The King's Achievement

party was riding home

his wife were informe

*

ith one another between Overfield and Great Keynes, and about fif

drive was about to take place; and had stepped into his shelter to watch the finish. It was a still, hot afternoon, and t

e tightly-gaitered legs set well apart and the little feathered cap that moved this way and that as the sportsman peered through the branches be

s the beaters after sweeping a wide circle entered the thick undergrowth on the opposite side of the wood. Sir Nich

made a quick movement, and dropped his hands again; a single rabbit had cantered out from the growth opposite, and sat up with cocked ears s

was up; but this brother-in-law of his seemed to live for little else. Day after day, as Ralph knew, from the beginning of the season to the end he was out with his men and hounds, and the rest of the y

*

and feet close together, sniffing up wind-and they were shooting no does this month. Then again she moved along against

sly the scolding voice of a blackbird rang out in front, and he stopped again. At the same moment a hare, mad with fright, burst out of the cover, maki

cholas straightened himself and threw out his left foot. Either the sound or the movement startled the great brown beast in front, and as the arrow twanged from the string he checked and wheeled round, and went off like the wind, untouched. A furious hiss of the breath broke from Nicholas, and he made a swift sign as he turned to his horse; and in a mo

leasure to see such a complete discomfiture; Nicholas was alw

eye on the placid gentleman in green who sat on the ground, but who felt for his long dirk as he saw the fury on the brute's face and the foam on the tusks. But the pig thought discretion was best, and hurried on complaining. More than one troop of deer flew past, the does gathered round their lord to p

d dignified in her green riding-suit with the great plume shading her

king down at Ralph who was lyi

hot and red, after a stag which he missed. That

led dow

with him, you k

it is but right. And

him we are going home by th

moved off down the gl

spectable to have a monk for a brother as a small squire, and Chris could never be more than this unless he made a good marriage. From the spiritual point of view-and here Ralph stopped and wondered whether it was very seriously worth considering. It was the normal thing of course to believe in the sublimity of the religious life and its peculiar dignity; but the new learning was beginning to put questions on the subject that had very considerably affected the normal view in Ralph's eyes. In that section of society where new ideas are generated and to which Ralph himself belonged, there were very odd tales being told; and it was beginning to be thought possible that monasticism had over-reache

e was no leisure for stags to bray, as they crouched now far away in the bracken, listening large-eyed and trumpet-eared for the sounds of pur

brother-in-law, black against the sky,

id Ralph,

undred reasons, it seemed, for his coming

" said Ralph, getting up

or you It i

in all over again, "you understand that it had not been for that foul hound yelping, I

cause you did not shoot straight, and you did not catch him be

ad and laughed loudly, for

was a damned fool. There! A lawyer dare

ming to meet him with his horse, and he mount

you," he said presently.

as, half checking his horse,

ly Maid at St. Sepulchre's, and it seems that she t

all think of it?"

se he knows

ty-three, the Prior had given his conditional consent before, and there was no need for waiting. Yes, they were Cluniacs; but Ra

lf between four walls, and we shall have a great scene of farewell. I think

rode on in silence for a few y

nd I," he said at last, "to

perfectly grave, and a rather int

I should. I had a terrible time with my Lord of Canterbury last year, at Otf

narrowed wi

u say to him

Mary told me I behaved like a fool. But this one is

elf. It was an unfeigned pleasure to this hunting squire to have a monk for a brother-in-law

young man had undergone a change. He looked at him with a deep respect, refrained from criticising his bloodless hands, an

d?" he said to

me," she said. "We are

ri

e is Meg," put

new she would. She

close to Ralph, as Mary went in front

he said. "He think

into the tender keen eyes th

ourse, sir

*

of that loud and cheerful rallying that stood for humour, no criticisms of his riding or his costume. The squire

carried to her throug

was there. Did you he

hook hi

not time,

htly; "Ralph cannot hear us, can he? Well-the matter of the divorce-I hear sh

the kind," said Chris, "but I

did she sa

xed as he listened; his mouth was a little open, and he murmure

. God save us! And her tongue out of her mouth all the whi

Chris. "I just liste

s again, and rode on

opportunity for Chris to go down and bathe in the lake as he usually did in summer after a

told him, with his usual lack of discretion; for the other had already

ut, and then stopped and eyed Ralph craftily; "bu

d blandly a

tion that," he sai

ur ears are too quick, my friend. Then there was that about the Host flyi

and his face was

ick,"

a great deal that Chris di

wiftly from his sea

l that was nee

but the Holy Maid said that the Ki

spair and misery, and his f

my son," he said to Nicholas. "It

g broadly with t

ve ever heard. All our heads might go for what you h

imploringly, "do

an odd pause such as generally fell when she showed signs of speaking. Her lips

ipped across the Court with a towel, and went up to the priest's ro

, "I will come. The m

t its rising. The woods beyond the water were blotted masses against the sky; and the air was full of the rich fragrance of the summer night. The two said very little, and the priest stopped on the bank as Chris stepped out along the little board

n the gloom, watching the shining dots rock back again in the r

ricked with stars. As he turned his head this way and that the great trees, high overhead, seemed less real than those two immeasurable spaces above and beneath. There was a dead silence everywhere, only broken by the faint suck of the water over his shoulder, and an indesc

him, and above it the great towered house, with its half-dozen lighted w

nt how shadows had sprung into being in that moment, and how the same light that made the glory made the dark as well. His soul seemed to emerge a stage higher yet from the limits in which the hot day and the shouting and the horns and the crowded woods had fettered it. How remote and little se

best not talked about," he said, "and I t

f pleasure the little translucent patch of colour between the slender mullions thrown by

priest, as they reached the side-en

at the corner to the priest's chamber. Chris threw himself down, relaxed and happy, in the tall chair

as he sat at the table. "I love Sir Nicholas and think h

roke out Chris, "wha

He had a pleasant ugly face, with

id, "or rather you must not. Bu

ould not spe

t not feel it like that. Remember our

ent, and then Chris beg

r. What will

or me, as you know. I came out after six months, and the Cluniacs are harder. I do not kn

hat I need not trouble myself, and that monks had a very pleasant time.

is always high. But you will find it hard enough, especially in the

ut the chaplain's position was secured by now, owing in a large measure to his own tact and unobtrusiveness, and he went about the house a quiet, sedate figure of considerable dignity and impressiveness, performing his duties punctually and keeping his counsel. He had been tutor to both the sons for a while, to Ralph only for a few months, but to Chris since his twelfth birthday, and the latter had formed with him a kind of peaceful confederacy, often looking in on him at unusual hours, always finding him genial, although very rarely confidential. It was to Mr. Carleton, too, that Chris owed his first drawings to the mystical life of prayer; there was a shelf of l

back in his chair, crossing his buckled feet beneath the cassock; "tel

e," said the prie

nce," said C

ve a year. However, I may be wrong. But it is the day after day that is difficult. And there is no relaxation;

etched a little book fr

for the sign-language of novices; how they were to make a circle in the air

you know, silence has its peculiar temptations as well as its joys. There is accidie and

began

s joys, and gives a

the novitiate at Canterbury for a few months, and was able to tell him a good deal about the life there; but the differences between the Augustinians and the Cluniacs made it impossible for him to go with any minuteness into the life of the Priory at L

aid Chris, "no two

iest s

t for yourself. A Religious rule is drawn up for many, not for one; and each must learn to conform himself. It

considered his own failure, and Chris began to wonder whether the thought of it wa

the priest talked, and watched that steady shining shield go up the sky, and the fam

all else, poured over his soul; these little piled bricks and stones, the lawns and woods round about, even England and the world itself, he thought, as his mind shot out towards the stars and the unfathomable spaces-all these were but very tiny things, negligeable quantities, when he looked at them in the eternal light. It was this thought, after all, that was calling