o shut out
Waldo for ever from intercourse with his fellows. And well might any
good heart sorrow, for this was the order of that office.

The altar was draped in black, and Mass for the Dead was sung; and all
the things that Waldo would need in the house of his exile, from the
flint and iron which gave fire to the harp which should give solace,
were solemnly blessed and delivered to him. Next he was warned not to
approach the dwellings of men, or to wash in running streams, or to
handle the ropes of draw-wells, or to drink from the cups of wayside
springs. He was forbidden the highways, and when he went abroad a
clapper must give token of his coming and going. Nothing that might be
used by others should he touch except with covered hands.

When after these warnings he had been exhorted to patience and trust in
God's mercy and love, the brethren formed a procession, with the cross
going before, and led him away to his hermitage among the wooded hills.
On a little wood-lawn, beyond a brook crossed by stepping-stones, a hut
of boughs had been prepared for him, and the Prior bade him mark the
grey boulder on the further side of the brook, for there he would find
left for him, week by week, such provisions as he needed.

Last rite of all, the Prior entering the hut strewed over his bed of
bracken a handful of mould from the churchyard saying, "Sis mortuus
mundo--Dead be thou to the world, but living anew to God," and turfs
from the churchyard were laid on the roof of the hut. Thus in his grey
gown and hood was Waldo committed alive to his grave, and the brethren,
chanting a requiem, returned to the Priory.

The tidings of Waldo's grievous lot travelled far and wide through the
German land, and thenceforth when his songs were sung many a true man's
heart was heavy and many a good woman's eyes were filled with tears as
they bethought them of the poor singer in his hut among the hills.
Kindly souls brought alms and provisions and laid them on his boulder
by the brook, and oftentimes as they came and went they sang some hymn
or song he had composed, for they said, "So best can we let him know
that we remember him and love him." Indeed, to his gentle heart the
sound of their human voices in that solitude was as the warm clasp of a
beloved hand.

When Waldo had lived there alone among the hills for the space of two
years and more, and his malady had grown exceeding hard to bear, he was
seized with a woeful longing--s