ONE day he resolved to set forth on a visit to the Saint of the Rock,
who lived on the other side of the mountains. Travellers had brought
the Hermit report of this solitary, how he lived in great holiness and
austerity in a desert place among the hills, where snow lay all winter,
and in summer the sun beat down cruelly. The Saint, it appeared, had
vowed that he would withdraw from the world to a spot where there was
neither shade nor water, lest he should be tempted to take his ease and
think less continually upon his Maker; but wherever he went he found a
spreading tree or a gushing spring, till at last he climbed up to the
bare heights where nothing grows, and where the only water comes from
the melting of the snow in spring. Here he found a tall rock rising
from the ground, and in it he scooped a hollow with his own hands,
labouring for five years and wearing his fingers to the bone. Then he
seated himself in the hollow, which faced the west, so that in winter
he should have small warmth of the sun and in summer be consumed by it;
and there he had sat without moving for years beyond number.
The Hermit was greatly drawn by the tale of such austerities, which in
his humility he did not dream of emulating, but desired, for his soul's
good, to contemplate and praise; so one day he bound sandals to his
feet, cut an alder staff from the stream, and set out to visit the
Saint of the Rock.
It was the pleasant spring season, when seeds are shooting and the bud
is on the tree. The Hermit was troubled at the thought of leaving his
plants without water, but he could not travel in winter by reason of
the snows, and in summer he feared the garden would suffer even more
from his absence. So he set out, praying that rain might fall while he
was away, and hoping to return again in five days. The peasants
labouring in the fields left their work to ask his blessing; and they
would even have followed him in great numbers had he not told them that
he was bound on a pilgrimage to the Saint of the Rock, and that it
behoved him to go alone, as one solitary seeking another. So they
respected his wish, and he went on and entered the forest. In the
forest he walked for two days and slept for two nights. He heard the
wolves crying, and foxes rustling in the covert, and once, at twilight,
a shaggy brown man peered at him through the leaves and galloped away
with a soft padding of hoofs; but the Hermit feared neither wild beasts
nor evil-doers, nor even the fauns and satyrs who linger in unhallowed
forest depths where the Cross has not been raised; for he said: "If I
die, I die to the glory of God, and if I live it must be to the same
end." Only he felt a secret pang at the thought that he might die
without seeing his lauds again. But the third day, without
misadventure, he came out on another valley.
Then he began to climb the mountain, first through brown woods of beech
and oak, then through pine and broom, and then across red stony ledges
where only a pinched growth of lentisk and briar spread in patches over
the rock. By this time he thought to have reached his goal, but for two
more days he fared on through the same scene, with the sky close over
him and the green valleys of earth receding far below. Sometimes for
hours he saw only the red glistering slopes tufted with thin bushes,
and the hard blue heaven so close that it seemed his hand could touch
it; then at a turn of the path the rocks rolled apart, the eye plunged
down a long pine-clad defile, and beyond it the forest flowed in mighty
undulations to a plain shining with cities and another mountain-range
many days' journey away. To some eyes this would have been a terrible
spectacle, reminding the wayfarer of his remoteness from his kind, and
of the perils which lurk in waste places and the weakness of man
against them; but the Hermit was so mated to solitude, and felt such
love for all things created, that to him the bare rocks sang of their
Maker and the vast distance bore witness to His greatness. So His
servant journeyed on unafraid.
But one morning, after a long climb over steep and difficult slopes,
the wayfarer halted suddenly at a bend of the way; for beyond the
defile at his feet there was no plain shining with cities, but a bare
expanse of shaken silver that reached away to the rim of the world; and
the Hermit knew it was the sea. Fear seized him then, for it was
terrible to see that great plain move like a heaving bosom, and, as he
looked on it, the earth seemed also to heave beneath him. But presently
he remembered how Christ had walked the waves, and how even Saint Mary
of Egypt, who was a great sinner, had crossed the waters of Jordan
dry-shod to receive the Sacrament from the Abbot Zosimus; and then the
Hermit's heart grew still, and he sang as he went down the mountain:
"The sea shall praise Thee, O Lord."
All day he kept seeing it and then losing it; but toward night he came
to a cleft of the hills, and lay down in a pine-wood to sleep. He had
now been six days gone, and once and again he thought anxiously of his
herbs; but he said to himself: "What though my garden perish, if I see
a holy man face to face and praise God in his company?" So he was never
long cast down.
Before daylight he was afoot under the stars; and leaving the wood
where he had slept, began climbing the face of a tall cliff, where he
had to clutch the jutting ledges with his hands, and with every step he
gained, a rock seemed thrust forth to hurl him back. So, footsore and
bleeding, he reached a little stony plain as the sun dropped to the
sea; and in the red light he saw a hollow rock, and the Saint sitting
in the hollow.
The Hermit fell on his knees, praising God; then he rose and ran across
the plain to the rock. As he drew near he saw that the Saint was a very
old man, clad in goatskin, with a long white beard. He sat motionless,
his hands on his knees, and two red eye-sockets turned to the sunset.
Near him was a young boy in skins who brushed the flies from his face;
but they always came back, and settled on the rheum which ran from his
eyes.
He did not appear to hear or see the approach of the Hermit, but sat
quite still till the boy said: "Father, here is a pilgrim."
Then he lifted up his voice and asked angrily who was there and what
the stranger sought.
The Hermit answered: "Father, the report of your holy practices came to
me a long way off, and being myself a solitary, though not worthy to be
named with you for godliness, it seemed fitting that I should cross the
mountains to visit you, that we might sit together and speak in praise
of solitude."
The Saint replied: "You fool, how can two sit together and praise
solitude, since by so doing they put an end to the thing they pretend
to honour?"
The Hermit, at that, was sorely abashed, for he had thought his speech
out on the way, reciting it many times over; and now it appeared to him
vainer than the crackling of thorns under a pot.
Nevertheless he took heart and said: "True, Father; but may not two
sinners sit together and praise Christ, who has taught them the
blessings of solitude?"
But the other only answered: "If you had really learned the blessings
of solitude you would not squander them in idle wandering." And, the
Hermit not knowing how to reply, he said again: "If two sinners meet
they can best praise Christ by going each his own way in silence."
After that he shut his lips and continued motionless while the boy
brushed the flies from his eye-sockets; but the Hermit's heart sank,
and for the first time he felt all the weariness of the way he had
fared, and the great distance dividing him from home.
He had meant to take counsel with the Saint concerning his lauds, and
whether he ought to destroy them; but now he had no heart to say
another word, and turning away he began to descend the mountain.
Presently he heard steps running behind him, and the boy came up and
pressed a honey-comb in his hand.
"You have come a long way and must be hungry," he said; but before the
Hermit could thank him he had hastened back to his task. So the Hermit
crept down the mountain till he reached the wood where he had slept
before; and there he made his bed again, but he had no mind to eat
before sleeping, for his heart hungered more than his body; and his
salt tears made the honey-comb bitter.