CHAPTER XVI
Montjoy--yes, Montjoy!
A house that he had loved came down about Montjoy’s ears. A garden thathe had tended the swine rooted up. One came and threw filth against hisLove.
He seemed to understand this monk and the monk to understand him. Foran instant they were brothers in suffering and rage.
Sow it with salt--Silver Cross!
Abbot Mark and Prior Matthew. Who best to send to cardinal and to Romeon that business? Procure their degradation! Have them cursed withbell, book and candle!
The whore--let her be burned slowly until she was ashes!
_O Isabel--Isabel--Isabel!_
O Kingdom of Heaven that hath suffered wrong!
Montjoy sat with a working face. He sat in his great chair on the daisin castle hall and his hands gripped the arms of the chair. At last hespoke with voice of one underground who has fire still but has lost thelight of day. “Well, as for thee, monk--”
“Give me, no more, that name!” cried the man addressed. “The monk isdead. I am Richard Englefield, the Smith!”
At that moment entered bruit of the arrival of Abbot and Prior. “Yes,yes, let us see them!” said Montjoy, and who knows what hope sprang upin his heart. He believed Richard Englefield, but there pressed againsthis belief all the weight of old, loved Silver Cross, and the weightof the priest and the weight of Mother Church. Things happened, vilethings, as they happened in Kingdom, in Nobility and Knighthood. Butfor all that Knighthood was heroic and Holy Church holy. Child couldnot go against mother, lover against beloved. Let us at any rate hearwhat this Iscariot Abbot and Prior shall say! And with that rolled forthe first time upon Montjoy’s mind Saint Leofric, and he heard the joyof Hugh who was not discovered. “That this vileness that he saith werenot true!” cried Montjoy within. “O Isabel, that it were not true!”
_Morgen Fay!_ The Lord of Montjoy was dead ember there, and all thebreathing of Morgen Fay might not relume. “O High God, I would livecleanly! That harlot, wherever she is, doth always only evil!”
Silver Cross--Silver Cross! The church, Isabel’s tomb and the greatpicture. He saw that Morgen Fay could have played it because she hadthe height and faintly, faintly the face. Isabel was the true likenessand Morgen Fay the false, the evil. “Let her burn, who deserveth it ifever any did!”
Silver Cross, and cold wretchedness and grinning, mocking Satan if itwere no better than Saint Leofric! Mark a kinsman, too. All honoursmirched!
Again his eyes were for Richard Englefield. To have believed thatHeaven had singled you out--to have had vast raptures of mind andheart, all fragrance, all flavour, all light, all music, all warmth,all lifting--to have fallen at the feet of the Brightest Star, tohave had the honey of touch and the honey of word and the honey ofsmile, and knowledge that all was immortal and holy, all was heavenlytrue!--to have had that and believed it eternal--and then to havefallen, fallen, gulf upon gulf, dreary world by dreary world, to lastmire and stubble, nay, past that into caverns of hell--
Abbot Mark came into the hall, he and Prior Matthew, and behind themBrothers Anselm and Norbert with Walter the leech and six besides. Outof these monks five at least knew only that the fiend had made sortieagainst and taken and poured madness upon the holy man, yesterday thepride, the boast, of Silver Cross. Abbot Mark--large, authoritative,stately--showed pallor indeed, but also concern and innocency and highunawareness that Silver Cross did or could stand in any danger. As forPrior Matthew, he stood and moved, red, dry, cool, collected, alwaysa man with a head. Abbey monks, drawing together, looked trustinglyupon their Superiors and pityingly, it was seen, upon Brother Richard,standing very gaunt and ghastly white, with blazing eyes.
Montjoy faced that entry. All Silver Cross with long venerablenessand power, great church of Silver Cross, the jewel windows, thepicture, the sculptured Isabel upon her tomb entered also castle halland drowned it into vaster space and into significances otherwiseand potent. Something of rigidity went out of the lord of Montjoy.Trust--trust!
Friar Martin, the Black Friar, saw it go--clouds again mounting againstSaint Leofric. And all the hall full of people, hanging divided inwish and thought! He felt it running through, “Was it not monstrous,unthinkable--were there not explanations--was it reasonable now--andif it was all a cheating show, where was Middle Forest? Why, leftholding a great bag of Loss!” The Black Friar felt, as though he wereLeofric’s Hugh, stricture about the heart. Good Chance was quitting,the fickle jade!
Yet when Montjoy stepped toward the Abbot, pale Accusation steppedwith him. “Lord Abbot--Lord Abbot, you are in time! You have fouledChristendom--oh, if you have fouled Christendom!”
But the Abbot seemed not to notice words and mien. He cried, “OMontjoy, the holy man, good Brother Richard, hath gone mad! Yesterdayhe broke into a frightful babbling, the fiend at his ear, the fiendswithin him! The morn, Walter the leech leaving him awhile, thinkingthat loneliness might do somewhat, he burst window, broke cloister!Whereupon we ourselves follow him, not knowing what harm he doth tohimself and to all! For alas! he now doubteth the happening of theGreat Miracle and clamoureth that it was the demon. We know, alas! howat times it happeneth! Overmuch light, the weak soul bending asidefrom Heaven-grace, the fiends gathering to torment and perplex, andwere it possible, to defeat light! The warder faints. Madness enters.Poor soul, alas! yet Heaven did use him! Heaven-grace and the miraclepersists, though for him be madman’s cell--”
He stood, father Abbot, in his large face godly concern for allawryness. He loomed. All Silver Cross seemed with him, Silver Crossthrough the centuries. Three fourths in the hall turned that way. “Hecrieth otherwise,” said Montjoy, and with a gesture set Brother Richardand his Superior face to face.
Cried Richard Englefield, “Thou shameless, false shepherd! Thou lyingAbbot of a rotted fold!”
At which a young monk, Brother Wilfrid, so forgot himself, defendinggood, shaming ill, that he rushed against the mad monk. “Son!”thundered the Abbot and brought Brother Wilfrid to his knees, crying,“Pardon!”
Truly Richard Englefield maddened. He saw how it would end, and thelegion before him. His vision swam and darkened, light foam came abouthis lips. He sent out a loud, hoarse and broken voice. “Fraud! Fraud!Lord of Montjoy, come to Silver Cross and see!”
The Black Friar, straining forward with the rest, caught at that word,“Fraud!” He did not dare to echo it aloud, for now, in a moment asit were, many a hundred year of Silver Cross, many a goodly deed anduse penetrated, reverberated here, large space entering somehow smallspace, riving it apart. Old authority, long veneration, the great Abbeychurch, Montjoy’s love for it, Middle Forest’s clinging to it--FriarMartin had thundered one misty afternoon against Montjoy’s doubting ofSaint Leofric. Montjoy had had to down head and slink homeward. NowFriar Martin wished to shout, “Fraud! Fraud!” and, “It began in envy ofSaint Leofric his great glory!” But he was afraid. There might be noproof. If the monk were not already mad he would soon be so.
Prior Matthew of Westforest moved a piece. Still, conclusive, calming,entered his voice. “It is seldom well to take madman’s advice! But hereit seemeth to me well. Lord of Montjoy, you cannot do better than toride with us to Silver Cross.”
Lean and strong, and a master chess player, he came to front of thedais, and lifting voice, entered into explanation of Brother Richard’ssad illness and of the ways of the fiend who for this time hadoverthrown the saintly man. But he would recover--Prior Matthew had nodoubt of it--under Walter the leech’s care, amid his brethren at SilverCross, or at Westforest, where was smaller range, stricter solitude. Heshould have tendance; he should have prayers. “As for that Presencethat did descend upon him. She the Blessed is not harmed! Men and womenof Middle Forest, the Rose still rests in reliquary, the Healing Wellstill heals! Let them that are sick come prove it!”
Edmund the Preacher cried out mightily. “If it be so, still hath thedevil compacted with the harlot, Morgen Fay! How else could the thoughtof her, the form of her, e
nter here? The devil made her to be seen inmonastery cell, thrusting aside True Queen! Seek her out, bind her tothe stake by town cross and burn her! Never else will this countrysidebe cleansed!”
Prior Matthew looked with narrowed eyes. “There is truth in whatyou say, Edmund the Preacher! Long hath she been great scandal!” Hethought, “Best that she have her cry quickly and be done with it! Allthe poison out at once in one dish, not trailing forever, word here andword there! She set sail, long ago, to come to this end. This year ornext, what matter?”
And he saw that it would make diversion. Let her clamour what she wouldof what she had done! It would be the fiend speaking. Silver Cross andMatthew of Westforest against a mad monk and a harlot!
Silver Cross and Westforest and Montjoy. He saw as in a scroll thatMontjoy would never wholly believe nor yet wholly disbelieve.
Richard Englefield cried again, “Ride at once, Montjoy! They will haveburned ladder and ropes and cloaks and scarfs. But the door behind therood--they have not had time there--”
“What is that? What?” cried the Abbot sharply. “Door behind rood?”
“Where was none, door was made between my cell and yonder villainmonk’s! So you sent me for penance to Westforest, so it was done.Then a great rood, great and black, was set before it. Yea, you usedChrist on the cross for mask! Dim was it in that cell--never had Ilight in that cell! Now I have light--now it burns! Aside she pushedsalvation--in she stepped, mincing like a harlot, having taken sugarfor her voice--”
Abbot Mark fairly shrieked with horror. “Oh, if we did not know that itis Sathanas himself that speaketh, not the poor man whom he hath laidin bonds! Door--door!” He summoned sub-prior.
“Reverend father, door truly was made, it being once plan to takethe wall down wholly, making of two cells one and using it for aninfirmary. Then it was found that the light was not good, and the planwas abandoned. Stone was set back in the opening, and true it is thata rood being about that time placed in each cell, it was fastened, inthis man’s and in Brother Norbert’s, against that wall. Of all hisstory it is the only truth! In his madness he must have torn the roodaside and seen that once there was opening, though now stone-filledand mortared. After that what Sathanas saith to him God forbid that weshould know or repeat!”
“Shall I believe?” whispered Montjoy. “Shall I not believe? O Isabel--OLady near whom moveth Isabel--”
Richard Englefield towered. He stretched his arms, he raised his face.“O Christ, if thou be true--O Blissful One, Eternal Virgin, if thou bereal--”
But summer sun shone on.
It was Prior Matthew who summed up and delivered judgment in Montjoy’shall. “Ride with us now to Silver Cross, Montjoy--and do you comealso, Edmund the Preacher, and you, Master Eustace Bettany, and any andall others who will! Yea, make throng and procession! What! Shall therebe division between Silver Cross and Middle Forest who have dwelledtogether since the Confessor’s day? Sometimes eh, Middle Forest?--wehave quarrelled, but not for long, have we? Ours, after all, one bedand one hearth! Doth Silver Cross grow rich and great, it is forMiddle Forest. Doth Middle Forest increase, Silver Cross goes smiling.Remember the saintly abbot--Abbot Robert--and how did he and his monkswhen befell the Plague! Remember war, and we stood together. And nowHeaven blesseth both, and Holy Well, a thousand years from now, shallstill be Holy Well!”
He had it now--Mark and he had it in their four hands! If they carriedit carefully, and they would do so, four hands obeying the Prior ofWestforest’s head. Now for the trouble maker, the crazed one who failedto see or hear Interest though she shouted at him and pulled him by therobe! Prior Matthew gave a short order to Silver Cross monks. “Takehim!”
Brother Norbert, Brother Anselm, Brother Wilfrid and the othersfell upon Brother Richard. Short, hard struggle, and they had him.Brother Norbert bound his arms with hempen girdle. As he still shoutedaccusations, at the Prior’s nod they gagged him. “Not holy man whomay be holy man again, but Apollyon who now hath seized the tower andspeaketh from the gate!”
Montjoy sat in his lord’s chair and looked straight before him.Truth, truth--is it not profoundly likely to be here? Were it notfor Hugh of Saint Leofric, could ever he have doubted it? The monk’stale,--fantastic, like a romaunt! Say, darkly, it is true; what othercan cry Aye! and strengthen it, or No! and dash it into dreams? _Whoother but Morgen Fay?_
It formed in Montjoy’s mind that that harlot must be found.
Prior Matthew, Brother Richard silenced, had present eyes for the BlackFriar there to one side, standing grimly for Saint Leofric. “Now andhere!” said within the Westforest chess player. Matthew spoke in hisdry, reasonable voice.
“Ride you, too, with us, Friar Martin! You shall have mule. What! SaintLeofric and Saint Willebrod, be sure they ride together! Shall we notmake England and Christendom ring for that all this corner of earth,this side river, that side river, Silver Cross and Saint Leofric alikeare blessed? Bridge over river shall be to you and be to us, and Isee it built thick and high with booths and rooms for pilgrims! ThePrincess of Spain goes to-day to Saint Leofric’s tomb, to-morrow toHoly Well! To-day the Dauphin heareth mass in Silver Cross, to-morrowgoeth in procession around Saint Leofric his church! Both ways hepasseth through Middle Forest. Common good--common good! What else isworth anything in this life? The more massive the bruit, the broader,higher, shooteth the fame of all!”
It was undeniable! Black Friar thought somewhat surlily, “If I go Ican at least take account of all to Prior Hugh. And there is somethingin ‘If you can’t increase apart, increase together’!”
Rested that fanatic, Father Edmund the Preacher. Better always haveFather Edmund preach for you, not against you! He could any time whipcalm sea into storm. The chess player considered him, to whom just nowMorgen Fay, the harlot, stood for all harlotry, whether of brain orheart. When all heinousness was believed of Morgen Fay, then would thecountryside be roused at last, then would every man, woman and childbecome huntsman! Father Edmund meant to continue to believe BrotherRichard’s story. Why not? She was capable of it. Certain abbeys of thislater time were capable. Father Edmund was one to cry under the Pope’sgreat window, “Reform! Reform!”
Prior Matthew saw the weather thickening. Presently from that quarterlightning flash and thunder clap! “Boldness my wisdom!” he breathed.
His dry voice, somehow powder red like his hair and tint, dry, rarelyloud but procuring attention, continued to hold all ears. “As to theharlot, Morgen Fay, would you have my mind? It is quite likely she behidden somewhere within five leagues. Now Sathanas worketh undergroundand taketh evil mind to evil mind, or often to weak mind, or to mindthat was Sathanas’ enemy against whom he useth every springe! So to mythought it hath been here. Heaven permitteth--yes, to try faith, Heavenpermitteth! The fiend works what seemeth victory, good man turningtoward him. Whom doth he use? Yea, there is it! Harlot consenting, heyesternight taketh her image and with it entereth neither by door norwindow cell of Brother Richard; yea, entereth his mind and his eye andhis ear, his will, his belief and his heart. Brother Richard thinketh,‘It is the great True Pearl!’ And falleth upon his knees before emptyair, for the devil fixeth images within, not without. But the devilgives never for proof Holy Well that healeth a score a week! And thedevil hath had only yesternight. Yea, moreover, midway Heaven sendethsome aid and he that hath been holy man seeth that it is not she whocame before, but stained wax and that the devil cheateth him! Whereatthe devil, that harlot no doubt still aiding, leapeth, greatly angered,upon his mind, teareth and bruiseth it tiger-wise and bringeth it forthis time into huge confusion and madness. Again Heaven suffereth it,and suffereth him to cry and accuse as madmen ever cry and accuse,that by trial of our faith we may all be brought clearer. But Heavenwilleth always that we defeat the fiend and his instruments. Aye,search for these and grind them small and so grieve and weaken thatEvil One who rides invisible!”
Father Edmund cried. “She said, ‘Aye, aye!’ or the devil could notuse her! Lord of Montjo
y, town of Middle Forest, Abbey of SilverCross, Priory of Westforest and Priory of Saint Leofric, I, Edmundthe Preacher, summon you by souls’ welfare to join search for thePlague-spot, the Witch-mark! When she is burned then may the monkrecover his mind, then may the True Pearl, the Very Rose, show again,the toad be banished from the Holy Well, Saint Leofric and SaintWillebrod be sworn brothers, Montjoy give again with joy to SilverCross, Middle Forest prosper, and all England and the Princess of Spainand the Dauphin come in pilgrimage!”