cried out what I
think was Master Richard's name for I thought that he was near me, but
there was no answer, and after I had looked a little more, I turned back
by the way I had come.

Now, here, my children, happened a marvellous thing.

When I reached the gate and had gone through it, I turned round again
towards the hut, ashamed of the terror that had lain on me as I walked
down, for I had walked like one in a nightmare, not daring to turn my
head.

And as I turned, for one instant I saw Master Richard himself, in his
brown kirtle and white sleeves standing at the door of his hut, with his
arms out as if to stretch himself, or else as our Saviour stretched them
on the rood. I could not observe his face, for in an instant he was
gone, before I had time to see him clearly, but I am sure that his face
was merry, for it was at this hour that he found his release before my
lord cardinal, and cried out, as you shall hear in the proper place.

I stood there a long while, stretching out my own hands and crying on
him by name, but there was no more to be seen but the hut and its open
door, and the may-trees on either side, and the wood behind, and the
yellow-flowered meadow before me, and no sound but the drone of the bees
and the running of the water. And I dared not go up again, or set foot
in the meadow.

* * * * *

So I went home again, and told no man, for I thought that the vision was
for myself alone, and as night fell the messenger came to bid me come to
town, and to deliver to me the letter from the old priest of whom I have
spoken.

How one came to Master Priest: how Master Priest came to the King's
Bedchamber: and of what he heard of the name of Jesus

_Dum anxiaretur cor meum: in petra exaltasti me._

When my heart was in anguish: Thou hast exalted me on a rock.
--_Ps. lx. 3._

XIII

This was the letter that I read in my parlour that night, as the man in
his livery stood beside me, dusty with riding. I have it still (it is in
the mass-book that stands beside my desk; you can find it there after I
am gone to give my account.)....

"REVEREND AND RIGHT WORSHIPFUL SIR JOHN CHALDFIELD,--

"There is a young man here named Master Richard Raynal, who tells us
that you are his friend. He desires to see you before his death, for he
has been set upon and will not live many days. His grace has ordered
that you shall be brought with speed, for he loves this young man