moment pity possessed him; the next he bethought him how the people
would find him bending above the body of a naked woman, whom he had
held up to them as holy, but whom they might now well take for the
secret instrument of his undoing; and beholding how at her touch all
the slow edifice of his holiness was demolished, and his soul in mortal
jeopardy, he felt the earth reel round him and his sight grew red.

Already the head of the procession had entered the glen, and the
stillness shook with the great sound of the _Salve Regina_. When the
Hermit opened his eyes once more the air was quivering with thronged
candle-flames, which glittered on the gold thread of priestly
vestments, and on the blazing monstrance beneath its canopy; and close
above him was bent the Bishop's face.

The Hermit struggled to his knees.

"My Father in God," he cried, "behold, for my sins I have been visited
by a demon--" But as he spoke he perceived that those about him no
longer heeded him, and that the Bishop and all his clergy had fallen on
their knees about the pool. Then the Hermit, following their gaze, saw
that the brown waters of the pool covered the Wild Woman's limbs as
with a garment, and that about her floating head a great light floated;
and to the utmost edges of the throng a cry of praise went up, for many
were there whom the Wild Woman had healed and comforted, and who read
God's mercy in this wonder. But fresh fear fell on the Hermit, for he
had cursed a dying saint, and denounced her aloud to all the people;
and this new anguish, coming so close upon the other, smote down his
weakened frame, so that his limbs failed him and he sank once more to
the ground.

Again the earth reeled about him, and the bending faces grew remote;
but as he forced his weak voice once more to proclaim his sins he felt
the blessed touch of absolution, and the holy oils of the last voyage
laid on his lips and eyes. Peace returned to him then, and with it a
great longing to look once more upon his lauds, as he had dreamed of
doing at his last hour; but he was too far gone to make this longing
known, and so tried to banish it from his mind. Yet in his weakness the
wish held him, and the tears ran down his face.

Then, as he lay there, feeling the earth slip from under him, and the
Everlasting Arms replace it, he heard a great peal of voices that
seemed to come down from the sky and mingle with the singing of the
throng; and the words of the chant wer