The King's Achievement

r a century. At times it appeared as if the old life in the world were a kind of far-away picture in which he saw himself as one detached from his present personality, mo

empty heart-breaking formality in which his soul was being stifled, and ev

in it-a world in which great and small affairs were carried on, and in which he interested himself. God had made horses and hawks, had provided materials for carriages and fine clothes and cross-bows, had formed the sexes and allowed for love and domestic matters, had created brains with their capacities of passion and intellect; and so Ralph had taken these things as he found them, hunted, dres

hs of the novitiate helped to solem

oticed the little table set outside the door, with its candles and crucifix, the basin of cotton-wool, and the other signs that the last sacraments were to be administered. He knew little of the old man, except his bleared face and shakin

looked pinched and white in the candlelight; his old mouth moved incessantly, and opened now and

ly now and again the heavy stroke of the b

m Communion passed back with his sacred burden, and Chris had fallen on his knees where he stood as he caught a glimpse of the white procession passing back to the chu

over now, and the

ustine lay, he would lie, with his past behind him, of which every detail would be instinct with eternal import. All the tiny things of the monastic life-the rising in time for the night office, attention during it, the responses to grace, the little movements prescribed by etiquette, the invisible motion

ind;-what strange colloquy of the soul with itself or its Master or great personages of the Court of Heaven. And all was set in this little bare setti

departing soul to the edge of eternity with all that was dear and familiar to it-the drops of holy water, the mellow light of candles, and the sonorous soothin

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t of the cell with an indesc

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place, Chris was in a period of abstracted peace, and the

ister one day from the guest-house

monk with whom the lonely novice was sometimes allowed to walk. "Mas

h a deferential coldnes

d the oath, and that he is lodged in t

Chris was silent. It was sad enough, but what did it matte

h the house. Chris, however, heard nothing more except the little that the novice-master chose to tell him, and felt a certain contem

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the garth, and occupying a prominent seat in the church; he noticed that his master was long in coming to him after the protracted chapter-meetings, but it appeared to him all rather an irrelevant matter. Thes

d the oath, as all others were doing, and that there was no need

to tell him that he ought to have been, but that novices always thought they kne

went to his lessons wondering what

ave reached the very heart and secret of existence-surely it was plain enough; God and eternity were the only things worth considering; a life passed in an ecstasy, if such were possible, was surely more consonant wi

im strangely bitter and dry: the clouds would gather; the wind of discontent would begin t

tuous mood immediately

heart had leaped at the possibility of escape. He did not know till then how strong had grown the motive of appearing well in the eyes of his relatives and of fearing to lose their respect by drawing back; an

h a terrible str

immering through the summer darkness-all this had faded and left him, as it seemed, sane and perceptive of facts at last. Out there through those transepts lay the town where reasonable folk slept, husband and wife together, and the children in the great bed next door, with the tranquil ordinary day behind them and its fellow before; there were the streets, still now and dark and empty but for the sleeping dogs, where the signs sw

e him, thumbed and greasy at their corners, from which he was repeating in a loud monotone formula after formula that had had time to grow familiar from re

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under half-raised eye-lids; saw the clean-cut profile with its delicate mouth bent over the paper, and the hand with the enamelled ring turn the page. Prior Crowham

ether you will offer yourself. Of course, there is un

the young man, and Chr

silence fo

id the Prior again, "you have

s lips together

resently. "He will suggest many reasons against your professio

was silent. His soul was so desolate that he

and our Patron, and then leave yourself in their hands. You will know bette

Chris, and he took up the l

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been followed by a curious sense of relief at the thought suggested to him that the responsibility of

road leading up into the town; there was no one there but the two. It was about seven o'clock on the feast of the Seven Martyrs, and the

ransept ceased instantly at the sound. The priest ascended the steps, set down the vessels, spread the corporal, opened the book, and came down again for the preparation. There

eneath more than mere linen, the hood thrown back in the amice a sacramental thing. He looked up at the smoky yellow flames against the painted woodwork at the back of the altar, at the discoloured stones beside the grey window-mouldings still with the slanting marks of the chisel upon them, at the black rafters overhead, and last out through the shafted window at the heavy July foliage of the elm that stood by the road and the brilliant morning sky beyond; and once more he saw what these things meant and conveye

told him that he had made up his mind to offer himself for

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before the chapter to make his solemn demand; his petit

et stricter seclusion t