to follow on
in the procession, and be gently treated, and admitted to see the King
when dinner was done.

* * * * *

So that, my children, is the manner in which it came about that my name
was cried aloud before the King's presence, and the cardinals and the
nobles, in Westminster Hall on the Monday after _Deus qui nobis_.
[So the collect of Corpus Christi begins. It was a common method, even
among the laity, of defining dates.]

Of Master Richard's speaking with the King's Grace: and how he was
taken for it

_Et nunc reges intelligite: erudimini qui judicatis terram._

And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, ye that judge the
earth.--_Ps. ii. 10._

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