him and with you, and with us all who love you both." + +So the clerk spoke, tempting him, and leaned back again on his heels; +and Master Richard lay a great while silent. + + * * * * * + +Now, I do not know who was this young man, whether he were a clerk or +whether he were not a devil in form of a man. I could hear nothing of +him at Court when I went there. It may be that he was one of those idle +fellows that had come to Master Richard from time to time to ask him to +make them hermits with him, else how did he know the matters of the stag +and the pig and the stream and the rest? But it does not greatly matter +whether his soul were a devil's or a man's, for in any case his words +were Satan's. If I had not heard what came after I should have believed +this temptation to be the most subtle ever devised in hell and permitted +from heaven. He spoke so tenderly and so sweetly; he commanded his +features so perfectly; he seemed to speak with such love and +reasonableness. + +Yet I would have you know that Master Richard did not yield by a hair's +breadth in thought. He examined the temptation carefully, setting aside +altogether the question as to whether I had spoken as this young man had +said that I had. Whether I had spoken so or not made no difference. It +was this that he was bidden to do, to say that he had erred in his +tidings, to confess that they were not from God; to be a faithless +messenger to our Lord. + +He examined this, then, looking carefully at all parts of the +temptation. [Sir John appends at this point two or three paragraphs, +distinguishing between the observing of a temptation of thought and +the yielding to it. He instances Christ's temptation in the Garden of +Gethsemane.].... + +At the end Master Richard opened his eyes and looked steadily upon the +young man's face. + +"Take this answer," he said, "to those that sent you. I will neither +hear nor consider such words any more. If I yield in this matter, and +say one word to the King or to any other, by which any may understand +that my message was a delusion, or that I spoke of myself and not from +our Lord, then I pray that our Lord may blot my name out of the Book of +Life." + + * * * * * + +So Master Richard answered and closed his eyes to commune with God. And +the young man went away sighing but speaking no word. + + + + +Of the Dark Night of the Soul + + +_De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine exaudi vocem meam._ + +Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my +voice.--_Ps. cxxix. 1, 2._ + + +XI + + +The third temptation was so fierce and subtle, that I doubt whether I +wholly understood it when Master Richard tried to tell it to me. He did +not tell me all, and he could answer but few questions, and I fear that +I am not able to tell even all that I heard from him. It was built up +like a house, he said, stone by stone, till it fenced him in, but he did +not know what was all its nature till he saw my lord cardinal. + +A soul such as was Master Richard's must have temptations that seem as +nothing to coarser beings such as myself: as a bird that lives in the +air has dangers that a crawling beast cannot have. There are perils in +the height that are not perils on the earth. A bird may strike a tree or +a tower; his wings may fail him; he may fly too near the sun till he +faint in its heat; he cannot rest; if he is overtaken by darkness he +cannot lie still. [Sir John enumerates at some length other such dangers +to bird life.].... + + * * * * * + +Now Master Richard described the state into which he fell under a +curious name that I cannot altogether understand. He said that there be +three _nights_ through which the contemplative soul must pass or ever it +come to the dawn. The first two he had gone through during his life in +the country; the first is a kind of long-continued dryness, when +spiritual things have no savour; the second is an affection of the mind, +when not even meditation [This is an exercise distinct from contemplation +apparently. I include this passage, in spite of its technicalities, for +obvious reasons.] appears possible; the mind is like a restless fly that +is at once weary and active. This second is not often attained to by +ordinary souls, though all men who serve God have a shadow of it. It is +a very terrible state. Master Richard told me that before he suffered it +he had not conceived that such conflict was possible to man. It was +during this time that the fiend came to him in form of a woman. The +imagination that cannot fix itself upon the things of God is wide-awake +to all other impressions of sense. [I do not think that Sir John +understands what he is writing about, though he does his best to appear +as if he did. I have omitted a couple of incoherent paragraphs.].... + +Now, these two first _nights_ I think I understand, for he told me that +what he suffered during his whipping in the hall and the strife of his +mind with the clerk were each a kind of symbol of them. But the third, +which he called the _Night of the Soul_ I do not understand at all. [It +is remarkable that this phrase frequently occurs in the writings of St. +John of the Cross, though he treats it differently. Until I came across +it in this MS. I had always thought that the Spanish mystic was the +first to use it.] This only can I say of the state itself: that Master +Richard said that it was in a manner what our Lord suffered upon the +rood when he cried to His Father _Eloi, Eloi, etc._ + +But I can tell you something of the signs of that affliction, as they +shewed themselves to Master Richard. Of the interior state of his soul I +cannot even think without terror and confusion. Compared with the +darkness of it, the other _nights_, he said, are but as clouds across +the sun on a summer's day compared with a moonless midnight in winter. +He had suffered a shadow of it before, when he was entering the +contemplative state, or the prefect Way of Union. Now it fell upon him. +Before I tell you how it came, I must tell you that this _night_, as he +explained it, takes its occasion from some particular thought, and the +thought from which it sprang you shall hear presently. + +When the clerk had left him, sighing, as I said, as if with a kindly +weariness (to encourage the other to call for him, I suppose), Master +Richard committed himself again to God and lay still. + +A fellow came in soon with his supper (for it was now growing dark), set +it by him and went out. Master Richard took a little food, and after a +while, as his custom was after repeating the name of Jesu, began to +think on God, on the Blessed and Holy Trinity, and on His Attributes, +numbering them one by one and giving thanks for each, and marking the +colour and place of each in the glory of the throne. He was too weary to +say vespers or compline, and presently he fell asleep, but whether it +was common sleep or not I do not know. + +In his sleep it seemed to him that he was walking along a path beneath +trees, as he had walked on his way to London; but it was twilight, and +he could not see clearly. There was none with him, and he was afraid, +and did not know what he feared. He was afraid of what lay behind, and +on all sides, and he was yet more afraid of what lay before him, but he +knew that he could not stay nor turn. He went swiftly, he thought, and +with no sound, towards some appointed place, and the twilight darkened +as he went; when he looked up there was no star nor moon to be seen, and +what had been branches when he set out seemed now to be a roof, so thick +they were. There was no bray of stag, nor rustle of breeze, nor cry of +night-bird. He tried to pray, but he could remember no prayer, and not +even the healthful name of _Jesu_ came to his mind. He could do nought +but look outwards with his straining eyes, and inwards at his soul; and +the one was now as dark as the other. He thought of me then, my +children, and longed to have me there, but he knew that I was asleep in +my bed and far away. He thought of his mother whom he had loved so much, +but he knew that she was gone to God and had left him alone. And still, +through all, his feet bore him on swiftly without sound or fatigue, +though the terror and the darkness were now black as ink. He felt his +hair rising upon his head, and his skin prickle, and the warmth was +altogether gone from his heart, but he could not stay. + +And at the last his feet ceased to move, and he stood still, knowing +that he was come to the place. + +Now, I do not understand what he said to me of that place. He told me +that he could see nothing; it was as if his eyes were put out, yet he +knew what it was like. + +It was a little round place in the forest, with trees standing about it, +and it was trampled hard with the footsteps of those who had come there +before him. But that was no comfort to him now; for he did not know how +these persons had fared, nor where were their souls. + +So he stood in the black darkness, knowing that he could not turn, with +the horror on him so heavy that he sweated as he told me of it, and with +the knowledge that something was approaching under the trees without +sound of step or breathing--he did not know whether it was man or beast +or fiend, he only knew that it was approaching. Yet he could not pray or +cry out. + +Then he was aware that it had entered the little space where he stood, +and was even now within a hand's grasp. Yet he could not lift his hands +to ward it off, or to pray to God, or to bless himself. + +Then he perceived that the thing--_negotium perambulans in tenebris_ +["the Business that walketh about in the dark" (Ps. xc. 6.)]--was +formless, without hands to strike or mouth to bite him with, and that it +was all about him now, closing upon him. If there had been aught to +touch his body, wet lips to kiss his face, or fiery eyes to look into +his own, he would not have feared it with a thousandth part of the fear +that he had. It was that there was no shape or face, and that it sought +not his body but his soul. And when he understood that he gave a loud +cry and awoke, and knew, as in a mystery, that it was no dream, but +that he was indeed come to the place that he had seen, and that this +_negotium_ was at his soul's heart. [There is either an omission here +in the translation of Sir John's original MS., or else the transcriber +has dashed his pen down in horror, or sought to produce an impression +of it.].... + +I find it impossible, my children, to make you understand in what state +he was; he could not make even me understand. I can only set down a +little of what he said. + +First, he knew that he had lost God. It was not that there was no God, +but that he had lost Him of his own fault and sin. He was aware that in +all other places there was God and that the blessed reigned with Him, +but not in the place where he was, nor in his heart. In all men that +ever I have met there was a certain presence of God. As the apostle told +the men of Athens, _Ipsius enim et genus suum_; ["For we are also His +offspring" (Acts xvii. 28.)] and, again, _Non longe est ab unoquoque +nostrum_; ["He is not far from every one of us" (Acts xvii. 27.)] and +again, _In ipso vivimus, et movemur, et sumus_. ["In Him we live, and +we move, and we are" (Acts xvii. 28.)] I have not seen a man who had +not this knowledge, though maybe some, such as Turks and pagans, may +call it by another name. But until death, I think, all men, whatever +their sins or ignorance, live and move in God's Majesty. Hell, Master +Richard told me, is nothing less than the withdrawal of that presence, +with other torments superadded, but this is chief. Master Richard told +me that that black fire of hell rages wherever God is not; and that the +worm gnaws in all hearts that have lost Him, and know it to be by their +own fault--_maxima culpa_. ["the very great fault."] + +There be a few men in this world--the Son of God derelict is their +prince--who are called to this supreme torment while they yet live--if +indeed that man may be said to live who is without God--and of this +company Master Richard was now made one. + +It was with him now as he had dreamed. Where God is not, there can be no +communion with man, for the only reason by which one perceives another's +soul, or understands that it is the soul of a man and has a likeness to +his own, is that both are, in some measure, in God. If we were more holy +and wise we should understand for ourselves that this is so, and see, +too, why it is so, for He is eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf. +[I do not understand this at all. I wonder whether Sir John did as he +wrote it; I am quite sure that his flock did not.] + +For Master Richard, then, there was no other person in the world. There +was that that fenced him from all living. Our Saviour Christ upon the +rood spoke to His Blessed Mother before His dereliction, but not again +afterwards. There was no more that He might say to her, or to His +cousin, John. + +This, then, was the state in which Master Richard lay--that +_specialissimus_ of God Almighty, to whom the Divine Love and Majesty +was as breath to his nostrils, meat to his mouth, and water to his body. +I an say no more on that point. + +As to the fault by which it seemed that he had come to that state, it +was the most terrible of all sins, which is Presumption. Holy Church +sets before us Humility as the chief of virtues, to shew us that +Presumption is the chief of vices. A man may be an adulterer or a +murderer or a sacrilegious person, and yet by Humility may find mercy. +But a man may be chaste and stainless in all his works, and a worshipper +of God, but without Humility he cannot come to glory. [Sir John proceeds +in this strain for several pages, illustrating his point by the cases of +Lucifer, Nabuchodonosor, Judas Iscariot, King Herod, and others.].... + +Now the matter in which it seemed to Master Richard that he had sinned +the sin of Presumption was the old matter of the tidings he had borne to +the King. It was not that the tidings were false, for he knew them for +true; but yet that he had been presumptuous in bearing them. It was as +though a stander-by had overheard tidings given by a king to his +servant, and had presumed to hear them himself, as it were Achimaas the +son of Sadoc. [I supposed that this obscure reference is to 2 Kings +xviii. 19.] And more than that, that he had presumed in thinking that he +could be such a man as our Lord would call to such an office. He had set +himself, it appeared, far above his fellows in even listening to our +Saviour's voice; he should rather have cried with saint Peter, _Exi a me +quia homo peccator sum Domine_. ["Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, +O Lord" (Luke v. 8.)] + +It was this sin that had driven him from God's Presence. Our Lord had +bestowed on him wonderful gifts of grace. He had visited him as He +visits few others and had led him in the Way of Union, and he had +followed, triumphing in this, giving God the glory in words only, until +he had fallen as it seemed from the height of presumption to the depth +of despair, and lay here now, excluded from the Majesty that he desired. + + * * * * * + +Now, here is a very wonderful thing, and I know not if I can make it +clear. + +You understand, my children, a little of what I heard from Master +Richard's lips--of what it was that he suffered. But although all this +was upon him, he perceived afterwards, though not at the time, that +there was something in him that had not yielded to the agony. His body +was broken, and his mind amazed, and his soul obscured in this _Night_, +yet there was one power more, that we name the Will (and that is the +very essence of man, by which he shall be judged), that had not yet sunk +or cried out that it was so as the fiend suggested. + +There was within him, he perceived afterwards, a conflict without +movement. It was as when two men wrestle, their limbs are locked, they +are motionless, they appear to be at rest, but in truth they are +striving with might and main. + +So he remained all that night in this agony, not knowing that he did +aught but suffer; he saw the light on the wall, and heard the cocks +crow--at least he remembered these things afterwards. But his release +did not come until the morning; and of that release, and its event, and +how it came about, I will now tell you. + + + + +How Sir John went again to the cell: and of what he saw there + + +_Ecce audivimus eam in Ephrata: invenimus eam in campis silvae._ + +Behold we have heard of it in Euphrata: we have found it in the fields +of the wood.--_Ps. cxxxi. 6._ + + +XII + + +It is strange to think that other men went about their business in the +palace, and knew nothing of what was passing. It is more strange that +that morning I said mass in the country and did not faint for fear or +sorrow. But it is always so, by God's loving-kindness, for no man could +bear to live if he knew all that was happening in the world at one time. +[Sir John adds some trite reflections of an obvious character.].... + +There was a little heaviness upon me that morning, but I think no more +than there had been every day since Master Richard had left us. It was +not until noon that a strange event happened to me. This day was +Wednesday after Corpus Christi, the sixth day since he was gone. + +There was only one man that knew aught of what was passing in the +interior world, and that was the ankret in the cell against the abbey, +but of that you shall hear in the proper place. + +Of what fell on that day I heard from an old priest whom I saw +afterwards, and who was in the palace at that time. He was chaplain to +my lord cardinal and his name was.... + +He told me that very early in the morning my lord sent for him and told +him that he would hold an examination of Master Richard that day after +dinner, to see if he should be put on his trial for bewitching the King. +There were none who doubted that he had bewitched the King, for his +grace had sat in a stupor for two days, ever since he had heard the +tidings from the holy youth. He heard his masses each morning with a +fallen countenance, and took a little food in private, and slept in his +clothes sitting in his chair; and spoke to none, and, it seemed, heard +none. Though he had been always of a serious and quiet mind, loving to +pray and to hear preaching more than to talk, yet this was the first of +those strange visitations of God that fell upon him so frequently in his +later years. Those then (and especially my lord cardinal) who now saw +him in such a state, did not doubt that there was sorcery in the matter, +and that Master Richard was the sorcerer; for the tale of the Quinte +Essence--of which at that time men knew nothing--and how that he could +not say _paternoster_ when it was put to him;--all this was run about +the court like fire. + +But the tale of the clerk who went to him and sought to shake him, I +heard nothing of, save from Master Richard's own lips. None knew of +what had happened, and some afterwards thought that it was the fiend who +went to Master Richard, but some others that it was indeed one of the +clerks of the court who had perhaps stolen the keys, and gone in to get +credit to himself by persuading Master Richard to confess that all was a +delusion. For myself, I do not know what to think. [I suspect that Sir +John was inclined to think it was the devil, for at this point he +discusses at some length various cases in which Satan so acted. He seems +to imply that it was a peculiar and cynical pleasure to the Lord of Evil +to disguise himself as an ecclesiastic.].... + +Now, old Master ... said mass before my lord cardinal at seven o'clock, +and then went to his own chamber, but he was immediately sent for again +to my lord, who appeared to be in a great agitation. My lord told him +that one had come from the ankret to bid him let Master Richard go, for +that it was not the young man who was afflicting the King, but God +Almighty. + +"But he shall not play Pilate's wife with me," said my lord in a great +fury, "I shall go through with this matter. See that you be with me, +Master Priest, at noon, and we will see justice done. I doubt not that +the young man must go for his trial." + +He told the clerk, too, that Master Blytchett was greatly concerned +about his grace, and that the court would be in an uproar if somewhat +were not done at once. He had sat three hours last night with ... and +... and ... and ..., [It would be interesting to know who were these +persons.] and they had all declared the same thing. But he said nothing +of the whipping of Master Richard, and I truly believe that he knew +nothing of it. + +So the hour for the questioning was fixed at noon, and the place to be +in my lord cardinal's privy parlour. + + * * * * * + +Now that morning, as I told you, I was no more than usually heavy. I +remembered Master Richard's name before God upon the altar, and at ten +o'clock I went to dinner in the parsonage. It was a very bright hot +day, and I had the windows wide, and listened to the bees that were very +busy in the garden. I remember that I wondered whether they knew aught +of my dear lad, for I hold that they are very near to God, more so than +perhaps any of His senseless creatures, and that is why Holy Church on +Easter Eve says such wonderful things about them, and the work that they +do. [This refers to the _Exultet_ sung by the deacon in the Roman rite +on Holy Saturday.] + +For they fashion first wax and then honey. It is the wax that in the +church gives light and honour to God, and it is to the honey-comb that +God's Word is compared by David. [Sir John continues in this strain for +a page or two.].... + +It is not strange then that I thought about the bees, and the knowledge +that they have. + +After I had done dinner, I slept a little as my custom is, and the last +sound that I heard, and the first upon awaking, was the drone of the +bees. When I awakened I thought that I would walk down to Master +Richard's house and see how all fared. So I took my staff and set out. + +It was very cool and dark in the wood, through which I had come up six +days before walking in the summer night with the young man, and all was +very quiet. I could hear only the hum of the flies, and, as I drew +nearer, the running of the water over the stones of the road, where it +crosses it beside the little bridge. + +Then I came out beside the gate into the meadow, and my eyes were +dazzled by the hot light of the sun after the darkness of the wood. + +I stood by the gate a good while, leaning my arms upon it (for I felt +very heavy and weary), and looking across the meadow yellow with flowers +to the green hazels beyond, and between me and the wood the air shook as +if in terror or joy, I knew not which. I could see, too, the open door +of the hut, and its domed roof of straw, and the wicket leaning against +the wall as he had left it, and on either side the may-trees lifted +their bright heads. + +My children, I am not ashamed to tell you that I could not see all this +very clearly, for my eyes were dim at the thought that the master of it +was not here, and that I knew not where he was nor how he fared. I +prayed saint Giles with all my might that I might see him here again, +and walk with him as I had walked so often. And then at the end, a +little after I had heard the _Angelus_ ring from over the wood, and had +saluted our Lady and entreated her for Master Richard, I thought that I +would go up and see the hut. + +As I went I perceived that here, too, the bees were busy in the noon of +the day, going to and fro intently, but I was to see yet more of them, +for I heard a great droning about me. At first I could not perceive +whence it came, but presently I saw a great ball of them gathering on +the doorway of the hut, as their custom is in summer-time. I was +astonished at that, I do not know why, but it seemed to me that bees +were all about me, _semitam meam et funiculum meum investigantes; omnes +vias meas praevidentes._ ["searching out my path and my line; foreseeing +all my ways" (from Ps. cxxxviii. 3,4.)] Well, I looked on them awhile, +but they seemed as if they would do me no harm, yet I did not wish to go +into the house while they hung there, so I was content with looking in +from where I stood. I could not see very much, my eyes were too weary +with the sunshine that beat on my head, and it was, perhaps, God's +purpose that I should not go in to see what I was not worthy to see. + +I had, too, something of fear in my heart; it was like the fear that I +had had when I looked on Master Richard six days before as he prayed. So +I stood a little distance from the door and observed it and the bees. Of +the inside of the but I could see no more than the beaten mud floor for +a little space within, and through the veil of bees that swung this way +and that working their mysteries, the green light of the window looking +upon the hazel wood, above which was the image of the Mother of God. + +Then on a sudden my fear came on me strongly, and I cried out what I +think was Master Richard's name for I thought that he was near me, but +there was no answer, and after I had looked a little more, I turned back +by the way I had come. + +Now, here, my children, happened a marvellous thing. + +When I reached the gate and had gone through it, I turned round again +towards the hut, ashamed of the terror that had lain on me as I walked +down, for I had walked like one in a nightmare, not daring to turn my +head. + +And as I turned, for one instant I saw Master Richard himself, in his +brown kirtle and white sleeves standing at the door of his hut, with his +arms out as if to stretch himself, or else as our Saviour stretched them +on the rood. I could not observe his face, for in an instant he was +gone, before I had time to see him clearly, but I am sure that his face +was merry, for it was at this hour that he found his release before my +lord cardinal, and cried out, as you shall hear in the proper place. + +I stood there a long while, stretching out my own hands and crying on +him by name, but there was no more to be seen but the hut and its open +door, and the may-trees on either side, and the wood behind, and the +yellow-flowered meadow before me, and no sound but the drone of the bees +and the running of the water. And I dared not go up again, or set foot +in the meadow. + + * * * * * + +So I went home again, and told no man, for I thought that the vision was +for myself alone, and as night fell the messenger came to bid me come to +town, and to deliver to me the letter from the old priest of whom I have +spoken. + + + + +How one came to Master Priest: how Master Priest came to the King's +Bedchamber: and of what he heard of the name of Jesus + + +_Dum anxiaretur cor meum: in petra exaltasti me._ + +When my heart was in anguish: Thou hast exalted me on a rock. +--_Ps. lx. 3._ + + +XIII + + +This was the letter that I read in my parlour that night, as the man in +his livery stood beside me, dusty with riding. I have it still (it is in +the mass-book that stands beside my desk; you can find it there after I +am gone to give my account.).... + +"REVEREND AND RIGHT WORSHIPFUL SIR JOHN CHALDFIELD,-- + +"There is a young man here named Master Richard Raynal, who tells us +that you are his friend. He desires to see you before his death, for he +has been set upon and will not live many days. His grace has ordered +that you shall be brought with speed, for he loves this young man and +counts him a servant of God. He is with Master Raynal as I write. I fear +this may be heavy news for you, Sir John, so I will write no more, but I +recommend myself to you, and pray that you may be comforted and speeded +here by the grace of God, which ever have you in His keeping. + +"Written at Westminster, the Wednesday after Corpus Xti. + + "Yours, + + "......." + +I asked the fellow who brought the letter whether he could tell me any +more, but all that he could say was that he was in the court outside my +lord cardinal's privy stairs--where the people were assembled to see +Master Richard come out, and that he had seen a confusion, and blows +struck, and the glaivemen run in to help him. Then he had seen no more, +but he thought Master Richard had been taken back again to the palace, +and heard that he had been sore wounded and beaten, and was not like to +live. + + * * * * * + +I will not tell you, my children, of my ride to London that night, save +that I do not think I ceased praying from the instant that I set out to +the instant when I came up as the dawn began behind Lambeth House, and +we went over in the ferry. I cried in my heart with David, _Fili mi, +Fili mi; quis mihi tribuat ut ego moriar pro te, fili mi, fili mi?_ +["My son, my son! Who would grant that I might die for thee, my son, my +son?"--2 Kings xviii. 33.] And I prayed two things--that God might +forgive me for having allowed the lad to go, and that I might find him +alive. More than that I dared not pray, and I know not even now if I +should have prayed the first. + +It was a wonderful dawn that I saw as I crossed over, with a mist coming +up from the water as a promise of great heat, and above it the high +roofs and towers like the lovely city of God, and over all the sky was +of a golden colour with lines of pearl across it. It comforted me a +little that I should come to Master Richard so. + +Even at that hour there were many awake. There was one great fellow by +the ferry, that was looking across towards the palace; and I think it +must have been he who had taken Master Richard over for love of saint +Giles and saint Denis, but I did not know that part of the tale at that +time, and I never saw him again. + +In the court and passages, too, that we went along there were persons +going to and fro. One told me afterwards that never had he seen such a +movement at that hour since the night that the King's mother died. They +were all waiting for tidings of the lad, and they eyed me very narrowly, +and I heard my name run before me as I went. + +At the last we came to a great door, and we were let through, and I was +in the King's bed-chamber. + +It was a quiet room, and I will describe it to you now, although I saw +little of it at that time. + + * * * * * + +In the centre, with its head against the wall, stood a tall bed, with a +canopy over it, and four posts of twisted wood, carved very cunningly +with little shields that bore the instruments of our Saviour's passion. +On the tapestry beneath the canopy, above the pillow, were the arms of +the King, wrought in blue and red and gold. The hangings on the walls +were all of a dark blue, wrought with devices of all kinds, and they +were hanged from a ledge of wood beneath the ceiling such as I have +never seen before or since. The ceiling was of painted wood, divided +into deep squares, and in the centre of each was a coat. The floor was +all over rushes, the cleanest and the most fragrant that I have ever +smelled. I think that there must have been herbs and bay leaves mixed +with them. + +I saw all this afterwards, for when I came in the curtains were all +drawn against the windows, save against one that let in the cool air +from the river and a little pale light of morning, and two candles +burned on a table beside the bed. The room was very dark, but I could +see that a dozen persons stood against the walls, and one by every door. + +But I had no eyes for them, and went quickly across the rushes, and as I +came round the foot of the bed, I heard my name whispered again, and the +King stood up from where he had been kneeling. + +I have already described to you his appearance at that time, so I will +say no more here than that he was in all his clothes which were a little +disordered, and that his head was bare. He had been weeping, too, for +his eyes were red and swollen, and his lips shook as he put out his +hand. But he could not speak. + +I kneeled down and kissed his hand quickly and stood up immediately. +Master Richard who was lying on his left side, turned away from me, so +that I could not see his face, but I knew he was not yet dead, else he +would have been laid upon his back, but he was as still as death. His +head was all in a bandage, except on this side where his long hair hung +across his cheek, and his bare arm lay across the rich coverlet, brown +to the elbow with his digging, and white as milk at the shoulder. + +When I saw that I kneeled down too, and hid my face in my hands, and +although I felt the King lay his fingers on my shoulder I could not look +up. But it was not all for sorrow that I wept; I was thanking God +Almighty who permitted me to see Master Richard alive once more. + +I do not know how long it was before I looked up, but all the folks +were gone from the room save the King, and Master Blytchett, the +physician, who sat on the other side of the bed. + +I went round presently to the other side, the King going with me, and +there I saw Master Richard's face. I cannot tell you all that I saw in +it, for there are no words that can tell of its peace; his eyes were +closed below the little healed scar that he had taken in the monastery, +and his lips were open and smiling; they moved two or three times as I +looked, as if he were talking with some man, and then they ceased and +smiled again. But all was very little, as if the soul were far down in +some secret chamber with company that it loved. + +I asked presently if he had received his Maker, and the King told me +Yes, and shrift too, and anointing--all the night before when he had +come to himself for a while and called for a priest. He had spoken my +name, too, at that time and they had told him that one was gone to +bring me and at that he seemed content. + +Master Blytchett told me soon that I could be gone for a while, to take +some meat, and that he would send for me if Master Richard awoke. But I +said No to that; until the King bade me go, saying that he, too, would +remain, and pledging his word that I should be called. + +So I went away into a parlour, and washed myself, and took some food, +and after a while the old clerk that had written the letter to me, came +in and saluted me. + +I was desirous to know how all had come about, so we sat there a great +while in the window seat, with the door a little open into the +bed-chamber, and he told me the tale. I did not speak one word till he +had done. + +This was how it came about. + + * * * * * + +Master Richard was sent for from his cell to the parlour of my lord +cardinal, but my lord was not ready for him, and he had to stand a +great while in the court to wait his pleasure. The rumour ran about as +to who it was, and a great number of persons assembled from all parts, +some from the palace, and some from the streets. These had so cried out +against the young man, that the billmen were sent for from the +guard-room to keep him from their violence. This priest had looked out +from a window at the noise, and seeing the crowd, had entreated my lord +to have the prisoner in without any more delay. So he was brought in, +and one was left to keep the little door that led to the privy stairs up +which he came. + +It was then that this priest had seen him face to face, and I will try +to write down his words as he told them me. + +"I came into the parlour," he said, "through the door behind my lord's +chair, as Master Raynal was brought in by the other door. + +"I have never seen such a sight, Sir John, as I saw then. He was in his +white kirtle only, with the five wounds upon his breast, and he had on +his sandals. But his face was as that of a dead man: his eyelids were +sunk upon his cheek, and his lips hung open so that I could see his bare +teeth. + +"There were two men who led him by the arms, and he would have fallen +but for their assistance, and I immediately whispered to my lord to let +him sit down. But my lord was busy and anxious at that time, for he had +but just come from the King, who was no better and would take no meat +nor speak at all. So he paid no heed to me, and presently began to ask +questions of Master Raynal, urging him to confess what it was that he +had done, and threatening him with this and that if he would not speak. + +"But Master Raynal did not speak or lift his eyes; it seemed as if he +did not hear one word. + +"My lord told him presently that if temporal pains did not move him, +perhaps, it was that he desired spiritual--for my lord was very angry, +and scarce knew what he was saying. But Master Richard made no answer. +I will tell you, Sir John, plainly, that I thought he was but a fool to +anger my lord so by his silence, for it could not be that he did not +hear: my lord bawled loud enough to awaken the dead, and I saw the folk +behind, some laughing and some grave. + +"It would be full half an hour after noon before my lord had done his +questions, and lay back in his chair wrathful at getting no answer, +though the men that held Master Raynal shook him from side to side. + +"Then it was that the end came. + +"I was observing Master Raynal very closely, wondering whether he were +mad or deaf, and on a sudden he lifted his eyes, and his lips closed. He +appeared to be looking at my lord, but it was another that he saw. + +"I cannot describe to you, Sir John, what that change was that came to +him, save by saying that I think Lazarus must have looked like that, as +he heard our Saviour Christ's voice calling to him as he lay in the +tomb. It was no longer the face of a dead man, but of a living one, and +as that change came, I perceived that my lord cardinal had raised +himself in his chair, and was staring, I suppose, at the young man too. +But I could not take my eyes off Master Raynal's face. + +"Then on a sudden Master Raynal smiled and drew a great breath and cried +out. It was but one word; it was the holy Name of JESUS. + +"I perceived immediately that my lord cardinal had stood up at that cry, +but then he sat down again, and he made a motion with his hand, and the +men that held Master Raynal wheeled him about, and they went through the +crowd towards the door. + +"My lord cardinal turned to me, and I have never seen him so moved, but +still he could not speak, and while we looked upon one another there was +a great uproar everywhere--in the court and in the palace. + +"I stood there, not knowing what to do, and my lord pushed past to the +window. He, too, cried out as he looked down, and then ran from the +room, and as I was following there broke in one by the door behind the +chair. + +"'Where is my lord cardinal?' he cried; 'The King has sent for him.' + +"Well, the end of the matter was that they brought Master Raynal back +again, wounded and battered near to death. The crowd that had been +attendant for him had set on him as he came out--they should have sent +more bill-men before to keep the road, and the King met him in the way +(for he had come to his senses again), and turned as white as ashes once +more, crying out that his own craven heart had slain one more [If this +king was Henry VI, the reference may be to Joan of Arc. But Henry was +only a child at the time of her death. At the best this can be only +conjecture.] servant of God, but I know not what he meant by that. +Master Raynal was taken to the King's bed-chamber, and my lord came +after. And the King has been with him, praying and moaning ever since." + +Then I put one question to the priest. + +"My lord cardinal?" I said. + +"No man but the King has seen my lord cardinal since yesterday." + + * * * * * + +We sat a while longer in silence, and then Master Blytchett came in to +see me. + + + + +Of Sir John's Meditations in Westminster Palace + + +_Et existimabam cognoscere hoc: labor est ante me_ + +And I desired that I might know this thing: labour in my sight.-_Ps. +lxxii. 16._ + + +XIV + + +Master Blytchett told me that Master Richard was still asleep. He had +blooded him last night, and reduced the fever, but God only could save +his life. For himself, he thought that the young man would die before +night, and he did not know whether he would speak again. + +I was drawn towards Master Blytchett; he seemed a sour fellow with +sweetness beneath; and I love such souls as that. I loved him more than +I did the King either at that time or afterward. The King appeared to me +at that time a foolish fellow--God forgive me!--for I had not then heard +what Master Richard had to say of him; nor that such opinion was to be +all part of his passion. + +I thanked Master Blytchett for what he had done for my lad; but he burst +out upon me. + +"I was all against him," he said, "at the beginning. I thought him a +crack-brained fool, and a meddler. But now--" And he would say no more. + +It seemed that many were like that at the Court. They were near all +against him at first; but when they knew that he was wounded to death; +and had heard what the King had said of him; and seen my lord cardinal's +rosy face running with tears of pity and anger as he tore the lad out of +their hands; and gossipped a little with the porter of the monastery; +and listened to the holy ankret roaring out in his cell against +Hierusalem that slew the prophets;--and, most of all, remembered, or +told one another of Master Richard's face as he came out from the privy +staircase before he was struck down--like the Melitenses--_convertentes +se dicebant eum esse deum_. ["Changing their minds, they said he was +a god" (Acts xxviii. 6.)] + + * * * * * + +I talked with many that morning (for I could do nothing for my lad), who +came in to see one who knew him so well, and had been his friend in the +country. + +And after dinner my lord cardinal came in to see me, and I was brought +back to the parlour. + +His ruddy face was all blotched and lined with sorrow or age, and for a +while he could say nothing. He went up and down with his sanguine robes +flying behind him, and stayed to look out of the window at the boats +that went by until I thought that he had forgotten me. And at the last +he spoke. + +"I do not know what to say to you, Sir John, or what to say to God +Almighty on this matter. It appears to me that we have all been blind +and deaf adders, and with the venom of adders, too, beneath our +tongues--except one or two rude fellows, and my lord King who knew him +for a prophet, and the ankret, who tells us we shall all be damned for +what we have done, and yourself. There be so many of these wild asses +that bray and kick, that when he came we did not distinguish him to be +the colt on which our Lord came to town--and now, as it was then, +_Dominus eum necessarium habet_." ["The Lord hath need of him" (Luke +xix. 34.)] + +"But I know what I wish to be said to him, though I dare not say it +myself, or set eyes on him--and that is that I pray him to forgive us, +and to speak our names before the Lord God when he comes before His +Majesty." + +"I will tell him that, my lord," I said softly, for I did not doubt that +Master Richard would speak before he died. + +After a while longer my lord cardinal asked how he did, and I told him +that he had lain very quiet all day without speaking or moving, and +then, for I knew what my lord wanted, I bade him in Jesu's name to come +in and look on him. For a while he would not, and then he came, and +knelt down beside the King. + +Master Richard was lying now upon his back, with his hands hidden and +clasped upon his breast, and his lips were moving a little without +sound. I think that he had never had so long and so heavenly a colloquy +as he was enjoying then. I do not know whether it were the cardinal's +presence that disturbed him, or whether in that secret place where his +soul was retired he heard what had been said by us, but he spoke aloud +for the first time that day, and this is what he said:-- + +"_Et dimitte nobis debita nostra; sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus +nostris._" ["And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that +trespass against us."] + +I saw my lord's face go down upon his hands, and the King's face rise +and look at him. And presently my lord went out. + + * * * * * + +I cannot tell you, my children, how that day passed, for it was like no +day that I have ever spent. It appeared to me that there was no time, +but that all stood still. Without, the palace was as still as death on +the one side--for the King had ordered it so--and on the other there was +the noise from the river, little and clear and distinct, of the water +washing in the sedges and against the stones, and the cries of the +boatmen on the further shore, and the rattle of their oars as they took +men across. + +Once, as I stood by the window saying my office, a boat went by with +folk talking in it, and I heard enough of what they said to know that +they were speaking of Master Richard, and I heard one telling the tale +to another, and saw him point to the windows of the palace. But when +they saw me look out they gave over talking. + +A little after the evening bell Master Blytchett took the King out to +his supper, and I was left alone with Master Richard, but I knew that +there were servants in the passage whom I might call if I needed them. + +So I sat down by the pillow and looked at him a great while. + +I will tell you, my children, something of what I thought at this time, +for it is at such times when the eyes are washed clean by tears that the +soul looks out upon truth and sees it as it is. [I have omitted a great +number of Sir John's reflections. Many of them are too trite even for +this work, and others are so much confused that it is useless to +transcribe them. Sir John seems to have been dearly fond of sermonizing. +Even these that I have retained and set within brackets can be omitted +in reading by those who prefer to supply their own comment.].... + + * * * * * + +{I thought of the _ironia_ that marks our Lord's dealings. Master +Richard had come to bring tidings of another's passion, and he found his +own in the bringing of it. It was as when children play at the hanging +of a murderer or a thief, and one is set to play the part of prisoner +and another to hang him, and then at the end when all is prepared they +turn upon the hangman and bid him prepare himself for whipping and death +instead of the other, or maybe both are to be hanged. But our Lord is +not cruel, like such children, but kind, and I think that He acts so to +shew us that life is nothing but a play and a pretence, and that His +will must be done, however much we rebel at it. He teaches us, too, that +the blows we receive and even death itself are only seeming, though they +hurt us at the time, but that we must play in a gallant and merry +spirit, and be tender, too, and forgive one another easily, and that He +will set all right and allot to each his reward at the end of the +playing. And, since it is but a play, we are none of us kings or +cardinals or poor men in reality; we are all of us mere children of our +Father, and upon one is set a crown for a jest, and another is robed in +sanguine, and another in a brown kirtle or a white; and at the end the +trinkets are all put back again in the press, ready for another day and +other children, and we all go to bed as God made us. + +But you must not think, my children, that our life is a little thing +because of this; I only mean that one thing is as little and as great as +another, and that maids maying in the country are as much about God's +business as kings and cardinals who strive in palaces, and who give to +this man a collar of Saint Spirit, and to that man a collar of hemp. It +was for this reason, maybe, that our Lord did all things when He was +upon earth. He rode upon His colt as a King; He reigned upon the rood; +He sat at meat with sinners; He wrought tables and chairs at the +carpenter's; He fashioned sparrows, as some relate, out of clay, and +made them fly; and He said that not a sparrow falls without His love and +intention; and He did all and said all in the same spirit and mind, and +at the end He smiled and put on His crown again, and sat down for ever +_ad dexteram Dei_, that He might let us do the same, and help us by His +grace, especially in the sacraments, to be merry and confident. [This is +a very puzzling philosophy. It is surely either very profound or very +shallow. But it certainly is not cynical. Sir John is incapable of such +a feeble emotion as that.].... + + * * * * * + +This then, too, I thought at that time. + +It is marvellous how our Lord sets His seal upon all that we do, if we +will but attend to His working, and not think too highly upon what we do +ourselves. He had caused Master Richard to wear His five wounds until he +loved them, and to set his meat, too, in their order, and then He had +bidden His servant tell him that he did not need the piece of linen, for +that he should bear the wounds upon his body. And this He fulfilled; +for, as Master Blytchett told me, there were neither more nor less than +five wounds upon the young man's body, which he had received from the +crowd that set on him, besides the bruises and the stripes. He had +caused Master Richard, too, to be haled from judge to judge, as Himself +was haled; to be deemed Master by some, and named fool by others; to be +borne in a boat by one who loved him; to be arrayed in a white robe to +be judged without justice; to be dumb _sicut ovis ad occisionem ... et +quasi agnus coram tondente se_ ["as a sheep to the slaughter ... as a +lamb before his shearer" (Is. liii. 7.)], with many other points and +marks, besides that which fell afterwards, when a rich man, like him of +Arimathy, cared for his burying, and strewed herbs and bay leaves and +myrtle upon his body. + +There was the matter, too, of the bees that I had seen. [Sir John lays +great stress upon the bees; I cannot understand why. He says that they +betokened great wealth and happiness.].... + + * * * * * + +And again there was the matter of the seven days that Master Richard +fulfilled from the time of his setting out from his house, to the time +that he entered into his heavenly mansion. Seven days are the time of +perfection; it was in seven days that God Almighty made the world and +all that is in it; there were seven years of famine in Egypt in which +Joseph gathered store, and seven years of plenty. [I cannot bring myself +to follow Sir John through the whole of the Old and New Testaments.].... +And it was in seven days that Master Richard Raynal completed his course, +from the sowing of the wheat and wine on Corpus Xti, to his joyful +harvest in heaven....} + + * * * * * + +I thought, too, at this time of many other things, such as you may +suppose--of Master Richard's little cell in the country which would +never see him again (for I did not know at this time what the King +intended of his grace), and of the beasts that awaited him so +lamentably, and then of this great room hung all over with royalty +whither it had pleased God that his darling should come to die. I +looked, too, very often upon Master Richard as he lay before me, upon +his clean pallour, paler than I had ever seen it, and his slender +fingers roughened by the spade, and his strong arm, and his smiling +lips, and his closed eyes that looked within upon what I was not worthy +to see, and I wondered often what it was that he was saying to our Lord +and the blessed, and what they were saying to him, and I prayed that my +name might be mentioned amongst them, lest I should be a castaway after +all that I had heard and seen. + +When it was dark (for I dared not kindle the candles) the King came in +again, and as he came in Master Richard spoke my name, and moved his +hand towards me on the coverlet. + + + + +How Master Richard went to God + + +_Transivimus per ignem et aquam: et eduxisti nos in refrigerium._ + +We have passed through fire and water: and Thou hast brought us out into +a refreshment.--_Ps. lxv. 12._ + + +XV + + +The King presently kissed Master Richard's hand and asked his pardon and +his prayers, saying that he had known nothing of what went forward +during those two days, until the crying of Jesus' name by Master Richard +before the cardinal, but blaming his own craven heart, as he called it. + +And when Master Richard had spoken awhile, he asked the King to go out, +for that he had much to say to me in secret. + +So the King went out very softly, and set other guards at the doors, +and we two sat there a long while. + + * * * * * + +I was astonished at Master Richard's strength and courage, for he had +spoken aloud to the King, but when the King was gone out, he spoke in a +lower voice, holding my hand. It was very dark, for he would have no +lights, and I could see no more of him but a little of his hair, and the +pallour of his face beneath it, until the morn came and the end came. + + * * * * * + +He told me first of what he had done, and what had been done to him +since a week ago, when we had kissed one another at the lych-gate--all +as I have told it to you. He talked quietly, as I have said, but he +laughed a little now and again, and once or twice his voice trembled +with tears as he related our Lord's loving-kindness to him. (I have +never known any man who loved Jesu Christ more than this man loved Him.) + +I asked him a few questions, and he answered them, but the effect of +all that he said was what I have written down here, and sometimes I have +his very words as he spoke them. + +At last he came to the end of what he had to say, and began to tell me +of the _Night of the Soul_, and here he talked in a very low voice so +that I could scarcely hear what he said, and of what he said I did not +understand one half, [I am thankful that Sir John recognized his own +limitations.] for it was full of mysteries such as other contemplative +souls alone would recognise--for all contemplatives, as you know, relate +the same things to one another which they have seen and heard, and the +words that each uses the other understands, but other men do not; for +they speak of things that they have seen indeed, but for which there are +no proper human words, so that they have to do the best that they can. + +He told me that the state that I have described to you continued until +he came before my lord cardinal, so that although he saw men's faces +and heard their words they were no more to him than shadows and +whisperings; for since (as it appeared to him) he had lost God by his +own fault there was no longer anything by which he might communicate +with man. + +Yet all this while there was the conflict of which I have spoken. There +was that in him, which we name the Will, which continued tense and +strong, striving against despair. Neither his mind nor his heart could +help him in that _Night_; his mind informed him that he had sinned +deadly by presumption, his heart found nowhere God to love; and all +that, though he told himself that God was loveable, and adorable, and +that he could not fall into hell save by his own purpose and intention. + +Yet, in spite of all, and when all had failed him, his will strove +against despair (which is the antichrist of humility [A curious phrase, +and, I think, rather a good one. I suspect it was originally Master +Richard's.]), though he did not recognise until afterwards that he was +striving, for he thought himself lost, as I have said. + +Then a little after noon, at the time when I saw his image at the door +of his cell, stretching himself as if after labour or sleep, he had his +release. + +Now this is the one matter of which he did not tell me fully, nor would +he answer when I asked him except by the words, "_Secretum meum mihi_." +["My secret is mine."] But this I know, that he saw our Lord. + +And this I know, too, that with that sight his understanding came back +to him, and he perceived for himself that Charity was all. He perceived, +also, that he had been striving, and amiss. He had striven to bear his +own sins, and for those few hours our Lord had permitted him to bear the +weight. He who bears heaven and earth upon His shoulders, and who bore +the burden of the sins of the world in the garden and upon the rood, had +allowed this sweet soul to feel the weight of his own few little sins +for those few hours. + +When he saw that he made haste to cast them off again upon Him who alone +can carry them and live, and to cry upon His Name; and he understood in +that moment, he said, as never before, something of that passion and of +the meaning of those five wounds that he had adored so long in +ignorance. + +But what it was that he saw, and how it was that our Lord shewed +Himself, whether on the rood, or as a child with the world in His hands, +or as crowned with sharp-thorned roses, or who was with Him, if any +were; I do not know. It was then that he said "_Secretum mihi._" And +when Master Richard had said that, he added "_Vere languores nostros +ipse tulit; et dolores nostros ipse portavit._" ["Surely He hath borne +our infirmities, and carried our sorrows" (Is. liii. 4.)] + + * * * * * + +He lay silent a good while after that, and I did not speak to him. When +he spoke again, it was to bring to my mind the masses that were to be +said, and then he spoke of the Quinte Essence, and said that it was to +be mine if I wished for it; and all other things of his were to be mine +to do as I pleased with them, for he had no kin in the world. + +And after he had spoken of these things the King came in timidly from +the parlour, and stood by the door; I could see the pallour of his face +against the hangings. + +"Come in, my lord King," said Master Richard very faintly. "I have done +what was to be done, and there now is nothing but to make an end." + +The King knelt down at the further side of the bed. + +"Is it the priest you want, Master Hermit?" he asked. + +"Sir John will read the prayers presently," said Master Richard. + +I heard the King swallow in his throat before he spoke again. + +"And you will remember us all," he said, "before God's Majesty, and in +particular my poor soul in its passion." + +"How could I forget that?" asked Master Richard, and by his voice I knew +that he laughed merrily to himself. + +I asked him whether he would have lights. + +"No, my father," he said, "there will be light enough." + + * * * * * + +It would be an hour later, I should suppose, after Master Blytchett was +come back, when he put out his hand again, and I knew that he wished for +the prayers. + +Now there was only starlight, for he would have no candles, and the moon +was not yet risen. So I went across to the parlour door, and as I went +through I could see that the chamber was full of persons all silent, but +it was too dark to see who they were. I asked one for a candle, and +presently one was brought, and I saw that my lord cardinal was there, +and ... and ... [The names are omitted as usual. This discreet scribe is +very tiresome.] and many others. It was such a death-bed as a king might + have. + +So I read the appointed prayers, kneeling on my knees in the doorway, +and I was answered by those behind me. + +When I had done that, I stood up to go back, and my lord cardinal caught +me by the sleeve. + +"For the love of Jesu," he said, "ask if we may come in." + +I went back and leaned over Master Richard, taking his hand in my own. + +"My lord and the rest desire to come in, my son," I said. "If they may +come, press my hand." + +He pressed my hand, and I spoke in a low voice, bidding them to come in. + +So they came in noiselessly, one after another; I could see their faces +moving, but no more--my lord cardinal and the great nobles and the +grooms and the rest--till the room was half full of them. + +The door was put to behind them, but I could see the line of light that +shewed it, where the candle burned in the parlour beyond; and I could +hear the sound of their breathing and the rustle once and again of their +feet upon the rushes. + +Then I knelt down, when the others had knelt, and waited for the agony +to begin, when I should begin the last commendation. + +My children, I have prayed by many death-beds, but I have never seen one +like this. + +The curtains were wide, and the windows, behind me, that he might have +breath to send out his spirit; and without, as I saw when I turned to +kneel, the heavens were bright with stars. This was all the light that +was in the room; it was no more than dark twilight, and I could see no +more of him than what I saw before, the glimmer of his face upon the +pillow and his long hair beside it. His fingers were in mine, but they +were very cold by now. + +But he had said that there would be light enough, and so there was. + +It may have been half an hour afterwards that the room began to lighten +softly, as the sky brightened at moonrise, and I could see a little more +plainly. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be breathing very softly +through his lips. + +Then the moon rose, and the light lay upon the floor at my side. Then a +little after it was upon the fringes of the coverlet, and it crept up +moment by moment across the leopards and lilies that were broidered in +gold and blue. + +At last it lay half across the bed, and I could see the King's face very +pale and melancholy upon the other side, and Master Blytchett a little +behind him. + +And presently it reached Master Richard's hand and my own that lay +together, but my arm was so numbed that I could feel nothing in it; I +could see only that his fingers were in mine. + +So the light crept up his arm to the shoulder, and when it reached his +face we saw that he was gone to his reward. + + + + +Of his Burying + + +_Quam dilecta tabernacula tua: Domine virtutum._ + +How lovely are Thy tabernacles: O Lord of +Hosts.--_Ps. lxxxiii. 1._ + + +XVI + + +It was upon the next day that we took +Master Richard's body down again to the +country, and there was such an attendant +company as I should not have thought that +all London held. + +The King had ordered a great plenty of +tapers and hangings and a herse such as is +used.... + +[The MS. ends abruptly at the foot of the page.] + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF RICHARD RAYNAL, +SOLITARY*** + + +******* This file should be named 15808.txt or 15808.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/8/0/15808 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/15808.zip b/15808.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eadab2e --- /dev/null +++ b/15808.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..209681d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #15808 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15808) |