ntiments of
unmixed satisfaction that he returned the greetings of the father, and
replied to the reiterated question, what he thought of the funeral rites
which were discharged in so wild a manner: "I know not, my good father;
but these men do their duty to their deceased chief according to the
fashion of their ancestors: they mean to express their regret for their
friend's loss and their prayers to Heaven in his behalf; and that which
is done of goodwill must, to my thinking, be accepted favourably. Had
it been otherwise, methinks they had ere now been enlightened to do
better."

"Thou art deceived," answered the monk. "God has sent His light amongst
us all, though in various proportions; but man wilfully shuts his eyes
and prefers darkness. This benighted people mingle with the ritual of
the Roman Church the old heathen ceremonies of their own fathers, and
thus unite with the abominations of a church corrupted by wealth and
power the cruel and bloody ritual of savage paynims."

"Father," said Simon, abruptly, "methinks your presence were more
useful in yonder chapel, aiding your brethren in the discharge of their
clerical duties, than in troubling and unsettling the belief of an
humble though ignorant Christian like myself."

"And wherefore say, good brother, that I would unfix thy principles of
belief?" answered Clement. "So Heaven deal with me, as, were my life
blood necessary to cement the mind of any man to the holy religion he
professeth, it should be freely poured out for the purpose."

"Your speech is fair, father, I grant you," said the glover; "but if I
am to judge the doctrine by the fruits, Heaven has punished me by the
hand of the church for having hearkened thereto. Ere I heard you, my
confessor was little moved though I might have owned to have told
a merry tale upon the ale bench, even if a friar or a nun were the
subject. If at a time I had called Father Hubert a better hunter of
hares than of souls, I confessed me to the Vicar Vinesauf, who laughed
and made me pay a reckoning for penance; or if I had said that the Vicar
Vinesauf was more constant to his cup than to his breviary, I confessed
me to Father Hubert, and a new hawking glove made all well again; and
thus I, my conscience, and Mother Church lived together on terms of
peace, friendship, and mutual forbearance. But since I have listened to
you, Father Clement, this goodly union is broke to pieces, and nothing
is thundered in my ear but pur