The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary

e end. He spoke to me for over an hour, and I think that I have remembered near every wor

rrying his kirtle, with his books and other things in his bur

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 A

s 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 lov

ed 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

ui, JESU, recordor." ["I glory, so o

istopher, 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 kir

. 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,

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 t

e mass, and Master Richard knelt b

then, and was setting out once more when the priest came back with a jug of ale and a piece of m

d the meat and the al

siness, and he said he was

would speak with the King, and h

u to say to him?"

ow," said Ma

fools, but Master Richard did not understand him then, for he

t 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

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

igh branches in the sylvan twilight, over the dead leaves and the fern, and seeing now and again, as he expressly

und 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

ot with walking, and desired to be at his ease when he sa

hen the heat of the day began to turn he was aware that he was coming near

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,

in, 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

ot no supper, and an hour before sunset he came to the ferry over against Westminster. The wherries wer

th 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

er for the love of saint Denis and saint Giles, and the fellow swore a great oath, el

osed 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 l

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er Richard said that he knew it, for that he had seen it four years before when he ca

tary, confined to one cell with episcopal cer

he told him, too, where was his cell. Then he put hi

when Master Richard went to his reward, but he found his way there, marvelling at the filth of the

d me, and a stench as of a ken

, and with the other gripping the bars and sitting sideways on th

re came

r as black as the hair, with red-rimmed eyes that oozed salt rheum. T

Master Richard, "of high things. I hold my

yes winke

tench," said

s propagation," said Master Richar

like that, but he was an-angered that a man shoul

the origin of my propag

he desired, too, to speak of high matters; so he let it al

hat I bear to the King. It may be that our Lord has r

g to go dumb be

God will," said

e King should be deaf an

" said Master

hich you bear o

five wounds

e. Are you yet in th

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

ot hear it, and at the end the holy man

. "It may be then that I shall know the

his own, and what he said of it to me I dare not tell you, but he bitterly rep

ight fall upon it, he said that beneath him in the little street ther

kered with thought and that his lips pouted through the long-falling hair. Then it disappear

ut He has shewed me this-that soon you will not need to wear His wounds.

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indow, and, going in the midst of them in silence, he came to saint Pe

the King in Westminster

Edward

et in templo ejus

s: and in His temple all shall