[A Monk of Fife by Andrew Lang]@TWC D-Link bookA Monk of Fife CHAPTER XV--HOW NORMAN LESLIE WAS ABSOLVED BY BROTHER THOMAS 12/17
"Gently, gently," he said.
"Disturb not my penitent, who is newly shrived, and about to pass"; and so speaking, he withdrew the bolt. D'Aulon strode in, dagger in hand, followed by the physician. "What make you here with doors barred, false priest ?" he said, laying his hand on the frock of Noiroufle. "And what make you here, fair squire, with arms in a sick man's chamber, and loud words to disturb the dying? And wherefore callest thou me 'false priest'? But an hour agone, the blessed Maid herself brought me hither, to comfort and absolve her follower, to tend him, if he lived and, if he must die, to give him his dues as a Christian man.
And the door was bolted that the penitent might be private with his confessor, for he has a heavy weight to unburden his sinful soul withal." "Ay, the Maid sent thee, not knowing who thou wert, the traitor friar taken at St.Loup, and thou hast a tongue that beguiled her simplicity. But one that knew thee saw thy wolfs face in her company, and told me, and I told the Maid, who sent me straightway back from the gate, that justice might be done on thee.
Thou art he whom this Scot charged with treason, and would have slain for a spy, some nights agone." Brother Thomas cast up his eyes to heaven. "Forgive us our trespasses," said he, "as we forgive them that trespass against us.
Verily and indeed I am that poor friar who tends the wounded, and verify I am he against whom this young Scot, as, I fear, is the manner of all his benighted people, brought a slanderous accusation falsely.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|