n a shorter probation than usual, he was admitted to priests' orders,
and soon after took the monastic vows, and became a friar of St.
Dominic.

Dying to the world, the monk parted with the very name by which he had
lived in it, and so broke the last link of association with earthly
feelings. Here Gerard ended, and Brother Clement began.

The zeal and accomplishments of Clement, especially his rare mastery of
language, soon transpired, and he was destined to travel and preach in
England, corresponding with the Roman centre.

It was rather more than twelve months later when Clement and Jerome set
out for England. They reached Rotterdam, and here Jerome, impatient
because his companion lingered on the way, took ship alone, and advised
Clement to stop awhile and preach to his own countrymen.

Clement was shocked and mortified at this contemptuous desertion. He
promised to sleep at the convent and preach whenever the prior should
appoint, and then withdrew abruptly. Shipwrecked with Jerome, and saved
on the same fragment of the wreck; his pupil, and for four hundred miles
his fellow traveller in Christ; and to be shaken off like dirt, the
first opportunity. "Why, worldly hearts are no colder nor less trusty
than this," said he. "The only one that ever really loved me lies in a
grave hard by at Sevenbergen, and I will go and pray over it."

_IV.--Cloister and Hearth_

Friar Clement, preaching in Rotterdam, saw Margaret in the church and
recognised her. Within a day or two he learnt from the sexton, who had
been in the burgomaster's service, the story of the trick that had been
played upon him by his brothers, in league with Ghysbrecht.

That same night a Dominican friar, livid with rage, burst into the room
when Eli and Catherine were collected with their family round the table
at supper.

Standing in front of Cornelius and Sybrandt he cursed them by name, soul
and body, in this world and the next. Then he tore a letter out of his
bosom, and flung it down before his father.

"Read that, thou hard old man, that didst imprison thy son, read, and
see what monsters thou has brought into the world! The memory of my
wrongs, and hers dwell with you all for ever! I will meet you again at
the judgement day; on earth ye will never see me more!"

And in a moment, as he had come, so he was gone, leaving them stiff and
cold, and white as statues, round the smoking board.

Eli drove Cornelis and Sybrandt out of doors at th