him in ward till time of battle comes; but,
the day before he counts on putting him to that war ordeal, the
barbarian enemy sends embassy with irrefusable offers of submission
and peace.

The story is not often dwelt upon: how far literally true, again
observe, does not in the least matter;--here _is_ the lesson for ever
given of the way in which a Christian soldier should meet his enemies.
Which, had John Bunyan's Mr. Great-heart understood, the Celestial
gates had opened by this time to many a pilgrim who has failed to hew
his path up to them with the sword of sharpness.

But true in some practical and effectual way the story _is_; for after
a while, without any oratorizing, anathematizing, or any manner of
disturbance, we find the Roman Knight made Bishop of Tours, and
becoming an influence of unmixed good to all mankind, then, and
afterwards. And virtually the same story is repeated of his bishop's
robe as of his knight's cloak--not to be rejected because so probable
an invention; for it is just as probable an act.

Going, in his full robes, to say prayers in church, with one of his
deacons, he came across some unhappily robeless person by the wayside;
for whom he forthwith orders his deacon to provide some manner of
coat, or gown.

The deacon objecting that no apparel of that profane nature is under
his hand, St. Martin, with his customary serenity, takes off his own
episcopal stole, or whatsoever flowing stateliness it might be, throws
it on the destitute shoulders, and passes on to perform indecorous
public service in his waistcoat, or such mediaeval nether attire as
remained to him.

But, as he stood at the altar, a globe of light appeared above his
head; and when he raised his bare arms with the Host--the angels were
seen round him, hanging golden chains upon them, and jewels, not of
the earth.

Incredible to you in the nature of things, wise reader, and too
palpably a gloss of monkish folly on the older story?

Be it so: yet in this fable of monkish folly, understood with the
heart, would have been the chastisement and check of every form of the
church's pride and sensuality, which in our day have literally sunk
the service of God and His poor into the service of the clergyman and
his rich; and changed what was once the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness, into the spangling of Pantaloons in an
ecclesiastical Masquerade.

But one more legend,--and we have enough to show us the roots of th