onk wondered
greatly and began to think what that could mean. When matins were over
he remained praying as was his wont, and begged Our Lord to give him
some understanding of that verse. Then there appeared to him a little
bird which, singing most sweetly, flew this way and that, and so little
by little drew him towards a wood which grew near the monastery, and
there rested on a tree while the servant of God stood below to listen.
After what seemed to the monk a short time it took flight, to the great
sorrow of God's servant, who said, 'Bird of my Soul, where art thou gone
so soon?' He waited, and when he saw that it did not return he went back
to the monastery thinking it still that same morning on which he had
come out after matins. When he arrived he found the door, through which
he had come, built up and a new one opened in another place. The porter
asked who he was and what he wanted, and he answered, 'I am the
sacristan who a few hours ago went out, and now returning find all
changed.' He gave too the names of the Abbot and of the Prior, and
wondered much that the porter still would not let him in, and seemed not
to remember these names. At last he was led to the Abbot, but they did
not know one another, so that the good monk was all confused and amazed
at so strange an event. Then the Abbot, enlightened of God, sent for the
annals and histories of the order, found there the names the old man had
given, so making it clear that more than three hundred years had passed
since he had gone out. He told them all that had happened to him, was
received as a brother; and after praising God for the great marvel which
had befallen him, asked for the sacraments and soon passed from this
life in great peace.[34]

Whether the ruined west front of the older church be that which existed
when the bird flew out through the door or not, it is or has been of
very considerable beauty. Built, like everything else in the north, of
granite, all that is now left is a high wall of carefully wrought stone.
Below is a fine round arched door of considerable size, now roughly
blocked up. It has three square orders covered with carving and a plain
inner one. First is a wide drip-mould carved on the outer side with a
zigzag threefold ribbon, and on the inner with three rows of what looks
like a rude attempt to copy the classic bead-moulding; then the first
order, of thirteen voussoirs, each with the curious figure of a
strangely dressed man or w