ast, all her
fellow-Christians had been killed, and of how she was borne by the
"wild wave" from "Surrey" (Syria) to the Northumbrian shore:--

Here men might aske, why she was not slain?
Eke at the feast who might her body save?
And I answere that demand again:
Who saved Daniel in th' horrible cave,
When every wight save him, master or knave,
The lion ate--before he could depart?
No wight but God, whom he bare in his heart.

"In her," he continues, "God desired to show His miraculous power, so
that we should see His mighty works. For Christ, in whom we have a
remedy for every ill, often by means of His own does things for ends of
His own, which are obscure to the wit of man, incapable by reason of
our ignorance of understanding His wise providence. But since
Constance was not slain at the feast, it might be asked: who kept her
from drowning in the sea? Who, then, kept Jonas in the belly of the
whale, till he was spouted up at Ninive? Well do we know it was no one
but He who kept the Hebrew people from drowning in the waters, and made
them to pass through the sea with dry feet. Who bade the four spirits
of the tempest, which have the power to trouble land and sea, north and
south, and west and east, vex neither sea nor land nor the trees that
grow on it? Truly these things were ordered by Him who kept this woman
safe from the tempest, as well when she awoke as when she slept. But
whence might this woman have meat and drink, and how could her
sustenance last out to her for three years and more? Who, then, fed
Saint Mary the Egyptian in the cavern or in the desert? Assuredly no
one but Christ. It was a great miracle to feed five thousand folk with
five loaves and two fishes; but God in their great need sent to them
abundance."

As to the sentiments and opinions of Chaucer, then, on matters such as
these, we can entertain no reasonable doubt. But we are altogether too
ill acquainted with the details of his personal life, and with the
motives which contributed to determine its course, to be able to arrive
at any valid conclusions as to the way in which his principles affected
his conduct. Enough has been already said concerning the attitude
seemingly observed by him towards the great public questions, and the
great historical events, of his day. If he had strong political
opinions of his own, or strong personal views on questions either of
ecclesiastical policy or of religions doctrine--in which