Of the Second Temptation of Master Richard: and how he overcame it
_Exacuerunt ut gladium linguas suas: interderunt arcum rem amaram: utsagittent in occultis immaculatum._
They have whetted their tongues like a sword: they have bent their bow abitter thing, to shoot in secret the undefiled.--_Ps. lxiii, 4, 5._
X
As Master Richard had striven to serve God in the trinity of his nature,so was he to be tried in the trinity of his nature. It was first in hisbody that he was tempted, by pain and the fear of it; and his secondtrial came later in the same day--which was in his mind.
He lay abed that morning till his dinner was brought to him, knowingsometimes what passed--how a rat came out and looked on him awhile,moving its whiskers; how the patch of sunlight upon the wall darkenedand passed; and how a bee came in and hummed a great while in the room;and sometimes conscious of nothing but his own soul. He could make noeffort, he told me, and he did not attempt it. He only lay still,committing himself to God Almighty.
He could not eat the meat, even had he wished it, but he drank a littlebroth and ate some bread, and then slept again.
* * * * *
He did not know what time it was when he awoke and found one by his bed,looking down on him, he thought, compassionately. It was growing towardsevening, for it way darker, or else his eyes were heavy and confusedwith sickness, but he could not see very clearly the face of the man whostood by him.
The man presently kneeled down by the bed, murmuring with pity as itseemed, and Master Richard felt himself raised a little, and then laiddown again, and there was something soft at the nape of his neck overthe wooden pillow and against his torn shoulders. There was something,too, laid across his body and legs, as if to keep him from chill.
He said nothing for a while; he did not know what to say, but he lookedsteadily at the face that looked on him, and saw that it was that of ayoung man, not five years older than himself, shaven clean like a clerk,and the eyes of him seemed pitiful and loving.
"_Laudetur Jesus Christus!_" said Master Richard presently, as hiscustom was when he awoke.
"_Amen_," said the man beside the bed.
That comforted Master Richard a little--that the man should say _Amen_to his praise of Jesu Christ, so he asked him who he was and what he didthere.
The young man said nothing to that, but asked him instead how he did,and his voice was so smooth and tender that Master Richard was furtherencouraged.
"I do far better than our Lord did," he answered. "He had none tominister to Him."
It seemed that the young man was moved at that, for he hid his face inhis hands a moment.
Then he began to pity Master Richard, saying that it was a shame that hehad been so evilly treated, and that Master-Lieutenant should smart forit if it ever came to his grace's ears. But he said this so strangelythat Master Richard was astonished.
"And how does the King do?" he asked.
"The King is at the point of death," said the young man solemnly.
"It is no more than the point then," said Master Richard confidently,"and a point that will not pierce him, else what of the passion that hemust suffer?"
The young man seemed to look on him very steadily and earnestly at that.
"Why do you look at me like that?" he asked him. "I have done nothing tohis grace save give my tidings."
"Master Hermit," said the young man very gravely, "I entreat you not tospeak like that."
"How should I speak then?" he asked.
The young man did not answer immediately, but he moved on his knees alittle closer to the bed, and took Master Richard's hand softly betweenhis own, and so held it, caressing it. Master Richard told me that thisaction moved him more than all else; he felt the tears rise to his eyes,and he gave a sob or two. It is always so with noble natures after greatpain. [Sir John relates here the curious history of a girl who wasnearly burned as a witch, and that when she was reprieved she yielded atonce to the solicitations of marriage from a man whom she had alwayshated, but who was the first to congratulate her on her escape. But thestory sadly interrupts the drama of the main narrative, and therefore Iomit it.]....
Then the young man spoke very sweetly and kindly.
"Master Hermit," he said, "you must bear with me for bringing sadtidings to you. But will you hear them now or to-morrow?"
"I will hear them now," said Master Richard.
So the young man proceeded.
"One came back to-day from your home in the country. He was sent thereyesterday night by my lord cardinal. He spoke with your parson, SirJohn, and what he heard from him he has told to my lord, and I heardit."
(This was a lie, my children. No man from London had spoken with me. Butyou shall see what follows.)
"And what did Sir John tell him," asked Master Richard quietly. "Did hesay he knew nothing of me?"
Now he asked this, thinking that perhaps this was a method of temptinghim. And so it was, but worse than he thought it.
"No, poor lad," said the young man very pitifully, "Sir John knew youwell enough. The messenger saw your little house, too, and the hazelsabout it; and the stream, and the path that you have made; and therewere beasts there, he said, a stag and pig that looked lamentably outfrom the thicket."
Now observe the Satanic guile of this! For at the mention of all hislittle things, and his creatures that loved him, Master Richard couldnot hold back his tears, for he had thought so often upon them, anddesired to see them again. So the young man stayed in his talk, andcaressed his hand again, and murmured compassionately.
Presently Master Richard was quiet, and asked the young man to tell himwhat the parson had said.
"To-morrow," said the young man, making as if to rise.
"To-day," said Master Richard.
So the young man went on.
"He went to the parsonage with Sir John, and talked with him there along while--"
"Did he see my books?" said Master Richard in his simplicity.
"Yes, poor lad; he saw your books. And then Sir John told him what hethought."
"And what was that?" said Master Richard, faint with the thought of theanswer.
The young man caressed his hand again, and then pressed it as if to givehim courage.
"Sir John told him that you were a good fellow; that you injured neitherman nor beast; and that all spoke well of you."
Then the young man stayed again.
"Ah! tell me," cried Master Richard.
"Well, poor lad; as God sees us now, Sir John told the messenger that hethought you to be deluded; that you deemed yourself holy when you werenot, and that you talked with the saints and our Lord, but that theseappearances were no more than the creations of your own sick brain. Hesaid that he humoured you; for that he feared you would be troublesomeif he did not, and that all the folk of the village said the same thingto you, to please you and keep you quiet.--Ah! poor child!"
The young man cried out as if in sorrow, and lifted Master Richard'shand and kissed it.
Master Richard told me that when he heard that it was as a blow in theface to him. He could not answer, nor even think clearly. It was as if agross darkness, full of wings and eyes and mocking faces pressed uponhim, and he believed that he cried out, and that he must have swooned,for when he came to himself again his face was all wet with water thatthe young man had thrown upon it.
It was a minute or two more before he could speak, and during that timeit appeared to him that he did not think himself, but that ideas movedbefore his eyes, manifesting themselves. At first there was a doubt asto whether the young man had spoken the truth, and whether any messengerhad been to the village at all, but the mention of the hazels, the stagand the pig, and his books, dispelled that thought.
Again it did not seem possible that the young man should have lied asto what it was that I was said to have answered; if they had wished tolie, surely they would have lied more entirely, and related that I haddenied all knowledge
of him. But the falsehood was so subtle an one; itwas so well interwoven with truth that I count it to have beenimpossible for Master Richard in his sickness and confusion to havedisentangled the one from the other. I have heard a physician say, too,that the surest manner to perplex a man is to suggest to him that hisbrain is clouded; at such words he often loses all knowledge of self; hedoubts his own thoughts, and even his senses.
This, then, was Master Richard's temptation--that he should doubthimself, his friends, and even our Lord who had manifested Himself sooften and so kindly to the eyes of his soul.
Yet he did not yield to it, although he could not repel it. He criedupon Jesu in his heart, and then set the puzzle by.
He looked at the young man once more.
"And why do you tell me this?" he asked.
The clerk (if he were a clerk) answered him first by anotherJudas-caress or two, and then by Judas-words.
"Master Hermit," he said, "I am but a poor priest, but my words havesome weight with two or three persons of the court; and these again havesome weight with my lord cardinal. I asked leave to come and tell youthis as kindly as I could, and to see what you would say. I observed youin the hall the other day, and I have a good report of yourreasonableness from the monastery. I conceived, too, a great love foryou when I saw you, and wish you well; and I think I can do you a greatservice, and get you forth from this place that you may go whither youwill,--to your house by the stream or to some other place where noneknow you. Would it not be pleasant to you to be in the country again,and to serve God with all your might in some sweet and secret placewhere men are not?"
"I can serve God here as there," answered Master Richard.
"Well--let that be. But what if God Almighty wishes you to be at peace?We must not rush foolishly upon death. That is forbidden to us."
"I do not seek death," said Master Richard.
The clerk leaned over him a little, and Master Richard saw his eyes bentupon him with great tenderness.
"Master Hermit," he said, "I entreat you not to be your own enemy. Yousee that those that know you best love you, but they do not think you tobe what you think you are---"
"I am nothing but God's man, and a sinner," said the lad.
"Well, they think your visions and the rest to be but delusions. And ifthey be delusions, why should not other matters be delusions too?"
"What matters?" asked Master Richard.
"Such matters as the tidings that you brought to the King."
"And what is it you would have me to do?" asked Master Richard againafter a silence.
"It is only a little thing, poor lad--such a little thing! and then youwill be able to go whither you will."
"And what is that little thing?"
"It is to tell me that you think them delusions too."
"But I do not think them so," said Master Richard.
"Think as you will then, Master Hermit; but, you know, when folks aresick we may tell them anything without sin. And the King is sick todeath. I do not believe that you have bewitched him: you have too good aface and air for that--and for the matter of the _paternoster_ I do notvalue it at a straw. The King is sick with agony at what he thinks willcome upon him after your words. He will not listen to my lord cardinal:he sits silent and terrified, and has taken no food to-day. But if youwill but tell him, Master Hermit, that you were mistaken in yourtidings--that it was but a fancy, and that you know better now--all willbe well with him and with you, and with us all who love you both."
So the clerk spoke, tempting him, and leaned back again on his heels;and Master Richard lay a great while silent.
* * * * *
Now, I do not know who was this young man, whether he were a clerk orwhether he were not a devil in form of a man. I could hear nothing ofhim at Court when I went there. It may be that he was one of those idlefellows that had come to Master Richard from time to time to ask him tomake them hermits with him, else how did he know the matters of the stagand the pig and the stream and the rest? But it does not greatly matterwhether his soul were a devil's or a man's, for in any case his wordswere Satan's. If I had not heard what came after I should have believedthis temptation to be the most subtle ever devised in hell and permittedfrom heaven. He spoke so tenderly and so sweetly; he commanded hisfeatures so perfectly; he seemed to speak with such love andreasonableness.
Yet I would have you know that Master Richard did not yield by a hair'sbreadth in thought. He examined the temptation carefully, setting asidealtogether the question as to whether I had spoken as this young man hadsaid that I had. Whether I had spoken so or not made no difference. Itwas this that he was bidden to do, to say that he had erred in histidings, to confess that they were not from God; to be a faithlessmessenger to our Lord.
He examined this, then, looking carefully at all parts of thetemptation. [Sir John appends at this point two or three paragraphs,distinguishing between the observing of a temptation of thought andthe yielding to it. He instances Christ's temptation in the Garden ofGethsemane.]....
At the end Master Richard opened his eyes and looked steadily upon theyoung man's face.
"Take this answer," he said, "to those that sent you. I will neitherhear nor consider such words any more. If I yield in this matter, andsay one word to the King or to any other, by which any may understandthat my message was a delusion, or that I spoke of myself and not fromour Lord, then I pray that our Lord may blot my name out of the Book ofLife."
* * * * *
So Master Richard answered and closed his eyes to commune with God. Andthe young man went away sighing but speaking no word.