"Child, I should have to be out of my wits, not to want to look at you. I"ve looked so attentively, I shall remember you all my life. But your love, my children, and how you manage it-with that I can"t help you."
"No need," said Engelard. "I am an outlander, with a proper agreement. That agreement can be dissolved by consent, and I can be a free man by dividing all my goods equally with my lord, and now Sioned is my lord."
"And then there can no man prevent," said Sioned, "if I choose to endow him with half my goods, as is only fair. Uncle Meurice won"t stand in our way. And it won"t even be hard for him to justify. To marry an heiress to an outlander servant is one thing, to marry her to a free man and heir to a manor, even if it"s in England and can"t be claimed for a while, is quite another."
"Especially," said Cadfael, "when you already know he"s the best hand with cattle in the four cantrefs."
It seemed that those two, at any rate, were satisfied. And Rhisiart in his honoured grave would not grudge them their happiness. He had not been a grudging man.
Engelard, no talker, said his thanks plainly and briefly when they parted. Sioned turned back impulsively, flung her arms round Cadfael"s neck, and kissed him. It was their farewell, for he had thought it best to advise them not to show themselves at the chapel again. It was a wry touch that she smelled so heady and sweet with flowering may, and left so saintly a fragrance in his arms when she was gone.
On his way down to the parsonage Cadfael made a detour to the mill-pond, and dropped Columba.n.u.s"s dagger into the deepest of the dark water. What a good thing, he thought, making for the bed he would occupy for no more than an hour or so before Prime, that the brothers who made the reliquary were such meticulous craftsmen, and insisted on lining it with lead!
Chapter Eleven.
PRIOR ROBERT AROSE AND WENT TO THE FIRST SERVICE OF THE DAY in so great content with his success that he had almost forgotten about the escape of Brother John, and even when he remembered that one unsatisfactory particular, he merely put it away in the back of his mind, as something that must and would be dealt with faithfully in good time, but need not cloud the splendour of this occasion. And it was indeed a clear, radiant morning, very bright and still, when they came from the church and turned towards the old graveyard and the chapel, and all the congregation fell in at their heels and followed, and along the way others appeared silently from every path, and joined the procession, until it was like some memorable pilgrimage. They came to Cadwallon"s gatehouse, and Cadwallon came out to join them, and Peredur, who had hung back in strict obedience to his orders to remain at home until his penance was appointed, was kindly bidden forth by Father Huw, and even smiled upon, though as saint to sinner, by Prior Robert. Dame Branwen, if not still asleep, was no doubt recuperating after her vapours. Her menfolk were not likely to be very pressing in their invitations to her to go with them, and perhaps she was still punishing them by withdrawing herself. Either way, they were relieved of her presence.
The order of procession having only a loose form, brothers and villagers could mingle, and greet, and change partners as they willed. It was a communal celebration. And that was strange, considering the contention that had threatened it for some days. Gwytherin was playing it very cautiously now, intent on seeing everything and giving nothing away.
Peredur made his way to Cadfael"s side, and remained there thankfully, though silently. Cadfael asked after his mother, and the young man coloured and frowned, and then smiled guiltily like a child, and said that she was very well, a little dreamy still, but placid and amiable.
"You can do Gwytherin and me a good service, if you will," said Brother Cadfael, and confided to his ear the work he had in mind to pa.s.s on to Griffith ap Rhys.
"So that"s the way it is!" said Peredur, forgetting altogether about his own unforgivable sins. His eyes opened wide. He whistled softly. "And that"s the way you want it left?"
"That"s the way it is, and that"s the way I want it left. Who loses? And everyone gains. We, you, Rhisiart, Saint Winifred-Saint Winifred most of all. And Sioned and Engelard, of course," said Cadfael firmly, probing the penitent to the heart.
"Yes I"m glad for them!" said Peredur, a shade too vehemently. His head was bent, and his eyelids lowered. He was not yet as glad as all that, but he was trying. The will was there. "Given a year or two longer, n.o.body"s going to remember about the deer Engelard took. In the end he"ll be able to go back and forth to Cheshire if he pleases, and he"ll have lands when his father dies. And once he"s no longer reckoned outlaw and felon he"ll have no more troubles. I"ll get your word to Griffith ap Rhys this very day. He"s over the river at his cousin David"s but Father Huw will give me indulgence if it"s to go voluntarily to the law." He smiled wryly. "Very apt that I should be your man! I can unload my own sins at the same time, while I"m confiding to him what everyone must know but no one must say aloud."
"Good!" said Brother Cadfael, contented. "The bailiff will do the rest. A word to the prince, and that"s the whole business settled."
They had come to the place where the most direct path from Rhisiart"s holding joined with their road. And there came half the household from above, Padrig the bard nursing his little portable harp, perhaps bound for some other house after this leavetaking. Cai the ploughman still with an impressive bandage round his quite intact head, an artistic lurch to his gait, and a shameless gleam in his one exposed eye. No Sioned, no Engelard, no Annest, no John. Brother Cadfael, though he himself had given the orders, felt a sudden grievous deprivation.
Now they were approaching the little clearing, the woodlands fell back from them on either side, the narrow field of wild gra.s.s opened, and then the stone-built wall, green from head to foot, of the old graveyard. Small, shrunken, black, a huddled shape too tall for its base, the chapel of Saint Winifred loomed, and at its eastern end the raw, dark oblong of Rhisiart"s grave scarred the lush spring green of the gra.s.s.
Prior Robert halted at the gate, and turned to face the following mult.i.tude with a benign and almost affectionate countenance, and through Cadfael addressed them thus: "Father Huw, and good people of Gwytherin, we came here with every good intent, led, as we believed and still believe, by divine guidance, desiring to honour Saint Winifred as she had instructed us, not at all to deprive you of a treasure, rather to allow its beams to shine upon many more people as well as you. That our mission should have brought grief to any is great grief to us. That we are now of one mind, and you are willing to let us take the saint"s relics away with us to a wider glory, is relief and joy. Now you are a.s.sured that we meant no evil, but only good, and that what we are doing is done reverently."
A murmur began at one end of the crescent of watchers, and rolled gently round to the other extreme, a murmur of acquiescence, almost of complacency.
"And you do not grudge us the possession of this precious thing we are taking with us? You do believe that we are doing justly, that we take only what had been committed to us?"
He could not have chosen his words better, thought Brother Cadfael, astonished and gratified, if he had known everything-or if I had written this address for him. Now if there comes an equally well-worded answer, I"ll believe in a miracle of my own.
The crowd heaved, and gave forth the st.u.r.dy form of Bened, as solid and respectable and fit to be spokesman for his parish as any man in Gwytherin, barring, perhaps, Father Huw, who here stood in the equivocal position of having a foot in both camps, and therefore wisely kept silence.
"Father Prior," said Bened gruffly, "there"s not a man among us now grudges you the relics within there on the altar. We do believe they are yours to take, and you take them with our consent home to Shrewsbury, where by all the omens they rightly belong."
It was altogether too good. It might bring a blush of pleasure, even mingled with a trace of shame, to Prior Robert"s cheek, but it caused Cadfael to run a long, considering glance round all those serene, secretive, smiling faces, all those wide, honest, opaque eyes. n.o.body fidgeted, n.o.body muttered, n.o.body, even at the back, sn.i.g.g.e.red. Cai gazed with simple admiration from his one visible eye. Padrig beamed benevolent bardic satisfaction upon this total reconciliation.
They knew already! Whether through some discreet whisper started on its rounds by Sioned, or by some earth-rooted intuition of their own, the people of Gwytherin knew, in essence if not in detail, everything there was to be known. And not a word aloud, not a word out of place, until the strangers were gone.
"Come, then," said Prior Robert, deeply gratified, "let us release Brother Columba.n.u.s from his vigil, and take Saint Winifred on the first stage of her journey home." And he turned, very tall, very regal, very silvery-fine, and paced majestically to the door of the chapel, with most of Gwytherin crowding into the graveyard after him. With a long, white, aristocratic hand he thrust the door wide and stood in the doorway.
"Brother Columba.n.u.s, we are here. Your watch is over."
He took just two paces into the interior, his eyes finding it dim after the brilliance outside, in spite of the clear light pouring in through the small east window. Then the dark-brown, wood-scented walls came clear to him, and every detail of the scene within emerged from dimness into comparative light, and then into a light so acute and blinding that he halted where he stood, awed and marvelling.
There was a heavy, haunting sweetness that filled all the air within, and the opening of the door had let in a small morning wind that stirred it in great waves of fragrance. Both candles burned steadily upon the altar, the small oil-lamp between them. The prie-dieu stood centrally before the bier, but there was no one kneeling there. Over altar and reliquary a snowdrift of white petals lay, as though a miraculous wind had carried them in its arms across two fields from the hawthorn hedge, without spilling one flower on the way, and breathed them in here through the altar window. The snowy sweetness carried as far as the prie-dieu, and sprinkled both it and the crumpled, empty garments that lay discarded there.
"Columba.n.u.s! What is this? He is not here!"
Brother Richard came to the prior"s left shoulder, Brother Jerome to the right, Bened and Cadwallon and Cai and others crowded in after them and flowed round on either side to line the dark walls and stare at the marvel, nostrils widening to the drowning sweetness. No one ventured to advance beyond where the prior stood, until he himself went slowly forward, and leaned to look more closely at all that was left of Brother Columba.n.u.s.
The black Benedictine habit lay where he had been kneeling, skirts spread behind, body fallen together in folds, sleeves spread like wings on either side, bent at the elbow as though the arms that had left them had still ended in hands pressed together in prayer. Within the cowl an edge of white showed.
"Look!" whispered Brother Richard in awe. "His shirt is still within the habit, and look!-his sandals!" They were under the hem of the habit, neatly together, soles upturned, as the feet had left them. And on the book-rest of the prie-dieu, laid where his prayerful hands had rested, was a single knot of flowering may.
"Father Prior, all his clothes are here, shirt and drawers and all, one within another as he would wear them. As though-as though he had been lifted out of them and left them lying, as a snake discards its old skin and emerges bright in a new"
"This is most marvellous," said Prior Robert. "How shall we understand it, and not sin?"
"Father, may we take up these garments? If there is trace or mark on them"
There was none, Brother Cadfael was certain of that. Columba.n.u.s had not bled, his habit was not torn, nor even soiled. He had fallen only in thick spring gra.s.s, bursting irresistibly through the dead gra.s.s of last autumn.
"Father, it is as I said, as though he has been lifted out of these garments quite softly, and let them fall, not needing them any more. Oh, Father, we are in the presence of a great wonder! I am afraid!" said Brother Richard, meaning the wonderful, blissful fear of what is holy. He had seldom spoken with such eloquence, or been so moved.
"I do recall now," said the prior, shaken and chastened (and that was no harm!), "the prayer he made last night at Compline. How he cried out to be taken up living out of this world, for pure ecstasy, if the virgin saint found him fit for such favour and bliss. Is it possible that he was in such a state of grace as to be found worthy?"
"Father, shall we search? Here, and without? Into the woods?"
"To what end?" said the prior simply. "Would he be running naked in the night? A sane man? And even if he ran mad, and shed the clothes he wore, would they be thus discarded, fold within fold as he kneeled, here in such pure order? It is not possible to put off garments thus. No, he is gone far beyond these forests, far out of this world. He has been marvellously favoured, and his most demanding prayers heard. Let us say a Ma.s.s here for Brother Columba.n.u.s, before we take up the blessed lady who has made him her herald, and go to make known this miracle of faith."
There was no knowing, Prior Robert being the man he was, at what stage his awareness of the use to be made of this marvel thrust his genuine faith and wonder and emotion into the back of his mind, and set him manipulating events to get the utmost glory out of them. There was no inconsistency in such behaviour. He was quite certain that Brother Columba.n.u.s had been taken up living out of this world, just as he had wished. But that being so, it was not only his opportunity, but his duty, to make the utmost use of the exemplary favour to glorify the abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul of Shrewsbury, and not only his duty, but his pleasure, to make use of the same to shed a halo round the head of Prior Robert, who had originated this quest. And so he did. He said Ma.s.s with absolute conviction, in the cloud of white flowers, the huddle of discarded garments at his feet. Almost certainly he would also inform Griffith ap Rhys, through Father Huw, of all that had befallen, and ask him to keep an alert eye open in case any relevant information surfaced after the brothers from Shrewsbury were gone. Brother Prior was the product of his faith and his birth, his training for sanct.i.ty and for arbitrary rule, and could snake off neither.
The people of Gwytherin, silent and observant, crowded in to fill the s.p.a.ce available, made no sound, expressed no opinion. Their presence and silence pa.s.sed for endors.e.m.e.nt. What they really thought they kept to themselves.
"Now," said Prior Robert, moved almost to tears, "let us take up this blessed burden, and praise G.o.d for the weight we carry."
And he moved forward to offer his own delicate hands and frail shoulder, first of the devout.
That was Brother Cadfael"s worst moment, for it was the one thing he had overlooked, But Bened, unwontedly quick at the right moment, called aloud: "Shall Gwytherin be backward, now peace is made?" and rolled forward with less stateliness and greater speed, and had a solid shoulder under the head end of the reliquary before the prior was able to reach it, and half a dozen of the smith"s own powerful but stocky build took up the challenge with enthusiasm. Apart from Cadfael, the only monk of Shrewsbury who got a comer hoisted into his neck was Jerome, being of much the same height, and his was the sole voice that cried out in astonishment at the weight, and sagged under it until Bened shifted nearer and hefted most of the load from him.
"Your pardon, Father Prior! But who would have thought those slender little bones could weigh so heavily?"
Cadfael spoke up in hasty interpretation: "We are surrounded here by miracles, both small and great. Truly did Father Prior say that we thank G.o.d for the weight we carry. Is not this evidence of singular grace, that heaven has caused the weight of her worthiness to be so signally demonstrated?"
In his present state, at once humbled and exalted, Prior Robert apparently did not find the logic of this nearly as peculiar as did Brother Cadfael himself. He would have accepted and embraced anything that added to his own triumph. So it was on st.u.r.dy Gwytherin shoulders that the reliquary and its contents were hoisted out of the chapel and borne in procession down to the parsonage, with such brisk enthusiasm that it almost seemed the parish could hardly wait to get rid of them. It was Gwytherin men who fetched the horses and mules, and rigged a little cart, spread with cloths, on which the precious casket could be drawn home. Once installed on this vehicle, which, after all, cost little in materials or labour, given the smith"s benevolent interest, the casket need not be unloaded until it reached Shrewsbury. n.o.body wanted anything untoward to happen to it on the way, such as Brother Jerome crumpling under his end, and starting the joints by dropping it.
"But you we"ll miss," said Cai regretfully, busy with the harness. "Padrig has a song in praise of Rhisiart you"d have liked to hear, and one more companionable drinking night would have been pleasant. But the lad sends you his thanks and his G.o.dspeed. He"s only in hiding until the pack of you have gone. And Sioned told me to tell you from him, look out for your pear trees, for the winter moth"s playing the devil with some of ours here."
"He"s a good helper in a garden," Cadfael confirmed judicially. "A shade heavy-handed, but he shifts the rough digging faster than any novice I ever had under me. I shall miss him, too. G.o.d knows what I shall get in his place."
"A light hand"s no good with iron," said Bened, standing back to admire the banded wheels he had contributed to the cart. "Deft, yes! Not light. I tell you what, Cadfael! I"ll see you in Shrewsbury yet. For years I"ve had a fancy to make a great pilgrimage across England some day and get to Walsingham. I reckon Shrewsbury would be just about on my way."
At the last, when all was ready and Prior Robert mounted, Cai said in Cadfael"s ear: "When you"re up the hill, where you saw us ploughing that day, cast a look the other way. There"s a place where the woods fall away, and an open hillock just before they close again. We"ll be there, a fair gathering of us. And that"s for you.
Brother Cadfael, without shame, for he had been up and busy all night and was very tired, annexed the gentler and cleverer of the two mules, a steady pad that would follow where the horses led, and step delicately on any ground. It had a high, supporting saddle, and he had not lost the trick of riding through his knees, even when asleep. The larger and heavier beast was harnessed to draw the cart, but the carriage was narrow yet stable, rode well even on a forest floor, and Jerome, no great weight, could still ride, either on the mule"s back or the shafts and yoke. In any case, why trouble too much about the comfort of Jerome, who had concocted that vision of Saint Winifred in the first place, almost certainly knowing that the prior"s searches in Wales had cast up this particular virgin as one most desirable, and most available? Jerome would have been courting Columba.n.u.s just as a.s.siduously, if he had survived to oust Robert.
The cortege set forth ceremoniously, half of Gwytherin there to watch it go, and sigh immense relief when it was gone. Father Huw blessed the departing guests. Peredur, almost certainly, was away across the river, planting the good seed in the bailiff"s mind. He deserved that his errand should be counted to his own credit. Genuine shiners are plentiful, but genuine penitents are rare. Peredur had done a detestable thing, but remained a very likeable young man. Cadfael had no serious fears for his future, once he was over Sioned. There were other girls, after all. Not many her match, but some not so very far behind.
Brother Cadfael settled himself well down in the saddle, and shook his bridle to let the mule know it might conduct him where it would. Very gently he dozed. It could not yet be called sleep. He was aware of the shifting light and shadow under the trees, and the fresh cool air, and movement under him, and a sense of something completed. Or almost completed, for this was only the first stage of the way home.
He roused when they came to the high ridge above the river valley. There was no team ploughing, even the breaking of new ground, was done. He turned his head towards the wooded uplands on his right, and waited for the opening vista between the trees. It was brief and narrow, a sweep of gra.s.s soaring to a gentle crest beyond which the trees loomed close and dark. There were a number of people cl.u.s.tered there on the rounded hillock, most of Sioned"s household, far enough removed to be nameless to anyone who knew them less well than he. A cloud of dark hair beside a cap of flaxen, Cai"s flaunting bandage shoved back like a hat unseated in a hot noon, a light brown head clasped close against a red thorn-hedge that looked very like Brother John"s abandoned tonsure. Padrig, too, not yet off on his wanderings. They were all waving and smiling, and Cadfael returned the salute with enthusiasm. Then the ambulant procession crossed the narrow opening, and the woods took away all.
Brother Cadfael, well content, subsided into his saddle comfortable, and fell asleep.
Overnight they halted at Penmachmo, in the shelter of the church, where there was hospitality for travellers. Brother Cadfael, without apology to any, withdrew himself as soon as he had seen to his mule, and continued his overdue sleep in the loft above the stables. He was roused after midnight by Brother Jerome in delirious excitement.
"Brother, a great wonder!" bleated Jerome, ecstatic. "There came a traveller here in great pain from a malignant illness, and made such outcry that all of us in the hostel were robbed of sleep. And Prior Robert took a few of the petals we saved from the chapel, and floated them in holy water, and gave them to this poor soul to drink, and afterwards we carried him out into the yard and let him kiss the foot of the reliquary. And instantly he was eased of his pain, and before we laid him in his bed again he was asleep. He feels nothing, he slumbers like a child! Oh, brother, we are the means of astonishing grace!"
"Ought it to astonish you so much?" demanded Brother Cadfael censoriously, malicious half out of vexation at being awakened, and half in self-defence, for he was considerably more taken aback than he would admit. "If you had any faith in what we have brought from Gwytherin, you should not be amazed that it accomplishes wonders along the way."
But by the same token he thought honestly, after Jerome had left him to seek out a more appreciative audience, I should! I do believe I begin to grasp the nature of miracles! For would it be a miracle, if there was any reason for it? Miracles have nothing to do with reason. Miracles contradict reason, they strike clean across mere human deserts, and deliver and save where they will. If they made sense, they would not be miracles, And he was comforted and entertained, and fell asleep again readily, feeling that all was well with a world he had always know to be peculiar and perverse.
Minor prodigies, most of them trivial, some derisory, trailed after them all the way to Shrewsbury, though how many of the crutches discarded had been necessary, and how many, even of those that were, had to be resumed shortly afterwards, how many of the speech impediments had been in the will rather than in the tongue, how many feeble tendons in the mind rather than in the legs, it was difficult to judge, not even counting all the sensation-seekers who were bound to bandage an eye or come over suddenly paralytic in order to be in with the latest cult. It all made for a great reputation that not only kept pace with them, but rushed ahead, and was already bringing in awestruck patronage in gifts and legacies to the abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in the hope of having dubious sins prayed away by a grateful saint.
When they reached the outskirts of Shrewsbury, crowds of people came out to meet them, and accompany the procession as far as the boundary church of Saint Giles, where the reliquary was to await the great day of the saint"s translation to the abbey church. This could hardly take place without the blessing of the bishop, and due notice to all churches and religious houses, to add to the glory accruing. It was no surprise to Brother Cadfael that when the day came it should come with grey skies and squally rain, to leave room for another little miracle. For though it rained heavily on all the surrounding fields and countryside, not a drop fell on the procession, as they carried Saint Winifred"s casket at last to its final resting-place on the altar of the abbey church, where the miracle-seekers immediately betook themselves in great numbers, and mostly came away satisfied.
In full chapter Prior Robert gave his account of his mission to Abbot Heribert. "Father, to my grief I must own it, we have come back only four, who went out from Shrewsbury six brethren together. And we return without both the glory and the blemish of our house, but bringing with us the treasure we set out to gain."
On almost all of which counts he was in error, but since no one was ever likely to tell him so, there was no harm done. Brother Cadfael dozed gently behind his pillar through the awed encomiums on Brother Columba.n.u.s, out of whom they would certainly have wished to make a new saint, but for the sad fact that they supposed all his relics but his discarded clothes to be for ever withdrawn from reach. Letting the devout voices slip out of his consciousness, Cadfael congratulated himself on having made as many people as possible happy, and drifted into a dream of a hot knife-blade slicing deftly through the thick wax of a seal without ever disturbing the device. It was a long time since he had exercised some of his more questionable skills, he was glad to be confirmed in believing that he had forgotten none of them, and that every one had a meritorious use in the end.
Chapter Twelve.
IT WAS MORE THAN TWO YEARS LATER, and the middle of a bright June afternoon, when Brother Cadfael, crossing the great court from the fish-ponds, saw among the travellers arriving at the gate a certain thickset, foursquare, powerful figure that he knew. Bened, the smith of Gwytherin, a little rounder in the belly and a little greyer in the hair, had found the time ripe for realising an old ambition, and was on his way in a pilgrim"s gown to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
"If I"d put it off much longer," he confided, when they were private together with a bottle of wine in a comer of the herb-garden, "I should have grown too old to relish the journey. And what was there to keep me now, with a good lad ready and able to take over the smithy while I"m gone? He took to it like a duck to water. Oh, yes, they"ve been man and wife eighteen months now, and as happy as larks. Annest always knew her own mind, and this time I will say she"s made no mistake."
"And have they a child yet?" asked Brother Cadfael, imagining a bold, st.u.r.dy boy-baby with a bush of red hair, nibbed away by his pillow in an infant tonsure.
"Not yet, but there"s one on the way. By the time I get back he"ll be with us."
"And Annest is well?"
"Blossoming like a rose."
"And Sioned and Engelard? They had no troubles after we were gone?"
"None, bless you! Griffith ap Rhys let it be known that all was well, and should be let well alone. They"re married, and snug, and I"m to bring you their warmest greetings, and to tell you they have a fine son-three months old, I reckon he"d be now-dark and Welsh like his mother. And they"ve named him Cadfael."
"Well, well!" said Brother Cadfael, absurdly gratified. "The best way to get the sweet out of children and escape the bitter is to have them by proxy. But I hope they"ll never find anything but sweet in their youngster. There"ll be a Bened yet, in one household or the other."
Bened the pilgrim shook his head, but without any deep regret, and reached for the bottle. "There was a time when I"d hoped But it would never have done. I was an old fool ever to think of it, and it"s better this way. And Cai"s well, and sends you remembrances, and says drink down one cup for him."
They drank many more than one before it was time for Vespers. "And you"ll see me again at chapter tomorrow," said Bened, as they walked back to the great court, "for I"m charged with greetings from Father Huw to Prior Robert and Abbot Heribert, and I"ll need you to be my interpreter."
"Father Huw must be the one person in Gwytherin, I suppose, who doesn"t know the truth by this time," said Cadfael, with some compunction. "But it wouldn"t have been fair to lay such a load on his conscience. Better to let him keep his innocence."
"His innocence is safe enough," said Bened, "for he"s never said word to bring it in question, but for all that I wouldn"t be too sure that he doesn"t know. There"s a lot of merit in silence."
The next morning at chapter he delivered his messages of goodwill and commendation to the monastery in general, and the members of Prior Robert"s mission in particular, from the parish of Saint Winifred"s ministry to the altar of her glorification. Abbot Heribert questioned him amiably about the chapel and the graveyard which he himself had never seen, and to which, as he said, the abbey owed its most distinguished patroness and most precious relics.
"And we trust," he said gently, "that in our great gain you have not suffered equally great deprivation, for that was never our intent."
"No, Father Abbot," Bened rea.s.sured him heartily, "you need have no regrets upon that score. For I must tell you that at the place of Saint Winifred"s grave wonderful things are happening. More people come there for help than ever before. There have been marvellous cures."
Prior Robert stiffened in his place, and his austere face turned bluish-white and pinched with incredulous resentment.
"Even now, when the saint is here on our altar, and all the devout come to pray to her here? Ah, but small things-the residue of grace"
"No, Father Prior, great things! Women in mortal labour with cross-births have been brought there and laid on the grave from which she was taken, where we buried Rhisiart, and their children have been soothed into the world whole and perfect, with no harm to the mothers. A man blind for years came and bathes his eyes in a distillation of her may-blossoms, and threw away his stick and went home seeing. A young man whose leg-bone had been broken and knitted awry came in pain, and set his teeth and danced before her, and as he danced the pain left him, and his bones straightened. I cannot tell you half the wonders we have seen in Gwytherin these last two years."
Prior Robert"s livid countenance was taking on a shade of green, and under his careful eyelids his eyes sparkled emerald jealousy. How dare that obscure village, bereft of its saint, outdo the small prodigies of rain that held off from falling, and superficial wounds that healed with commendable but hardly miraculous speed, and even the slightly suspicious numbers of lame who brought their crutches and left them before the altar, and walked away unsupported?
"There was a child of three who went into a fit," pursued Bened with gusto, "stiff as a board in his mother"s arms, and stopped breathing, and she ran with him all the way from the far fields, fording the river, and carried him to Winifred"s grave, and laid him down in the gra.s.s there dead. And when he touched the chill of the earth, he breathed and cried out, and she picked him up living, and took him home joyfully, and he is live and well to this day."
"What, even the dead raised?" croaked Prior Robert, almost speechless with envy.
"Father Prior," said Brother Cadfael soothingly, "surely this is but another proof, the strongest possible, of the surpa.s.sing merit and potency of Saint Winifred. Even the soil that once held her bones works wonders, and every wonder must redound to the credit and glory of that place which houses the very body that blessed the earth still blesses others."
And Abbot Heribert, oblivious of the chagrin that was consuming his prior, benignly agreed that it was so, and that universal grace, whether it manifested itself in Wales, or England, or the Holy Land, or wheresoever, was to be hailed with universal grat.i.tude.