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diff --git a/35611-0.txt b/35611-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0829f4d --- /dev/null +++ b/35611-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1422 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35611 *** + +THE GREAT RETURN + +By + +ARTHUR MACHEN + +AUTHOR OF "THE BOWMEN" + +PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY THE FAITH +PRESS, AT THE FAITH HOUSE, 22, BUCKINGHAM +STREET, STRAND, W.C. + +1915 + + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + THE BOWMEN + THE HILL OF DREAMS + THE HOUSE OF SOULS + [including "The Great God Pan" and "The Three Impostors"] + HIEROGLYPHICS + THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY + DR. STIGGINS + + + + To + +D.P.M. + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE RUMOUR OF THE MARVELLOUS + II. ODOURS OF PARADISE + III. A SECRET IN A SECRET PLACE + IV. THE RINGING OF THE BELL + V. THE ROSE OF FIRE + VI. OLWEN'S DREAM + VII. THE MASS OF THE SANGRAAL + + + +GREAT RETURN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE RUMOUR OF THE MARVELLOUS + + +There are strange things lost and forgotten in obscure corners of the +newspaper. I often think that the most extraordinary item of +intelligence that I have read in print appeared a few years ago in the +London Press. It came from a well known and most respected news agency; +I imagine it was in all the papers. It was astounding. + +The circumstances necessary--not to the understanding of this paragraph, +for that is out of the question--but, we will say, to the understanding +of the events which made it possible, are these. We had invaded Thibet, +and there had been trouble in the hierarchy of that country, and a +personage known as the Tashai Lama had taken refuge with us in India. He +went on pilgrimage from one Buddhist shrine to another, and came at last +to a holy mountain of Buddhism, the name of which I have forgotten. And +thus the morning paper. + + His Holiness the Tashai Lama then ascended the Mountain and was + transfigured.--Reuter. + +That was all. And from that day to this I have never heard a word of +explanation or comment on this amazing statement. + + * * * * * + +There was no more, it seemed, to be said. "Reuter," apparently, thought +he had made his simple statement of the facts of the case, had thereby +done his duty, and so it all ended. Nobody, so far as I know, ever wrote +to any paper asking what Reuter meant by it, or what the Tashai Lama +meant by it. I suppose the fact was that nobody cared two-pence about +the matter; and so this strange event--if there were any such event--was +exhibited to us for a moment, and the lantern show revolved to other +spectacles. + +This is an extreme instance of the manner in which the marvellous is +flashed out to us and then withdrawn behind its black veils and +concealments; but I have known of other cases. Now and again, at +intervals of a few years, there appear in the newspapers strange +stories of the strange doings of what are technically called +_poltergeists_. Some house, often a lonely farm, is suddenly subjected +to an infernal bombardment. Great stones crash through the windows, +thunder down the chimneys, impelled by no visible hand. The plates and +cups and saucers are whirled from the dresser into the middle of the +kitchen, no one can say how or by what agency. Upstairs the big bedstead +and an old chest or two are heard bounding on the floor as if in a mad +ballet. Now and then such doings as these excite a whole neighbourhood; +sometimes a London paper sends a man down to make an investigation. He +writes half a column of description on the Monday, a couple of +paragraphs on the Tuesday, and then returns to town. Nothing has been +explained, the matter vanishes away; and nobody cares. The tale trickles +for a day or two through the Press, and then instantly disappears, like +an Australian stream, into the bowels of darkness. It is possible, I +suppose, that this singular incuriousness as to marvellous events and +reports is not wholly unaccountable. It may be that the events in +question are, as it were, psychic accidents and misadventures. They are +not meant to happen, or, rather, to be manifested. They belong to the +world on the other side of the dark curtain; and it is only by some +queer mischance that a corner of that curtain is twitched aside for an +instant. Then--for an instant--we see; but the personages whom Mr. +Kipling calls the Lords of Life and Death take care that we do not see +too much. Our business is with things higher and things lower, with +things different, anyhow; and on the whole we are not suffered to +distract ourselves with that which does not really concern us. The +Transfiguration of the Lama and the tricks of the _poltergeist_ are +evidently no affairs of ours; we raise an uninterested eyebrow and pass +on--to poetry or to statistics. + + * * * * * + +Be it noted; I am not professing any fervent personal belief in the +reports to which I have alluded. For all I know, the Lama, in spite of +Reuter, was not transfigured, and the _poltergeist_, in spite of the +late Mr. Andrew Lang, may in reality be only mischievous Polly, the +servant girl at the farm. And to go farther: I do not know that I should +be justified in putting either of these cases of the marvellous in line +with a chance paragraph that caught my eye last summer; for this had +not, on the face of it at all events, anything wildly out of the common. +Indeed, I dare say that I should not have read it, should not have seen +it, if it had not contained the name of a place which I had once +visited, which had then moved me in an odd manner that I could not +understand. Indeed, I am sure that this particular paragraph deserves to +stand alone, for even if the _poltergeist_ be a real _poltergeist_, it +merely reveals the psychic whimsicality of some region that is not our +region. There were better things and more relevant things behind the few +lines dealing with Llantrisant, the little town by the sea in +Arfonshire. + +Not on the surface, I must say, for the cutting I have preserved +it--reads as follows:-- + + LLANTRISANT.--The season promises very favourably: temperature of + the sea yesterday at noon, 65 deg. Remarkable occurrences are + supposed to have taken place during the recent Revival. The lights + have not been observed lately. "The Crown." "The Fisherman's Rest." + +The style was odd certainly; knowing a little of newspapers. I could see +that the figure called, I think, _tmesis_, or cutting, had been +generously employed; the exuberances of the local correspondent had been +pruned by a Fleet Street expert. And these poor men are often hurried; +but what did those "lights" mean? What strange matters had the vehement +blue pencil blotted out and brought to naught? + +That was my first thought, and then, thinking still of Llantrisant and +how I had first discovered it and found it strange, I read the paragraph +again, and was saddened almost to see, as I thought, the obvious +explanation. I had forgotten for the moment that it was war-time, that +scares and rumours and terrors about traitorous signals and flashing +lights were current everywhere by land and sea; someone, no doubt, had +been watching innocent farmhouse windows and thoughtless fanlights of +lodging houses; these were the "lights" that had not been observed +lately. + +I found out afterwards that the Llantrisant correspondent had no such +treasonous lights in his mind, but something very different. Still; what +do we know? He may have been mistaken, "the great rose of fire" that +came over the deep may have been the port light of a coasting-ship. Did +it shine at last from the old chapel on the headland? Possibly; or +possibly it was the doctor's lamp at Sarnau, some miles away. I have had +wonderful opportunities lately of analysing the marvels of lying, +conscious and unconscious; and indeed almost incredible feats in this +way can be performed. If I incline to the less likely explanation of the +"lights" at Llantrisant, it is merely because this explanation seems to +me to be altogether congruous with the "remarkable occurrences" of the +newspaper paragraph. + +After all, if rumour and gossip and hearsay are crazy things to be +utterly neglected and laid aside: on the other hand, evidence is +evidence, and when a couple of reputable surgeons assert, as they do +assert in the case of Olwen Phillips, Croeswen, Llantrisant, that there +has been a "kind of resurrection of the body," it is merely foolish to +say that these things don't happen. The girl was a mass of tuberculosis, +she was within a few hours of death; she is now full of life. And so, I +do not believe that the rose of fire was merely a ship's light, +magnified and transformed by dreaming Welsh sailors. + + * * * * * + +But now I am going forward too fast. I have not dated the paragraph, so +I cannot give the exact day of its appearance, but I think it was +somewhere between the second and third week of June. I cut it out partly +because it was about Llantrisant, partly because of the "remarkable +occurrences." I have an appetite for these matters, though I also have +this misfortune, that I require evidence before I am ready to credit +them, and I have a sort of lingering hope that some day I shall be able +to elaborate some scheme or theory of such things. + +But in the meantime, as a temporary measure, I hold what I call the +doctrine of the jig-saw puzzle. That is: this remarkable occurrence, and +that, and the other may be, and usually are, of no significance. +Coincidence and chance and unsearchable causes will now and again make +clouds that are undeniable fiery dragons, and potatoes that resemble +Eminent Statesmen exactly and minutely in every feature, and rocks that +are like eagles and lions. All this is nothing; it is when you get your +set of odd shapes and find that they fit into one another, and at last +that they are but parts of a large design; it is then that research +grows interesting and indeed amazing, it is then that one queer form +confirms the other, that the whole plan displayed justifies, +corroborates, explains each separate piece. + +So, it was within a week or ten days after I had read the paragraph +about Llantrisant and had cut it out that I got a letter from a friend +who was taking an early holiday in those regions. + +"You will be interested," he wrote, "to hear that they have taken to +ritualistic practices at Llantrisant. I went into the church the other +day, and instead of smelling like a damp vault as usual, it was +positively reeking with incense." + +I knew better than that. The old parson was a firm Evangelical; he would +rather have burnt sulphur in his church than incense any day. So I +could not make out this report at all; and went down to Arfon a few +weeks later determined to investigate this and any other remarkable +occurrence at Llantrisant. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ODOURS OF PARADISE + + +I went down to Arfon in the very heat and bloom and fragrance of the +wonderful summer that they were enjoying there. In London there was no +such weather; it rather seemed as if the horror and fury of the war had +mounted to the very skies and were there reigning. In the mornings the +sun burnt down upon the city with a heat that scorched and consumed; but +then clouds heavy and horrible would roll together from all quarters of +the heavens, and early in the afternoon the air would darken, and a +storm of thunder and lightning, and furious, hissing rain would fall +upon the streets. Indeed, the torment of the world was in the London +weather. The city wore a terrible vesture; within our hearts was dread; +without we were clothed in black clouds and angry fire. + +It is certain that I cannot show in any words the utter peace of that +Welsh coast to which I came; one sees, I think, in such a change a +figure of the passage from the disquiets and the fears of earth to the +peace of paradise. A land that seemed to be in a holy, happy dream, a +sea that changed all the while from olivine to emerald, from emerald to +sapphire, from sapphire to amethyst, that washed in white foam at the +bases of the firm, grey rocks, and about the huge crimson bastions that +hid the western bays and inlets of the waters; to this land I came, and +to hollows that were purple and odorous with wild thyme, wonderful with +many tiny, exquisite flowers. There was benediction in centaury, pardon +in eye-bright, joy in lady's slipper; and so the weary eyes were +refreshed, looking now at the little flowers and the happy bees about +them, now on the magic mirror of the deep, changing from marvel to +marvel with the passing of the great white clouds, with the brightening +of the sun. And the ears, torn with jangle and racket and idle, empty +noise, were soothed and comforted by the ineffable, unutterable, +unceasing murmur, as the tides swam to and fro, uttering mighty, hollow +voices in the caverns of the rocks. + + * * * * * + +For three or four days I rested in the sun and smelt the savour of the +blossoms and of the salt water, and then, refreshed, I remembered that +there was something queer about Llantrisant that I might as well +investigate. It was no great thing that I thought to find, for, it will +be remembered, I had ruled out the apparent oddity of the reporter's-or +commissioner's?--reference to lights, on the ground that he must have +been referring to some local panic about signalling to the enemy; who +had certainly torpedoed a ship or two off Lundy in the Bristol Channel. +All that I had to go upon was the reference to the "remarkable +occurrences" at some revival, and then that letter of Jackson's, which +spoke of Llantrisant church as "reeking" with incense, a wholly +incredible and impossible state of things. Why, old Mr. Evans, the +rector, looked upon coloured stoles as the very robe of Satan and his +angels, as things dear to the heart of the Pope of Rome. But as to +incense! As I have already familiarly observed, I knew better. + +But as a hard matter of fact, this may be worth noting: when I went over +to Llantrisant on Monday, August 9th, I visited the church, and it was +still fragrant and exquisite with the odour of rare gums that had fumed +there. + + * * * * * + +Now I happened to have a slight acquaintance with the rector. He was a +most courteous and delightful old man, and on my last visit he had come +across me in the churchyard, as I was admiring the very fine Celtic +cross that stands there. Besides the beauty of the interlaced ornament +there is an inscription in Ogham on one of the edges, concerning which +the learned dispute; it is altogether one of the more famous crosses of +Celtdom. Mr. Evans, I say, seeing me looking at the cross, came up and +began to give me, the stranger, a resume--somewhat of a shaky and +uncertain resume, I found afterwards--of the various debates and +questions that had arisen as to the exact meaning of the inscription, +and I was amused to detect an evident but underlying belief of his own: +that the supposed Ogham characters were, in fact, due to boys' mischief +and weather and the passing of the ages. But then I happened to put a +question as to the sort of stone of which the cross was made, and the +rector brightened amazingly. He began to talk geology, and, I think, +demonstrated that the cross or the material for it must have been +brought to Llantrisant from the south-west coast of Ireland. This struck +me as interesting, because it was curious evidence of the migrations of +the Celtic saints, whom the rector, I was delighted to find, looked upon +as good Protestants, though shaky on the subject of crosses; and so, +with concessions on my part, we got on very well. Thus, with all this to +the good, I was emboldened to call upon him. + +I found him altered. Not that he was aged; indeed, he was rather made +young, with a singular brightening upon his face, and something of joy +upon it that I had not seen before, that I have seen on very few faces +of men. We talked of the war, of course, since that is not to be +avoided; of the farming prospects of the county; of general things, till +I ventured to remark that I had been in the church, and had been +surprised, to find it perfumed with incense. + +"You have made some alterations in the service since I was here last? +You use incense now?" + +The old man looked at me strangely, and hesitated. + +"No," he said, "there has been no change. I use no incense in the +church. I should not venture to do so." + +"But," I was beginning, "the whole church is as if High Mass had just +been sung there, and--" + +He cut me short, and there was a certain grave solemnity in his manner +that struck me almost with awe. + +"I know you are a railer," he said, and the phrase coming from this mild +old gentleman astonished, me unutterably. "You are a railer and a bitter +railer; I have read articles that you have written, and I know your +contempt and your hatred for those you call Protestants in your +derision; though your grandfather, the vicar of Caerleon-on-Usk, called +himself Protestant and was proud of it, and your great-grand-uncle +Hezekiah, _ffeiriad coch yr Castletown_--the Red Priest of +Castletown--was a great man with the Methodists in his day, and the +people flocked by their thousands when he administered the Sacrament. I +was born and brought up in Glamorganshire, and old men have wept as they +told me of the weeping and contrition that there was when the Red +Priest broke the Bread and raised the Cup. But you are a railer, and see +nothing but the outside and the show. You are not worthy of this mystery +that has been done here." + +I went out from his presence rebuked indeed, and justly rebuked; but +rather amazed. It is curiously true that the Welsh are still one people, +one family almost, in a manner that the English cannot understand, but I +had never thought that this old clergyman would have known anything of +my ancestry or their doings. And as for my articles and such-like, I +knew that the country clergy sometimes read, but I had fancied my +pronouncements sufficiently obscure, even in London, much more in Arfon. + +But so it happened, and so I had no explanation from the rector of +Llantrisant of the strange circumstance, that his church was full of +incense and odours of paradise. + + * * * * * + +I went up and down the ways of Llantrisant wondering, and came to the +harbour, which is a little place, with little quays where some small +coasting trade still lingers. A brigantine was at anchor here, and very +lazily in the sunshine they were loading it with anthracite; for it is +one of the oddities of Llantrisant that there is a small colliery in the +heart of the wood on the hillside. I crossed a causeway which parts the +outer harbour from the inner harbour, and settled down on a rocky beach +hidden under a leafy hill. The tide was going out, and some children +were playing on the wet sand, while two ladies--their mothers, I +suppose--talked together as they sat comfortably on their rugs at a +little distance from me. + +At first they talked of the war, and I made myself deaf, for of that +talk one gets enough, and more than enough, in London. Then there was a +period of silence, and the conversation had passed to quite a different +topic when I caught the thread of it again. I was sitting on the further +side of a big rock, and I do not think that the two ladies had noticed +my approach. However, though they spoke of strange things, they spoke of +nothing which made it necessary for me to announce my presence. + +"And, after all," one of them was saying, "what is it all about? I can't +make out what is come to the people." + +This speaker was a Welshwoman; I recognised the clear, over-emphasised +consonants, and a faint suggestion of an accent. Her friend came from +the Midlands, and it turned out that they had only known each other for +a few days. Theirs was a friendship of the beach and of bathing; such +friendships are common, at small seaside places. + +"There is certainly something odd about the people here. I have never +been to Llantrisant before, you know; indeed, this is the first time +we've been in Wales for our holidays, and knowing nothing about the ways +of the people and not being accustomed to hear Welsh spoken, I thought, +perhaps, it must be my imagination. But you think there really is +something a little queer?" + +"I can tell you this: that I have been in two minds whether I should not +write to my husband and ask him to take me and the children away. You +know where I am at Mrs. Morgan's, and the Morgans' sitting-room is just +the other side of the passage, and sometimes they leave the door open, +so that I can hear what they say quite plainly. And you see I understand +the Welsh, though they don't know it. And I hear them saying the most +alarming things!" + +"What sort of things? + +"Well, indeed, it sounds like some kind of a religious service, but it's +not Church of England, I know that. Old Morgan begins it, and the wife +and children answer. Something like; 'Blessed be God for the messengers +of Paradise.' 'Blessed be His Name for Paradise in the meat and in the +drink.' 'Thanksgiving for the old offering.' 'Thanksgiving for the +appearance of the old altar,' 'Praise for the joy of the ancient +garden.' 'Praise for the return of those that have been long absent.' +And all that sort of thing. It is nothing but madness." + +"Depend upon it," said the lady from the Midlands, "there's no real harm +in it. They're Dissenters; some new sect, I dare say. You know some +Dissenters are very queer in their ways." + +"All that is like no Dissenters that I have ever known in all my life +whatever," replied the Welsh lady somewhat vehemently, with a very +distinct intonation of the land. "And have you heard them speak of the +bright light that shone at midnight from the church?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A SECRET IN A SECRET PLACE + + +Now here was I altogether at a loss and quite bewildered. The children +broke into the conversation of the two ladies and cut it all short, just +as the midnight lights from the church came on the field, and when the +little girls and boys went back again to the sands whooping, the tide of +talk had turned, and Mrs. Harland and Mrs. Williams were quite safe and +at home with Janey's measles, and a wonderful treatment for infantile +earache, as exemplified in the case of Trevor. There was no more to be +got out of them, evidently, so I left the beach, crossed the harbour +causeway, and drank beer at the "Fishermen's Rest" till it was time to +climb up two miles of deep lane and catch the train for Penvro, where I +was staying. And I went up the lane, as I say, in a kind of amazement; +and not so much, I think, because of evidences and hints of things +strange to the senses, such as the savour of incense where no incense +had smoked for three hundred and fifty years and more, or the story of +bright light shining from the dark, closed church at dead of night, as +because of that sentence of thanksgiving "for paradise in meat and in +drink." + +For the sun went down and the evening fell as I climbed the long hill +through the deep woods and the high meadows, and the scent of all the +green things rose from the earth and from the heart of the wood, and at +a turn of the lane far below was the misty glimmer of the still sea, and +from far below its deep murmur sounded as it washed on the little +hidden, enclosed bay where Llantrisant stands. And I thought, if there +be paradise in meat and in drink, so much the more is there paradise in +the scent of the green leaves at evening and in the appearance of the +sea and in the redness of the sky; and there came to me a certain vision +of a real world about us all the while, of a language that was only +secret because we would not take the trouble to listen to it and discern +it. + +It was almost dark when I got to the station, and here were the few +feeble oil lamps lit, glimmering in that lonely land, where the way is +long from farm to farm. The train came on its way, and I got into it; +and just as we moved from the station I noticed a group under one of +those dim lamps. A woman and her child had got out, and they were being +welcomed by a man who had been waiting for them. I had not noticed his +face as I stood on the platform, but now I saw it as he pointed down the +hill towards Llantrisant, and I think I was almost frightened. + +He was a young man, a farmer's son, I would say, dressed in rough brown +clothes, and as different from old Mr. Evans, the rector, as one man +might be from another. But on his face, as I saw it in the lamplight, +there was the like brightening that I had seen on the face of the +rector. It was an illuminated face, glowing with an ineffable joy, and I +thought it rather gave light to the platform lamp than received light +from it. The woman and her child, I inferred, were strangers to the +place, and had come to pay a visit to the young man's family. They had +looked about them in bewilderment, half alarmed, before they saw him; +and then his face was radiant in their sight, and it was easy to see +that all their troubles were ended and over. A wayside station and a +darkening country, and it was as if they were welcomed by shining, +immortal gladness--even into paradise. + + * * * * * + +But though there seemed in a sense light all about my ways, I was myself +still quite bewildered. I could see, indeed, that something strange had +happened or was happening in the little town hidden under the hill, but +there was so far no clue to the mystery, or rather, the clue had been +offered to me, and I had not taken it, I had not even known that it was +there; since we do not so much as see what we have determined, without +judging, to be incredible, even though it be held up before our eyes. +The dialogue that the Welsh Mrs. Williams had reported to her English +friend might have set me on the right way; but the right way was outside +all my limits of possibility, outside the circle of my thought. The +palæontologist might see monstrous, significant marks in the slime of a +river bank, but he would never draw the conclusions that his own +peculiar science would seem to suggest to him; he would choose any +explanation rather than the obvious, since the obvious would also be +the outrageous--according to our established habit of thought, which we +deem final. + + * * * * * + +The next day I took all these strange things with me for consideration +to a certain place that I knew of not far from Penvro. I was now in the +early stages of the jig-saw process, or rather I had only a few pieces +before me, and--to continue the figure my difficulty was this: that +though the markings on each piece seemed to have design and +significance, yet I could not make the wildest guess as to the nature of +the whole picture, of which these were the parts. I had clearly seen +that there was a great secret; I had seen that on the face of the young +farmer on the platform of Llantrisant station; and in my mind there was +all the while the picture of him going down the dark, steep, winding +lane that led to the town and the sea, going down through the heart of +the wood, with light about him. + +But there was bewilderment in the thought of this, and in the endeavour +to match it with the perfumed church and the scraps of talk that I had +heard and the rumour of midnight brightness; and though Penvro is by no +means populous, I thought I would go to a certain solitary place called +the Old Camp Head, which looks towards Cornwall and to the great deeps +that roll beyond Cornwall to the far ends of the world; a place where +fragments of dreams--they seemed such then--might, perhaps, be gathered +into the clearness of vision. + +It was some years since I had been to the Head, and I had gone on that +last time and on a former visit by the cliffs, a rough and difficult +path. Now I chose a landward way, which the county map seemed to +justify, though doubtfully, as regarded the last part of the journey. So +I went inland and climbed the hot summer by-roads, till I came at last +to a lane which gradually turned turfy and grass-grown, and then on high +ground, ceased to be. It left me at a gate in a hedge of old thorns; and +across the field beyond there seemed to be some faint indications of a +track. One would judge that sometimes men did pass by that way, but not +often. + +It was high ground but not within sight of the sea. But the breath of +the sea blew about the hedge of thorns, and came with a keen savour to +the nostrils. The ground sloped gently from the gate and then rose again +to a ridge, where a white farmhouse stood all alone. I passed by this +farmhouse, threading an uncertain way, followed a hedgerow doubtfully; +and saw suddenly before me the Old Camp, and beyond it the sapphire +plain of waters and the mist where sea and sky met. Steep from my feet +the hill fell away, a land of gorse-blossom, red-gold and mellow, of +glorious purple heather. It fell into a hollow that went down, shining +with rich green bracken, to the glimmering sea; and before me and beyond +the hollow rose a height of turf, bastioned at the summit with the +awful, age-old walls of the Old Camp; green, rounded circumvallations, +wall within wall, tremendous, with their myriad years upon them. + + * * * * * + +Within these smoothed, green mounds, looking across the shining and +changing of the waters in the happy sunlight, I took out the bread and +cheese and beer that I had carried in a bag, and ate and drank, and lit +my pipe, and set myself to think over the enigmas of Llantrisant. And I +had scarcely done so when, a good deal to my annoyance, a man came +climbing up over the green ridges, and took up his stand close by, and +stared out to sea. He nodded to me, and began with "Fine weather for the +harvest" in the approved manner, and so sat down and engaged me in a net +of talk. He was of Wales, it seemed, but from a different part of the +country, and was staying for a few days with relations--at the white +farmhouse which I had passed on my way. His tale of nothing flowed on to +his pleasure and my pain, till he fell suddenly on Llantrisant and its +doings. I listened then with wonder, and here is his tale condensed. +Though it must be clearly understood that the man's evidence was only +second-hand; he had heard it from his cousin, the farmer. + +So, to be brief, it appeared that there had been a long feud at +Llantrisant between a local solicitor, Lewis Prothero (we will say), and +a farmer named James. There had been a quarrel about some trifle, which +had grown more and more bitter as the two parties forgot the merits of +the original dispute, and by some means or other, which I could not +well understand, the lawyer had got the small freeholder "under his +thumb." James, I think, had given a bill of sale in a bad season, and +Prothero had bought it up; and the end was that the farmer was turned +out of the old house, and was lodging in a cottage. People said he would +have to take a place on his own farm as a labourer; he went about in +dreadful misery, piteous to see. It was thought by some that he might +very well murder the lawyer, if he met him. + +They did meet, in the middle of the market-place at Llantrisant one +Saturday in June. The farmer was a little black man, and he gave a shout +of rage, and the people were rushing at him to keep him off Prothero. + +"And then," said my informant, "I will tell you what happened. This +lawyer, as they tell me, he is a great big brawny fellow, with a big jaw +and a wide mouth, and a red face and red whiskers. And there he was in +his black coat and his high hard hat, and all his money at his back, as +you may say. And, indeed, he did fall down on his knees in the dust +there in the street in front of Philip James, and every one could see +that terror was upon him. And he did beg Philip James's pardon, and beg +of him to have mercy, and he did implore him by God and man and the +saints of paradise. And my cousin, John Jenkins, Penmawr, he do tell me +that the tears were falling from Lewis Prothero's eyes like the rain. +And he put his hand into his pocket and drew out the deed of Pantyreos, +Philip James's old farm that was, and did give him the farm back and a +hundred pounds for the stock that was on it, and two hundred pounds, all +in notes of the bank, for amendment and consolation. + +"And then, from what they do tell me, all the people did go mad, crying +and weeping and calling out all manner of things at the top of their +voices. And at last nothing would do but they must all go up to the +churchyard, and there Philip James and Lewis Prothero they swear +friendship to one another for a long age before the old cross, and +everyone sings praises. And my cousin he do declare to me that there +were men standing in that crowd that he did never see before in +Llantrisant in all his life, and his heart was shaken within him as if +it had been in a whirl-wind." + +I had listened to all this in silence. I said then: + +"What does your cousin mean by that? Men that he had never seen in +Llantrisant? What men?" + +"The people," he said very slowly, "call them the Fishermen." + +And suddenly there came into my mind the "Rich Fisherman" who in the old +legend guards the holy mystery of the Graal. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE RINGING OF THE BELL + + +So far I have not told the story of the things of Llantrisant, but +rather the story of how I stumbled upon them and among them, perplexed +and wholly astray, seeking, but yet not knowing at all what I sought; +bewildered now and again by circumstances which seemed to me wholly +inexplicable; devoid, not so much of the key to the enigma, but of the +key to the nature of the enigma. You cannot begin to solve a puzzle till +you know what the puzzle is about. "Yards divided by minutes," said the +mathematical master to me long ago, "will give neither pigs, sheep, nor +oxen." He was right; though his manner on this and on all other +occasions was highly offensive. This is enough of the personal process, +as I may call it; and here follows the story of what happened at +Llantrisant last summer, the story as I pieced it together at last. + +It all began, it appears, on a hot day, early in last June; so far as I +can make out, on the first Saturday in the month. There was a deaf old +woman, a Mrs. Parry, who lived by herself in a lonely cottage a mile or +so from the town. She came into the market-place early on the Saturday +morning in a state of some excitement, and as soon as she had taken up +her usual place on the pavement by the churchyard, with her ducks and +eggs and a few very early potatoes, she began to tell her neighbours +about her having heard the sound of a great bell. The good women on each +side smiled at one another behind Mrs. Parry's back, for one had to bawl +into her ear before she could make out what one meant; and Mrs. +Williams, Penycoed, bent over and yelled: "What bell should that be, +Mrs. Parry? There's no church near you up at Penrhiw. Do you hear what +nonsense she talks?" said Mrs. Williams in a low voice to Mrs. Morgan. +"As if she could hear any bell, whatever." + +"What makes you talk nonsense your self?" said Mrs. Parry, to the +amazement of the two women. "I can hear a bell as well as you, Mrs. +Williams, and as well as your whispers either." + +And there is the fact, which is not to be disputed; though the +deductions from it may be open to endless disputations; this old woman +who had been all but stone deaf for twenty years--the defect had always +been in her family--could suddenly hear on this June morning as well as +anybody else. And her two old friends stared at her, and it was some +time before they had appeased her indignation, and induced her to talk +about the bell. + +It had happened in the early morning, which was very misty. She had been +gathering sage in her garden, high on a round hill looking over the sea. +And there came in her ears a sort of throbbing and singing and +trembling, "as if there were music coming out of the earth," and then +something seemed to break in her head, and all the birds began to sing +and make melody together, and the leaves of the poplars round the garden +fluttered in the breeze that rose from the sea, and the cock crowed far +off at Twyn, and the dog barked down in Kemeys Valley. But above all +these sounds, unheard for so many years, there thrilled the deep and +chanting note of the bell, "like a bell and a man's voice singing at +once." + +They stared again at her and at one another. "Where did it sound from?" +asked one. "It came sailing across the sea," answered Mrs. Parry quite +composedly, "and I did hear it coming nearer and nearer to the land." + +"Well, indeed," said Mrs. Morgan, "it was a ship's bell then, though I +can't make out why they would be ringing like that." + +"It was not ringing on any ship, Mrs. Morgan," said Mrs. Parry. + +"Then where do you think it was ringing?" + +"Ym Mharadwys," replied Mrs. Parry. Now that means "in Paradise," and +the two others changed the conversation quickly. They thought that Mrs. +Parry had got back her hearing suddenly--such things did happen now and +then--and that the shock had made her "a bit queer." And this +explanation would no doubt have stood its ground, if it had not been for +other experiences. Indeed, the local doctor who had treated Mrs. Parry +for a dozen years, not for her deafness, which he took to be hopeless +and beyond cure, but for a tiresome and recurrent winter cough, sent an +account of the case to a colleague at Bristol, suppressing, naturally +enough, the reference to Paradise. The Bristol physician gave it as his +opinion that the symptoms were absolutely what mighty have been +expected. + +"You have here, in all probability," he wrote, "the sudden breaking down +of an old obstruction in the aural passage, and I should quite expect +this process to be accompanied by tinnitus of a pronounced and even +violent character." + + * * * * * + +But for the other experiences? As the morning wore on and drew to noon, +high market, and to the utmost brightness of that summer day, all the +stalls and the streets were full of rumours and of awed faces. Now from +one lonely farm, now from another, men and women came and told the story +of how they had listened in the early morning with thrilling hearts to +the thrilling music of a bell that was like no bell ever heard before. +And it seemed that many people in the town had been roused, they knew +not how, from sleep; waking up, as one of them said, as if bells were +ringing and the organ playing, and a choir of sweet voices singing all +together: "There were such melodies and songs that my heart was full of +joy." + +And a little past noon some fishermen who had been out all night +returned, and brought a wonderful story into the town of what they had +heard in the mist and one of them said he had seen something go by at a +little distance from his boat. "It was all golden and bright," he said, +"and there was glory about it." Another fisherman declared "there was a +song upon the water that was like heaven." + +And here I would say in parenthesis that on returning to town I sought +out a very old friend of mine, a man who has devoted a lifetime to +strange and esoteric studies. I thought that I had a tale that would +interest him profoundly, but I found that he heard me with a good deal +of indifference. And at this very point of the sailors' stories I +remember saying: "Now what do you make of that? Don't you think it's +extremely curious?" He replied: "I hardly think so. Possibly the sailors +were lying; possibly it happened as they say. Well; that sort of thing +has always been happening." I give my friend's opinion; I make no +comment on it. + +Let it be noted that there was something remarkable as to the manner in +which the sound of the bell was heard--or supposed to be heard. There +are, no doubt, mysteries in sound as in all else; indeed, I am informed +that during one of the horrible outrages that have been perpetrated on +London during this autumn there was an instance of a great block of +workmen's dwellings in which the only person who heard the crash of a +particular bomb falling was an old deaf woman, who had been fast asleep +till the moment of the explosion. This is strange enough of a sound that +was entirely in the natural (and horrible) order; and so it was at +Llantrisant, where the sound was either a collective auditory +hallucination or a manifestation of what is conveniently, if +inaccurately, called the supernatural order. + +For the thrill of the bell did not reach to all ears--or hearts. Deaf +Mrs. Parry heard it in her lonely cottage garden, high above the misty +sea; but then, in a farm on the other or western side of Llantrisant, a +little child, scarcely three years old, was the only one out of a +household of ten people who heard anything. He called out in stammering +baby Welsh something that sounded like "Clychau fawr, clychau +fawr"--the great bells, the great bells--and his mother wondered what he +was talking about. Of the crews of half a dozen trawlers that were +swinging from side to side in the mist, not more than four men had any +tale to tell. And so it was that for an hour or two the man who had +heard nothing suspected his neighbour who had heard marvels of lying; +and it was some time before the mass of evidence coming from all manner +of diverse and remote quarters convinced the people that there was a +true story here. A might suspect B, his neighbour, of making up a tale; +but when C, from some place on the hills five miles away, and D, the +fisherman on the waters, each had a like report, then it was clear that +something had happened. + + * * * * * + +And even then, as they told me, the signs to be seen upon the people +were stranger than the tales told by them and among them. It has struck +me that many people in reading some of the phrases that I have reported, +will dismiss them with laughter as very poor and fantastic inventions; +fishermen, they will say, do not speak of "a song like heaven" or of "a +glory about it." And I dare say this would be a just enough criticism if +I were reporting English fishermen; but, odd though it may be, Wales has +not yet lost the last shreds of the grand manner. And let it be +remembered also that in most cases such phrases are translated from +another language, that is, from the Welsh. + +So, they come trailing, let us say, fragments of the cloud of glory in +their common speech; and so, on this Saturday, they began to display, +uneasily enough in many cases, their consciousness that the things that +were reported were of their ancient right and former custom. The +comparison is not quite fair; but conceive Hardy's old Durbeyfield +suddenly waking from long slumber to find himself in a noble +thirteenth-century hall, waited on by kneeling pages, smiled on by sweet +ladies in silken côtehardies. + +So by evening time there had come to the old people the recollection of +stories that their fathers had told them as they sat round the hearth of +winter nights, fifty, sixty, seventy years; ago; stories of the +wonderful bell of Teilo Sant, that had sailed across the glassy seas +from Syon, that was called a portion of Paradise, "and the sound of its +ringing was like the perpetual choir of the angels." + +Such things were remembered by the old and told to the young that +evening, in the streets of the town and in the deep lanes that climbed +far hills. The sun went down to the mountain red with fire like a burnt +offering, the sky turned violet, the sea was purple, as one told another +of the wonder that had returned to the land after long ages. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE ROSE OF FIRE + + +It was during the next nine days, counting from that Saturday early in +June the first Saturday in June, as I believe--that Llantrisant and all +the regions about became possessed either by an extraordinary set of +hallucinations or by a visitation of great marvels. + +This is not the place to strike the balance between the two +possibilities. The evidence is, no doubt, readily available; the matter +is open to systematic investigation. + +But this may be said: The ordinary man, in the ordinary passages of his +life, accepts in the main the evidence of his senses, and is entirely +right in doing so. He says that he sees a cow, that he sees a stone +wall, and that the cow and the stone wall are "there." + +This is very well for all the practical purposes of life, but I believe +that the metaphysicians are by no means so easily satisfied as to the +reality of the stone wall and the cow. Perhaps they might allow that +both objects are "there" in the sense that one's reflection is in a +glass; there is an actuality, but is there a reality external to +oneself? In any event, it is solidly agreed that, supposing a real +existence, this much is certain--it is not in the least like our +conception of it. The ant and the microscope will quickly convince us +that we do not see things as they really are, even supposing that we see +them at all. If we could "see" the real cow she would appear utterly +incredible, as incredible as the things I am to relate. + +Now, there is nothing that I know much more unconvincing than the +stories of the red light on the sea. Several sailors, men on small +coasting ships, who were working up or down the Channel on that Saturday +night, spoke of "seeing" the red light, and it must be said that there +is a very tolerable agreement in their tales. All make the time as +between midnight of the Saturday and one o'clock on the Sunday morning. +Two of those sailormen are precise as to the time of the apparition; +they fix it by elaborate calculations of their own as occurring at 12.20 +a.m. And the story? + +A red light, a burning spark seen far away in the darkness, taken at +the first moment of seeing for a signal, and probably an enemy signal. +Then it approached at a tremendous speed, and one man said he took it to +be the port light of some new kind of navy motor-boat which was +developing a rate hitherto unheard of, a hundred or a hundred and fifty +knots an hour. And then, in the third instant of the sight, it was clear +that this was no earthly speed. At first a red spark in the farthest +distance; then a rushing lamp; and then, as if in an incredible point of +time, it swelled into a vast rose of fire that filled all the sea and +all the sky and hid the stars and possessed the land. "I thought the end +of the world had come," one of the sailors said. + +And then, an instant more, and it was gone from them, and four of them +say that there was a red spark on Chapel Head, where the old grey chapel +of St. Teilo stands, high above the water, in a cleft of the limestone +rocks. + +And thus the sailors; and thus their tales are incredible; but they are +not incredible. I believe that men of the highest eminence in physical +science have testified to the occurrence of phenomena every whit as +marvellous, to things as absolutely opposed to all natural order, as we +conceive it; and it may be said that nobody minds them. "That sort of +thing has always been happening," as my friend remarked to me. But the +men, whether or no the fire had ever been without them, there was no +doubt that it was now within them, for it burned in their eyes. They +were purged as if they had passed through the Furnace of the Sages, +governed with Wisdom that the alchemists know. They spoke without much +difficulty of what they had seen, or had seemed to see, with their eyes, +but hardly at all of what their hearts had known when for a moment the +glory of the fiery rose had been about them. + +For some weeks afterwards they were still, as it were, amazed; almost, I +would say, incredulous. If there had been nothing more than the splendid +and fiery appearance, showing and vanishing, I do believe that they +themselves would have discredited their own senses and denied the truth +of their own tales. And one does not dare to say whether they would not +have been right. Men like Sir William Crookes and Sir Oliver Lodge are +certainly to be heard with respect, and they bear witness to all manner +of apparent eversions of laws which we, or most of us, consider far +more deeply founded than the ancient hills. They may be justified; but +in our hearts we doubt. We cannot wholly believe in inner sincerity that +the solid table did rise, without mechanical reason or cause, into the +air, and so defy that which we name the "law of gravitation." I know +what may be said on the other side; I know that there is no true +question of "law" in the case; that the law of gravitation really means +just this: that I have never seen a table rising without mechanical aid, +or an apple, detached from the bough, soaring to the skies instead of +falling to the ground. The so-called law is just the sum of common +observation and nothing more; yet I say, in our hearts we do not believe +that the tables rise; much less do we believe in the rose of fire that +for a moment swallowed up the skies and seas and shores of the Welsh +coast last June. + +And the men who saw it would have invented fairy tales to account for +it, I say again, if it had not been for that which was within them. + +They said, all of them, and it was certain now that they spoke the +truth, that in the moment of the vision, every pain and ache and malady +in their bodies had passed away. One man had been vilely drunk on +venomous spirit, procured at "Jobson's Hole" down by the Cardiff Docks. +He was horribly ill; he had crawled up from his bunk for a little fresh +air; and in an instant his horrors and his deadly nausea had left him. +Another man was almost desperate with the raging hammering pain of an +abscess on a tooth; he says that when the red flame came near he felt as +if a dull, heavy blow had fallen on his jaw, and then the pain was quite +gone; he could scarcely believe that there had been any pain there. + +And they all bear witness to an extraordinary exaltation of the senses. +It is indescribable, this; for they cannot describe it. They are amazed, +again; they do not in the least profess to know what happened; but there +is no more possibility of shaking their evidence than there is a +possibility of shaking the evidence of a man who says that water is wet +and fire hot. + +"I felt a bit queer afterwards," said one of them, "and I steadied +myself by the mast, and I can't tell how I felt as I touched it. I +didn't know that touching a thing like a mast could be better than a +big drink when you're thirsty, or a soft pillow when you're sleepy." + +I heard other instances of this state of things, as I must vaguely call +it, since I do not know what else to call it. But I suppose we can all +agree that to the man in average health, the average impact of the +external world on his senses is a matter of indifference. The average +impact; a harsh scream, the bursting of a motor tyre, any violent +assault on the aural nerves will annoy him, and he may say "damn." Then, +on the other hand, the man who is not "fit" will easily be annoyed and +irritated by someone pushing past him in a crowd, by the ringing of a +bell, by the sharp closing of a book. + +But so far as I could judge from the talk of these sailors, the average +impact of the external world had become to them a fountain of pleasure. +Their nerves were on edge, but an edge to receive exquisite sensuous +impressions. The touch of the rough mast, for example; that was a joy +far greater than is the joy of fine silk to some luxurious skins; they +drank water and stared as if they had been _fins gourmets_ tasting an +amazing wine; the creak and whine of their ship on its slow way were as +exquisite as the rhythm and song of a Bach fugue to an amateur of music. + +And then, within; these rough fellows have their quarrels and strifes +and variances and envyings like the rest of us; but that was all over +between them that had seen the rosy light; old enemies shook hands +heartily, and roared with laughter as they confessed one to another what +fools they had been. + +"I can't exactly say how it has happened or what has happened at all," +said one, "but if you have all the world and the glory of it, how can +you fight for fivepence?" + + * * * * * + +The church of Llantrisant is a typical example of a Welsh parish church, +before the evil and horrible period of "restoration." + +This lower world is a palace of lies, and of all foolish lies there is +none more insane than a certain vague fable about the mediæval +freemasons, a fable which somehow imposed itself upon the cold intellect +of Hallam the historian. The story is, in brief, that throughout the +Gothic period, at any rate, the art and craft of church building were +executed by wandering guilds of "freemasons," possessed of various +secrets of building and adornment, which they employed wherever they +went. If this nonsense were true, the Gothic of Cologne would be as the +Gothic of Colne, and the Gothic of Arles like to the Gothic of Abingdon. +It is so grotesquely untrue that almost every county, let alone every +country, has its distinctive style in Gothic architecture. Arfon is in +the west of Wales; its churches have marks and features which +distinguish them from the churches in the east of Wales. + +The Llantrisant church has that primitive division between nave and +chancel which only very foolish people decline to recognise as +equivalent to the Oriental iconostasis and as the origin of the Western +rood-screen. A solid wall divided the church into two portions; in the +centre was a narrow opening with a rounded arch, through which those who +sat towards the middle of the church could see the small, red-carpeted +altar and the three roughly shaped lancet windows above it. + +The "reading pew" was on the outer side of this wall of partition, and +here the rector did his service, the choir being grouped in seats about +him. On the inner side were the pews of certain privileged houses of +the town and district. + +On the Sunday morning the people were all in their accustomed places, +not without a certain exultation in their eyes, not without a certain +expectation of they knew not what. The bells stopped ringing, the +rector, in his old-fashioned, ample surplice, entered the reading-desk, +and gave out the hymn: "My God, and is Thy Table spread." + +And, as the singing began, all the people who were in the pews within +the wall came out of them and streamed through the archway into the +nave. They took what places they could find up and down the church, and +the rest of the congregation looked at them in amazement. + +Nobody knew what had happened. Those whose seats were next to the aisle +tried to peer into the chancel, to see what had happened or what was +going on there. But somehow the light flamed so brightly from the +windows above the altar, those being the only windows in the chancel, +one small lancet in the south wall excepted, that no one could see +anything at all. + +"It was as if a veil of gold adorned with jewels was hanging there," one +man said; and indeed there are a few odds and scraps of old painted +glass left in the eastern lancets. + +But there were few in the church who did not hear now and again voices +speaking beyond the veil. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OLWEN'S DREAM + + +The well-to-do and dignified personages who left their pews in the +chancel of Llantrisant Church and came hurrying into the nave could give +no explanation of what they had done. They felt, they said, that they +had to go, and to go quickly; they were driven out, as it were, by a +secret, irresistible command. But all who were present in the church +that morning were amazed, though all exulted in their hearts; for they, +like the sailors who saw the rose of fire on the waters, were filled +with a joy that was literally ineffable, since they could not utter it +or interpret it to themselves. + +And they too, like the sailors, were transmuted, or the world was +transmuted for them. They experienced what the doctors call a sense of +_bien être_ but a _bien être_ raised, to the highest power. Old men felt +young again, eyes that had been growing dim now saw clearly, and saw a +world that was like Paradise, the same world, it is true, but a world +rectified and glowing, as if an inner flame shone in all things, and +behind all things. + +And the difficulty in recording this state is this, that it is so rare +an experience that no set language to express it is in existence. A +shadow of its raptures and ecstasies is found in the highest poetry; +there are phrases in ancient books telling of the Celtic saints that +dimly hint at it; some of the old Italian masters of painting had known +it, for the light of it shines in their skies and about the battlements +of their cities that are founded on magic hills. But these are but +broken hints. + +It is not poetic to go to Apothecaries' Hall for similes. But for many +years I kept by me an article from the _Lancet_ or the _British Medical +Journal_--I forget which--in which a doctor gave an account of certain +experiments he had conducted with a drug called the Mescal Button, or +Anhelonium Lewinii. He said that while under the influence of the drug +he had but to shut his eyes, and immediately before him there would rise +incredible Gothic cathedrals, of such majesty and splendour and glory +that no heart had ever conceived. They seemed to surge from the depths +to the very heights of heaven, their spires swayed amongst the clouds +and the stars, they were fretted with admirable imagery. And as he +gazed, he would presently become aware that all the stones were living +stones, that they were quickening and palpitating, and then that they +were glowing jewels, say, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, opals, but of +hues that the mortal eye had never seen. + +That description gives, I think, some faint notion of the nature of the +transmuted world into which these people by the sea had entered, a world +quickened and glorified and full of pleasures. Joy and wonder were on +all faces; but the deepest joy and the greatest wonder were on the face +of the rector. For he had heard through the veil the Greek word for +"holy," three times repeated. And he, who had once been a horrified +assistant at High Mass in a foreign church, recognised the perfume of +incense that filled the place from end to end. + + * * * * * + +It was on that Sunday night that Olwen Phillips of Croeswen dreamed her +wonderful dream. She was a girl of sixteen, the daughter of small +farming people, and for many months she had been doomed to certain +death. Consumption, which flourishes in that damp, warm climate, had +laid hold of her; not only her lungs but her whole system was a mass of +tuberculosis. As is common enough, she had enjoyed many fallacious brief +recoveries in the early stages of the disease, but all hope had long +been over, and now for the last few weeks she had seemed to rush +vehemently to death. The doctor had come on the Saturday morning, +bringing with him a colleague. They had both agreed that the girl's case +was in its last stages. "She cannot possibly last more than a day or +two," said the local doctor to her mother. He came again on the Sunday +morning and found his patient perceptibly worse, and soon afterwards she +sank into a heavy sleep, and her mother thought that she would never +wake from it. + +The girl slept in an inner room communicating with the room occupied by +her father and mother. The door between was kept open, so that Mrs. +Phillips could hear her daughter if she called to her in the night. And +Olwen called to her mother that night, just as the dawn was breaking. +It was no faint summons from a dying bed that came to the mother's ears, +but a loud cry that rang through the house, a cry of great gladness. +Mrs. Phillips started up from sleep in wild amazement, wondering what +could have happened. And then she saw Olwen, who had not been able to +rise from her bed for many weeks past, standing in the doorway in the +faint light of the growing day. The girl called to her mother: "Mam! +mam! It is all over. I am quite well again." + +Mrs. Phillips roused her husband, and they sat up in bed staring, not +knowing on earth, as they said afterwards, what had been done with the +world. Here was their poor girl wasted to a shadow, lying on her +death-bed, and the life sighing from her with every breath, and her +voice, when she last uttered it, so weak that one had to put one's ear +to her mouth. And here in a few hours she stood up before them; and even +in that faint light they could see that she was changed almost beyond +knowing. And, indeed, Mrs. Phillips said that for a moment or two she +fancied that the Germans must have come and killed them in their sleep, +and so they were all dead together. But Olwen called, out again, so the +mother lit a candle and got up and went tottering across the room, and +there was Olwen all gay and plump again, smiling with shining eyes. Her +mother led her into her own room, and set down the candle there, and +felt her daughter's flesh, and burst into prayers and tears of wonder +and delight, and thanksgivings, and held the girl again to be sure that +she was not deceived. And then Olwen told her dream, though she thought +it was not a dream. + +She said she woke up in the deep darkness, and she knew the life was +fast going from her. She could not move so much as a finger, she tried +to cry out, but no sound came from her lips. She felt that in another +instant the whole world would fall from her--her heart was full of +agony. And as the last breath was passing her lips, she heard a very +faint, sweet sound, like the tinkling of a silver bell. It came from far +away, from over by Ty-newydd. She forgot her agony and listened, and +even then, she says, she felt the swirl of the world as it came back to +her. And the sound of the bell swelled and grew louder, and it thrilled +all through her body, and the life was in it. And as the bell rang and +trembled in her ears, a faint light touched the wall of her room and +reddened, till the whole room was full of rosy fire. And then she saw +standing before her bed three men in blood-coloured robes with shining +faces. And one man held a golden bell in his hand. And the second man +held up something shaped like the top of a table. It was like a great +jewel, and it was of a blue colour, and there were rivers of silver and +of gold running through it and flowing as quick streams flow, and there +were pools in it as if violets had been poured out into water, and then +it was green as the sea near the shore, and then it was the sky at night +with all the stars shining, and then the sun and the moon came down and +washed in it. And the third man held up high above this a cup that was +like a rose on fire; "there was a great burning in it, and a dropping of +blood in it, and a red cloud above it, and I saw a great secret. And I +heard a voice that sang nine times, 'Glory and praise to the Conqueror +of Death, to the Fountain of Life immortal.' Then the red light went +from the wall, and it was all darkness, and the bell rang faint again by +Capel Teilo, and then I got up and called to you." + +The doctor came on the Monday morning with the death certificate in his +pocket-book, and Olwen ran out to meet him. I have quoted his phrase in +the first chapter of this record: "A kind of resurrection of the body." +He made a most careful examination of the girl; he has stated that he +found that every trace of disease had disappeared. He left on the Sunday +morning a patient entering into the coma that precedes death, a body +condemned utterly and ready for the grave. He met at the garden gate on +the Monday morning a young woman in whom life sprang up like a fountain, +in whose body life laughed and rejoiced as if it had been a river +flowing from an unending well. + + * * * * * + +Now this is the place to ask one of those questions--there are many +such--which cannot be answered. The question is as to the continuance of +tradition; more especially as to the continuance of tradition among the +Welsh Celts of today. On the one hand, such waves and storms have gone +over them. The wave of the heathen Saxons went over them, then the wave +of Latin mediævalism, then the waters of Anglicanism; last of all the +flood of their queer Calvinistic Methodism, half Puritan, half pagan. It +may well be asked whether any memory can possibly have survived such a +series of deluges. I have said that the old people of Llantrisant had +their tales of the Bell of Teilo Sant; but these were but vague and +broken recollections. And then there is the name by which the +"strangers" who were seen in the market-place were known; that is more +precise. Students of the Graal legend know that the keeper of the Graal +in the romances is the "King Fisherman," or the "Rich Fisherman"; +students of Celtic hagiology know that it was prophesied before the +birth of Dewi (or David) that he should be "a man of aquatic life," that +another legend tells how a little child, destined to be a saint, was +discovered on a stone in the river, how through his childhood a fish for +his nourishment was found on that stone every day, while another saint, +Ilar, if I remember, was expressly known as "The Fisherman." But has the +memory of all this persisted in the church-going and chapel-going people +of Wales at the present day? It is difficult to say. There is the affair +of the Healing Cup of Nant Eos, or Tregaron Healing Cup, as it is also +called. It is only a few years ago since it was shown to a wandering +harper, who treated it lightly, and then spent a wretched night, as he +said, and came back penitently and was left alone with the sacred vessel +to pray over it, till "his mind was at rest." That was in 1887. + +Then for my part--I only know modern Wales on the surface, I am sorry to +say--I remember three or four years ago speaking to my temporary +landlord of certain relics of Saint Teilo, which are supposed to be in +the keeping of a particular family in that country. The landlord is a +very jovial, merry fellow, and I observed with some astonishment that +his ordinary, easy manner was completely altered as he said, gravely, +"That will be over there, up by the mountain," pointing vaguely to the +north. And he changed the subject, as a Freemason changes the subject. + +There the matter lies, and its appositeness to the story of Llantrisant +is this: that the dream of Olwen Phillips was, in fact, the Vision of +the Holy Graal. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MASS OF THE SANGRAAL + + +"_FFEIRIADWYR Melcisidec! Ffeiriadwyr Melcisidec!_" shouted the old +Calvinistic Methodist deacon with the grey beard. "Priesthood of +Melchizedek! Priesthood of Melchizedek!" + +And he went on: + +"The Bell that is like _y glwys yr angel ym mharadwys_--the joy of the +angels in Paradise--is returned; the Altar that is of a colour that no +men can discern is returned, the Cup that came from Syon is returned, +the ancient Offering is restored, the Three Saints have come back to the +church of the _tri sant_, the Three Holy Fishermen are amongst us, and +their net is full. _Gogoniant, gogoniant_--glory, glory!" + +Then another Methodist began to recite in Welsh a verse from Wesley's +hymn. + + God still respects Thy sacrifice, + Its savour sweet doth always please; + The Offering smokes through earth and skies, + Diffusing life and joy and peace; + To these Thy lower courts it comes + And fills them with Divine perfumes. + +The whole church was full, as the old books tell, of the odour of the +rarest spiceries. There were lights shining within the sanctuary, +through the narrow archway. + +This was the beginning of the end of what befell at Llantrisant. For it +was the Sunday after that night on which Olwen Phillips had been +restored from death to life. There was not a single chapel of the +Dissenters open in the town that day. The Methodists with their minister +and their deacons and all the Nonconformists had returned on this Sunday +morning to "the old hive." One would have said, a church of the Middle +Ages, a church in Ireland today. Every seat--save those in the chancel +--was full, all the aisles were full, the churchyard was full; everyone +on his knees, and the old rector kneeling before the door into the holy +place. + +Yet they can say but very little of what was done beyond the veil. There +was no attempt to perform the usual service; when the bells had stopped +the old deacon raised his cry, and priest and people fell down on their +knees as they thought they heard a choir within singing "Alleluya, +alleluya, alleluya." And as the bells in the tower ceased ringing, there +sounded the thrill of the bell from Syon, and the golden veil of +sunlight fell across the door into the altar, and the heavenly voices +began their melodies. + +A voice like a trumpet cried from within the brightness. + +_Agyos, Agyos, Agyos._ + +And the people, as if an age-old memory stirred in them, replied: + +_Agyos yr Tâd, agyos yr Mab, agyos yr Yspryd Glan. Sant, sant, sant, +Drindod sant vendigeid. Sanctus Arglwydd Dduw Sabaoth, Dominus Deus._ + +There was a voice that cried and sang from within the altar; most of the +people had heard some faint echo of it in the chapels; a voice rising +and falling and soaring in awful modulations that rang like the trumpet +of the Last Angel. The people beat upon their breasts, the tears were +like rain of the mountains on their cheeks; those that were able fell +down flat on their faces before the glory of the veil. They said +afterwards that men of the hills, twenty miles away, heard that cry and +that singing, roaring upon them on the wind, and they fell down on +their faces, and cried, "The offering is accomplished," knowing nothing +of what they said. + +There were a few who saw three come out of the door of the sanctuary, +and stand for a moment on the pace before the door. These three were in +dyed vesture, red as blood. One stood before two, looking to the west, +and he rang the bell. And they say that all the birds of the wood, and +all the waters of the sea, and all the leaves of the trees, and all the +winds of the high rocks uttered their voices with the ringing of the +bell. And the second and the third; they turned their faces one to +another. The second held up the lost altar that they once called +Sapphirus, which was like the changing of the sea and of the sky, and +like the immixture of gold and silver. And the third heaved up high over +the altar a cup that was red with burning and the blood of the offering. + +And the old rector cried aloud then before the entrance: + +_Bendigeid yr Offeren yn oes oesoedd_--blessed be the Offering unto the +age of ages. + +And then the Mass of the Sangraal was ended, and then began the passing +out of that land of the holy persons and holy things that had returned +to it after the long years. It seemed, indeed, to many that the +thrilling sound of the bell was in their ears for days, even for weeks +after that Sunday morning. But thenceforth neither bell nor altar nor +cup was seen by anyone; not openly, that is, but only in dreams by day +and by night. Nor did the people see Strangers again in the market of +Llantrisant, nor in the lonely places where certain persons oppressed by +great affliction and sorrow had once or twice encountered them. + + * * * * * + +But that time of visitation will never be forgotten by the people. Many +things happened in the nine days that have not been set down in this +record--or legend. Some of them were trifling matters, though strange +enough in other times. Thus a man in the town who had a fierce dog that +was always kept chained up found one day that the beast had become mild +and gentle. + +And this is odder: Edward Davies, of Lanafon, a farmer, was roused from +sleep one night by a queer yelping and barking in his yard. He looked +out of the window and saw his sheep-dog playing with a big fox; they +were chasing each other by turns, rolling over and over one another, +"cutting such capers as I did never see the like," as the astonished +farmer put it. And some of the people said that during this season of +wonder the corn shot up, and the grass thickened, and the fruit was +multiplied on the trees in a very marvellous manner. + +More important, it seemed, was the case of Williams, the grocer; though +this may have been a purely natural deliverance. Mr. Williams was to +marry his daughter Mary to a smart young fellow from Carmarthen, and he +was in great distress over it. Not over the marriage itself, but because +things had been going very badly with him for some time, and he could +not see his way to giving anything like the wedding entertainment that +would be expected of him. The wedding was to be on the Saturday--that +was the day on which the lawyer, Lewis Prothero, and the farmer, Philip +James, were reconciled--and this John Williams, without money or credit, +could not think how shame would not be on him for the meagreness and +poverty of the wedding feast. And then on the Tuesday came a letter from +his brother, David Williams, Australia, from whom he had not heard for +fifteen years. And David, it seemed, had been making a great deal of +money, and was a bachelor, and here was with his letter a paper good for +a thousand pounds: "You may as well enjoy it now as wait till I am +dead." This was enough, indeed, one might say; but hardly an hour after +the letter had come the lady from the big house (Plas Mawr) drove up in +all her grandeur, and went into the shop and said, "Mr. Williams, your +daughter Mary has always been a very good girl, and my husband and I +feel that we must give her some little thing on her wedding, and we hope +she'll be very happy." It was a gold watch worth fifteen pounds. And +after Lady Watcyn, advances the old doctor with a dozen of port, forty +years upon it, and a long sermon on how to decant it. And the old +rector's old wife brings to the beautiful dark girl two yards of creamy +lace, like an enchantment, for her wedding veil, and tells Mary how she +wore it for her own wedding fifty years ago; and the squire, Sir Watcyn, +as if his wife had not been already with a fine gift, calls from his +horse, and brings out Williams and barks like a dog at him, "Goin' to +have a weddin', eh, Williams? Can't have a weddin' without champagne, y' +know; wouldn't be legal, don't y' know. So look out for a couple of +cases." So Williams tells the story of the gifts; and certainly there +was never so famous a wedding in Llantrisant before. + +All this, of course, may have been altogether in the natural order; the +"glow," as they call it, seems more difficult to explain. For they say +that all through the nine days, and indeed after the time had ended, +there never was a man weary or sick at heart in Llantrisant, or in the +country round it. For if a man felt that his work of the body or the +mind was going to be too much for his strength, then there would come to +him of a sudden a warm glow and a thrilling all over him and he felt as +strong as a giant, and happier than he had ever been in his life before, +so that lawyer and hedger each rejoiced in the task that was before him, +as if it were sport and play. + +And much more wonderful than this or any other wonders was forgiveness, +with love to follow it. There were meetings of old enemies in the +market-place and in the street that made the people lift up their hands +and declare that it was as if one walked the miraculous streets of Syon. + + * * * * * + +But as to the "phenomena," the occurrences for which, in ordinary talk, +we should reserve the word "miraculous"? Well, what do we know? The +question that I have already stated comes up again, as to the possible +survival of old tradition in a kind of dormant, or torpid, +semi-conscious state. In other words, did the people "see" and "hear" +what they expected to see and hear? This point, or one similar to it, +occurred in a debate between Andrew Lang and Anatole France as to the +visions of Joan of Arc. M. France stated that when Joan saw St. Michael, +she saw the traditional archangel of the religious art of her day, but +to the best of my belief Andrew Lang proved that the visionary figure +Joan described was not in the least like the fifteenth-century +conception of St. Michael. So, in the case of Llantrisant, I have stated +that there was a sort of tradition about the Holy Bell of Teilo Sant; +and it is, of course, barely possible that some vague notion of the +Graal Cup may have reached even Welsh country folks through Tennyson's +Idylls. But so far I see no reason to suppose that these people had ever +heard of the portable altar (called Sapphirus in William of Malmesbury) +or of its changing colours "that no man could discern." + +And then there are the other questions of the distinction between +hallucination and vision, of the average duration of one and the other, +and of the possibility of collective hallucination. If a number of +people all see (or think they see) the same appearances, can this be +merely hallucination? I believe there is a leading case on the matter, +which concerns a number of people seeing the same appearance on a church +wall in Ireland; but there is, of course, this difficulty, that one may +be hallucinated and communicate his impression to the others, +telepathically. + +But at the last, what do we know? + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35611 *** |