Gathering of Brother Hilarius Part 15

Under a bush beside the track lay a man, naked save for filthy rags; his hair and beard matted with moss and leaves; his eyes sunk, his lips drawn apart in a ghastly grin. Hilarius made haste to kneel beside him, and lo! sudden remembrance lighted the fast- glazing eyes, but his own answered not.

"My son, my son," said the Prior, and his voice was very pitiful, "thou art indeed in evil case; let me shrive thee ere it be too late."

He motioned the others to stand back, and raising the heavy head upon his shoulder, bent close to catch the whisper of the parched lips.

At first no sound came, and then a hoa.r.s.e word reached him.

"The Convent's hens!"

The Prior stared amazed; then once more the laboured voice -

"Hast forgot thy theft, and the dancer?"

Hilarius needed no further word; in a moment the years were wiped away.

"Lad, lad, to find thee again, and in such sorry plight! But see, stay not thy shriving, for the time is short, and the Lord ever ready to pardon."

The man strove in vain to speak. At last he said quite clearly: "I hunger," and so saying died.

The Prior was greatly moved, and for a while he knelt in prayer, while the Brethren, amazed, waited his pleasure. Then he rose, and lo! before him lay the open glade where his schooling had begun, and he had seen a flower incarnate dance in the wind.

He bade them lift the dead, and lay him in the hollow of the glade under fallen branches until they could return and give him burial.

Then, as they went on their way, he told the tale of his little maid; and when the telling was ended, the village they had come to succour was in sight, and lo! they saw it through a mist.

CHAPTER VIII--"BEHOLD THE FIELDS ARE WHITE"

The Prior's heart was ready, and it seemed to him as he pa.s.sed up the village and saw the huddled, helpless people, that his little maid led him by the hand.

Brother Simon, Brother Leo, and the novices turned aside to speak comfort and carry succour to the sick and fearful, and to bury the dead; for three unshriven souls had pa.s.sed to judgment and mercy.

Hilarius made straight for the ale-house.

As he crossed the green, the door opened and d.i.c.kon stumbled blindly down the steps. At sight of a monk he cried out, and suddenly sobered, dropped on his knees, while the topers and roysterers staring from the open doorway fell into silence.

Hilarius pushed back his cowl and stood bareheaded in the scorching sun of that windless day; it came to his mind that he was very weary.

"Hear, O my children, the Lord hath sent me to succour you, lest ye go down quick into the pit. Return, every one of you, for the arms of His love are still stretched wide upon the Rood, and the very hairs of your head are numbered. Repent ye, therefore, and confess each one of you his sins, that I may prepare him for the work of the Lord; and take comfort also, for they that are with us are mighty."

One by one the men, sobered by the shock of great surprise, confessed and were shriven under the summer sun: only the man d.i.c.kon was not among them. Then the Prior bade them get to work as he should direct; and he set a watch that no man should flee the village; and all obeyed him.

Early and late the Prior toiled with the Brethren and his band of workers, nursing the sick, burying the dead, and destroying the pestilent dwellings.

Brother Leo was the first to whom the call came: he answered it like a soldier at his post.

As the Prior rose from the pallet of his dead son, one bade him come quickly, for a dying man had need of him. It was d.i.c.kon.

The Prior, bearing with him the Body of the Lord, made haste to the hovel where he lay, and shrived him though he scarce could hear his muttered words; but lo! when he would place the Host he could not, for a gold piece lay on the man's tongue. The Prior drew back dismayed, and behold, the Lord's hand struck swiftly, and d.i.c.kon died with a barren shriving--on whom may Christ take pity!

Next day great grey clouds curtained the arid, staring sky; and at even came the rain. All through the night it fell; and one of the novices, who lay a-dying in the Prioir's arms, heard it as he pa.s.sed, and fell back, joy on his lips and a radiant smile on his young face.

"'Esurientes implevit bonis,'" said the Prior, as he laid him down, blessing G.o.d.

A second novice died, then a third, and yet another; but there was no need to call further help from the Monastery, for the Plague was stayed. Never had cloistered monks spent such a strange season; rarely such a blessed one.

The Feast of the Transfiguration was nigh at hand, and the Prior was minded to return on that day to the waiting, anxious Convent, for his work was done.

Great was the joy and preparation at the Monastery when the tidings reached them; joy too for those who lay not in the shelter of the cloister garth, but, as it were, on the battlefield where they had given their lives for their brethren.

The holy day dawned without a cloud. A strong west wind bowed the pines in the forest, and they worshipped and sang for joy, because of the face of the Lord. The sun burnt bright in the great blue dome, and earth shone with pale reflection of his glory.

The monks paced the cloister walks, and waited and watched to catch the signal from the lay-brother posted without. At last the word came that voices were heard in the distance; and monks and novices hastened two and two to the gate. On the wind was borne the sound of a chant.

"'Tis a dirge for those that are gone," said Brother Anselm; and crossing themselves, the Brothers chanted out the sonorous response:

"Et lux perpetua luceat eis."

As they reached the open gate, the little band they waited for came slowly down the forest pathway.

Four Brothers, only four; and lo! on their shoulders they bore a rude bier of pine-branches.

This was the gathering of Brother Hilarius. Sweet-scented boughs for his last bed; Mary's lilies aglow for tapers tall; the censer of the forest swung by sun and wind; and the glory of the face of the Lord.

He had called his children to him in the late night-watches, and having kissed and blessed them, he bade them turn him to the east, for his time had come; and they obeyed in sore grief and perplexed.

Prior Hilarius lay and watched for the light, and as dawn parted night's veil with the long foregleam of the coming day, he shut his eyes like a tired child and went home.

It was his heart, Brother Simon thought; but the Sub-Prior cried through his tears:-

"Nay, nay, it was G.o.d a-hungered for His dear son."

They bore the Prior into the white-clad Church, and laid him on his forest-bed under the great Christ; and the novices, seeing the tender smile on the beautiful face, whispered one to another, "The Prior hath found his little maid." And the Convent made Hilarius a wondrous fair tomb of alabaster inlaid with gold, and carved him lying thereon with Mary's lilies across his breast.