corrupting others, the good man that skulks apart
plays the devil's game, or at least gives him the odds: thou a soldier
of Christ? ask thy Comrade Denys, who is but a soldier of the duke, ask
him if ever he skulked in a hole and shunned the battle because forsooth
in battle is danger as well as glory and duty. For thy sole excuse is
fear; thou makest no secret on't, Go to, no duke nor king hath such
cowardly soldiers as Christ hath. What was that you said in the church
at Rotterdam about the man in the parable that buried his talent in the
earth, and so offended the giver? Thy wonderful gift for preaching, is
it not a talent, and a gift from thy Creator?"

"Certes; such as it is."

"And hast thou laid it out? or buried it? To whom hast thou preached
these seven months? to bats and owls? Hast buried it in one hole with
thyself and thy once good wits?

"The Dominicans are the friars preachers. 'Tis for preaching they were
founded, so thou art false to Dominic as well as to his Master.

"Do you remember, Gerard, when we were young together, which now are old
before our time, as we walked handed in the fields, did you but see a
sheep cast, ay, three fields off, you would leave your sweetheart (by
her good will) and run and lift the sheep for charity? Well, then, at
Gouda is not one sheep in evil plight, but a whole flock; some cast,
some strayed, some sick, some tainted, some a being devoured, and all
for the want of a shepherd. Where is their shepherd? lurking in a den
like a wolf, a den in his own parish; out fie! out fie!

"I scented thee out, in part, by thy kindness to the little birds. Take
note, you Gerard Eliassoen must love something, 'tis in your blood; you
were born to't. Shunning man, you do but seek earthly affection a peg
lower than man."

Gerard interrupted her. "The birds are God's creatures, His innocent
creatures, and I do well to love them, being God's creatures."

"What, are they creatures of the same God that we are, that he is who
lies upon thy knee?"

"You know they are."

"Then what pretence for shunning us and being kind to them? Sith man
is one of the animals, why pick him out to shun? Is't because he is of
animals the paragon? What, you court the young of birds, and abandon
your own young? Birds need but bodily food, and having wings, deserve
scant pity if they cannot fly and find it. But that sweet dove upon thy
knee, he needeth not carnal only, but spiritual food. He is thine as
wel