VI

They searched Master Richard for weapons, in spite of what he had said,

when they had him alone in a little chamber off the King's closet, but

not unkindly, after what had been ordered, but they found nothing

beneath the white kirtle save the white skin, and nothing in the burse

but the book of hours and a little pen-knife, and the bottle of Quinte

Essence. One of them held that up, and demanded what it was.

"That is the cordial called Quinte Essence," said Master Richard,

smiling.

They thought it to be a poison, so he was forced to explain that it was

not.

"It is made from man's blood," he said, "which is the most perfect part

of our being, and does miracles if it is used aright."

They would know more than that, so he told them how it was made, with

salt, and set in the body of a horse, and afterwards distilled, and he

told them what marvels it wrought by God's grace; how it would draw out

the virtues and properties of things, and could be mixed with medicines,

and the rest, as I have told to you before. That is the bottle you have

seen at the parsonage.

But they would not give it back to him at that time, and said that he

should have it when the King had done talking with him. Then they went

out and left him alone, but one stood at the door to keep him until

dinner was over.

It was a little room, Master Richard said, and looked on to the river.

It was hung with green saye, and was laid with rushes. There was a round

table in the midst of the floor, and a chair on this side and that; and

there was an image of Christ upon the rood that stood upon the table.

There was another door than that through which he had been brought from

the hall.

Master Richard, when he was left alone, tried to compose himself to

devotion, but he was too much distracted by all that he had seen, until

he had said _ad sextam_, and then he was quieter, and sat down before

the table, looking upon the rood, and he did not know how long had

passed before the King came in.

* * * * *

My children, I like to think of Master Richard then; it was his last

peaceful hour that he spent until near the end when I came to him. But

the peace of his heart did not leave him (except at one time), in spite

of all that happened to him, for he told me so himself. Yet, save for

the little wound upon his head, he was clean of all injury at this

time, and I like to think of him in his strength and loveliness as he

was then, content to give his tidings from our Lord to the King, and to

abide what was to follow.

As the clock beat eleven, the King came suddenly through from his

parlour, but he was not alone: my lord cardinal was with him.

As Master Richard knelt down on the floor to do them homage, he observed

the King's dress: it was not as that of the other great men, for the

King loved plain dress, and folks said that the clothing he would have

liked best to wear was a monk's cowl or a friar's frock (and I doubt not

that there be many a monk and friar, and clerk too, who would have been

glad to change with him, for not every Religious man has a Religious

heart!).... [There follows a little sermon on Vocation.]

The King's dress was a plain doublet with a collar of ermine, and over

it a cloak of royal purple lined and trimmed with fur, but cut very

plainly with a round cape such as priests wear. He had the collar of

_Sanctus Spiritus_ over his shoulders, his cap on his head, with a peak

to it, and little plain round shoes (not like those pointed follies that

some wear, and that make a man's foot twice as long as God made it by

His wisdom). My lord cardinal was in his proper dress, and bore himself

very stately.

The King bade Master Richard stand up, and himself and my lord sat down

in the two chairs beside one another, so that half their faces were in

shadow and half in light. Master Richard saw again that the King looked

somewhat sick, and very melancholy.

Then the King addressed himself to Master Richard, speaking softly, but

with an appearance of observing him very closely. My lord, too, watched

him, folding his hands in his lap.

"Now tell me, sir," said the King, "what is this tidings that you bear?"

Master Richard was a little dismayed at my lord's coming: he had

thought it was to be in private.

"It was to your ear alone, your grace, that I was bidden to deliver the

message," he said.

"My lord here is ears and eyes to me," said the King, a little stiffly,

and my lord smiled to hear him, and laid his hand on the King's knee.

That was answer enough for the holy youth, who was attendant only for

God's will; so he began straightway, and told the King of his

contemplation of eight days before, and of the dryness that fell on him

when he strove to put away his thoughts, and of his words with me who

was his priest, and his coming to London and an the rest. Then he told

him of how he heard mass at saint Edward's altar, and how at the

elevation of the sacring our Lord had told him what tidings he was to

take.

The King observed him very closely, leaning his head on his hand and his

elbow on the table, and my lord, who had begun by playing with his

chain, ceased, and watched him too.

Master Richard told me that there was a great silence everywhere when he

had come to the matter of saint Edward's altar; it was such an exterior

silence as is the interior silence that came to him in contemplation.

There appeared no movement anywhere, neither in the room, nor the

palace, nor the world, nor in the three hearts that were beating there.

There was only the great presence of God's Majesty enfolding all.

When he ceased speaking, the King stared on him for a full minute

without any words, then he took his arm off the table and clasped his

hands.

"And what was it that our Lord said to you, sir?" he asked softly, and

leaned forward to listen.

Master Richard looked on the sick eyes, and then at the ruddy prelate's

face that seemed very stern beside it. But he dared not be silent now.

"It is this, your grace, that our Lord shewed to me," he began slowly,

"that your grace is not as other men are, neither in soul nor in life.

You walk apart from all, even as our Saviour Christ did, when He was

upon earth. When you speak, men do not understand you; they take it

amiss. They would have you make your kingdom to be of this world, and

God will not have it so. _Regnum Dei intra te est._ ['The kingdom of God

is within thee' (from Luke xvii. 21.)] It is that kingdom which shall be

yours. But to gain that kingdom you must suffer a passion, such as that

which Jesu suffered, and this is the tidings that He sends to you. He

bids you make ready for it. It shall be a longer passion than His, but I

know not how long. Yet you must not go apart, as you desire. You must go

this way and that at all men's will, ever within your _portans stigmata

Domini Jesu_. ['Bearing the marks of the Lord Jesu' (from Gal. vi. 17.)]

And the end of it shall be even as His, and as His apostles' was who now

rules Christendom. _Cum senueris, extendes manus tuas, et alius te cinget,

et ducet quo tu non vis._ ['When thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch

forth thy hands; and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou

wouldst not' (John xxi. 18.)] And when you come before the heavenly

glory, and the blessed saints shall ask you of your wounds, you shall

answer them as our Lord answered, '_His plagatus sum in domo eorum qui

diligebant me._'" ["With these I was wounded in the house of them that

loved me" (Zach. xiii. 6.)]

* * * * *

When Master Richard had finished speaking, his head and body shook so

much that he could scarce stand, or see the King plainly, and by this he

perceived for a certainty that God was speaking by him. But he was aware

that my lord cardinal was standing up with his hand outstretched and an

appearance of great anger on his face. For indeed those were terrible

things that Master Richard had said--that he should foretell the King's

death in this manner, and all the sorrows that he should go through,

for, as you know, all these words came about.

Yet it seemed that something restrained my lord from speaking till the

other was done; but when Master Richard went back a step, shaking under

the spirit of God, my lord burst out into words.

Master Richard could not understand him; there was drumming in his ears,

and the sweat poured from him, but when sight came back he observed my

lord's face, red with passion, turning now to him, now to the King, who

sat still in his place; his white eyebrows went up and down, and his

scarlet cape and his rochet flapped this way and that as he shook his

arms and cried out.

When he had done there was silence again for a full minute. Master

Richard could hear the breathing of one in the gallery without.

Then the King rose up without speaking, but looking intently upon the

young man, and still without speaking, went out from the room, and my

lord went after him.

When Master Richard had stood a little while waiting, and there was no

sound (for the door into the King's parlour was now shut again), he

turned to the other door to go out; for he had delivered his message,

and there was no more to be said.

The man that kept the door, and whose breathing Master Richard had heard

just now, barred the way, and asked him his business.

"My business is done," said Master Richard, "I must go home again."

"And the King?" asked the fellow.

"The King and my lord are gone back into the parlour."

There was no cause to keep Master Richard any longer, so the fellow let

him past, and he went down the gallery and the stairs towards the court

that opened upon the hall.

But before he reached the door, there was a great tumult overhead, and a

noise of men moving and crying, and Master Richard stayed to listen. (I

had almost said that it had been better if he had not stayed, but made

his way out quickly and escaped perhaps; but it is not so, as I now

believe, for our Lord had determined what should be the end.)

Two fellows came running presently down the stairs up which Master

Richard was looking. One of them was a page of my lord's, a lad dressed

all in purple with the pointed shoes of which I have written before, and

the other the man-at-arms that had kept the door. The lad cried out

shrilly when he saw him standing there, and came down the steps four at

a leap, with his hands outstretched to either wall. Master Richard

thought that he would fall, and stepped forward to catch him, but the

lad recovered himself on the rushes, and then, screaming with anger,

sprang at the young man's throat, seizing it with one hand, and striking

him in the face again and again with the other.

For an instant Master Richard stood amazed, then he caught the lad's

hands without a word and held them so, looking at the man-at-arms who

was now half-way down the stairs in his plate and mail, and at others

who were following as swiftly as they could. In the court outside, too,

there were footsteps and the sound of talking, and presently the door

was darkened by half a dozen others, who ran up at the tumult, and all

in a moment Master Richard found himself caught from behind and his

hands pulled away, so that the lad was able to strike him again, which

he did, three or four times.

So he was taken by the men and held.

Master Richard could not understand what the matter was, as he looked at

the press that gathered every moment on the stairs and in the court. So

he asked one that held him, and the page screamed out his answer above

the tumult of voices and weapons.

So Master Richard understood, and went upstairs under guard, with the

blood staining his brown and white dress, and his face bruised and

torn, to await when the King should come out of the fit into which he

had fallen, and judge him for the message which he had brought.

Of Master Richard's second speaking with his Grace: and of his

detention

_Abscondes eos in abscondito faciei tuae: a conturbatione hominum._

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy face: from the disturbance of

men.--_Ps. xxx. 21._