e slipping fast away, and knew that very soon he must
say farewell to earth and its sorrows and joys, he called Arthur to
his side and asked:

"Will they admit me to the rite of the Holy Communion before I
die?"

It was a question which Arthur had foreseen, and he had himself
taken a special journey to Oxford to see the dean upon that very
point.

But Clarke still lay beneath the ban of excommunication. He was
still regarded as a heretic; and although, after all he had passed
through, much sympathy was expressed for him, and any further
cruelty was strongly deprecated, yet the law of the church forbade
that the holy thing should be touched by unhallowed hands, or pass
unhallowed lips.

So now he looked compassionately into Clarke's face and said:

"I fear me they will not do so. I have done what I can; but they
will not listen. None may dare to bring it to you until the ban of
the church be taken off."

Clarke looked into his face at first with a pained expression, but
gradually a great light kindled in his eyes. He half rose from the
couch on which he was lying, and he stretched forth his hands as
though he were receiving something into them. Then looking upwards,
he spoke--spoke with a greater strength than he had done for many
days--and a vivid smile illuminated his face. They were all
standing about him, for they knew the end was near, and they all
saw and heard.

"Crede et manducasti," he said; and then, with a yet more vivid
illumination of his features, he added in a whisper, "My Lord and
my God!"

Then he fell back, and with that smile of triumph upon his face,
passed away.

Over his remains, which were permitted to lie in consecrated
ground, they set up a white cross; and beneath his name were the
words:

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of
life."

Notes

[i] "Believe, and thou hast eaten." Words often used by the early
"heretics," who were debarred from partaking of the feast of Holy
Communion.

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