The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary by Robert Hugh Benson

R >> Robert Hugh Benson >> The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

There was the matter, too, of the bees that I had seen. [Sir John lays
great stress upon the bees; I cannot understand why. He says that they
betokened great wealth and happiness.]....

* * * * *

And again there was the matter of the seven days that Master Richard
fulfilled from the time of his setting out from his house, to the time
that he entered into his heavenly mansion. Seven days are the time of
perfection; it was in seven days that God Almighty made the world and
all that is in it; there were seven years of famine in Egypt in which
Joseph gathered store, and seven years of plenty. [I cannot bring myself
to follow Sir John through the whole of the Old and New Testaments.]....
And it was in seven days that Master Richard Raynal completed his course,
from the sowing of the wheat and wine on Corpus Xti, to his joyful
harvest in heaven....}

* * * * *

I thought, too, at this time of many other things, such as you may
suppose--of Master Richard's little cell in the country which would
never see him again (for I did not know at this time what the King
intended of his grace), and of the beasts that awaited him so
lamentably, and then of this great room hung all over with royalty
whither it had pleased God that his darling should come to die. I
looked, too, very often upon Master Richard as he lay before me, upon
his clean pallour, paler than I had ever seen it, and his slender
fingers roughened by the spade, and his strong arm, and his smiling
lips, and his closed eyes that looked within upon what I was not worthy
to see, and I wondered often what it was that he was saying to our Lord
and the blessed, and what they were saying to him, and I prayed that my
name might be mentioned amongst them, lest I should be a castaway after
all that I had heard and seen.

When it was dark (for I dared not kindle the candles) the King came in
again, and as he came in Master Richard spoke my name, and moved his
hand towards me on the coverlet.

How Master Richard went to God

_Transivimus per ignem et aquam: et eduxisti nos in refrigerium._

We have passed through fire and water: and Thou hast brought us out into
a refreshment.--_Ps. lxv. 12._

XV

The King presently kissed Master Richard's hand and asked his pardon and
his prayers, saying that he had known nothing of what went forward
during those two days, until the crying of Jesus' name by Master Richard
before the cardinal, but blaming his own craven heart, as he called it.

And when Master Richard had spoken awhile, he asked the King to go out,
for that he had much to say to me in secret.

So the King went out very softly, and set other guards at the doors,
and we two sat there a long while.

* * * * *

I was astonished at Master Richard's strength and courage, for he had
spoken aloud to the King, but when the King was gone out, he spoke in a
lower voice, holding my hand. It was very dark, for he would have no
lights, and I could see no more of him but a little of his hair, and the
pallour of his face beneath it, until the morn came and the end came.

* * * * *

He told me first of what he had done, and what had been done to him
since a week ago, when we had kissed one another at the lych-gate--all
as I have told it to you. He talked quietly, as I have said, but he
laughed a little now and again, and once or twice his voice trembled
with tears as he related our Lord's loving-kindness to him. (I have
never known any man who loved Jesu Christ more than this man loved Him.)

I asked him a few questions, and he answered them, but the effect of
all that he said was what I have written down here, and sometimes I have
his very words as he spoke them.

At last he came to the end of what he had to say, and began to tell me
of the _Night of the Soul_, and here he talked in a very low voice so
that I could scarcely hear what he said, and of what he said I did not
understand one half, [I am thankful that Sir John recognized his own
limitations.] for it was full of mysteries such as other contemplative
souls alone would recognise--for all contemplatives, as you know, relate
the same things to one another which they have seen and heard, and the
words that each uses the other understands, but other men do not; for
they speak of things that they have seen indeed, but for which there are
no proper human words, so that they have to do the best that they can.

He told me that the state that I have described to you continued until
he came before my lord cardinal, so that although he saw men's faces
and heard their words they were no more to him than shadows and
whisperings; for since (as it appeared to him) he had lost God by his
own fault there was no longer anything by which he might communicate
with man.

Yet all this while there was the conflict of which I have spoken. There
was that in him, which we name the Will, which continued tense and
strong, striving against despair. Neither his mind nor his heart could
help him in that _Night_; his mind informed him that he had sinned
deadly by presumption, his heart found nowhere God to love; and all
that, though he told himself that God was loveable, and adorable, and
that he could not fall into hell save by his own purpose and intention.

Yet, in spite of all, and when all had failed him, his will strove
against despair (which is the antichrist of humility [A curious phrase,
and, I think, rather a good one. I suspect it was originally Master
Richard's.]), though he did not recognise until afterwards that he was
striving, for he thought himself lost, as I have said.

Then a little after noon, at the time when I saw his image at the door
of his cell, stretching himself as if after labour or sleep, he had his
release.

Now this is the one matter of which he did not tell me fully, nor would
he answer when I asked him except by the words, "_Secretum meum mihi_."
["My secret is mine."] But this I know, that he saw our Lord.

And this I know, too, that with that sight his understanding came back
to him, and he perceived for himself that Charity was all. He perceived,
also, that he had been striving, and amiss. He had striven to bear his
own sins, and for those few hours our Lord had permitted him to bear the
weight. He who bears heaven and earth upon His shoulders, and who bore
the burden of the sins of the world in the garden and upon the rood, had
allowed this sweet soul to feel the weight of his own few little sins
for those few hours.

When he saw that he made haste to cast them off again upon Him who alone
can carry them and live, and to cry upon His Name; and he understood in
that moment, he said, as never before, something of that passion and of
the meaning of those five wounds that he had adored so long in
ignorance.

But what it was that he saw, and how it was that our Lord shewed
Himself, whether on the rood, or as a child with the world in His hands,
or as crowned with sharp-thorned roses, or who was with Him, if any
were; I do not know. It was then that he said "_Secretum mihi._" And
when Master Richard had said that, he added "_Vere languores nostros
ipse tulit; et dolores nostros ipse portavit._" ["Surely He hath borne
our infirmities, and carried our sorrows" (Is. liii. 4.)]

* * * * *

He lay silent a good while after that, and I did not speak to him. When
he spoke again, it was to bring to my mind the masses that were to be
said, and then he spoke of the Quinte Essence, and said that it was to
be mine if I wished for it; and all other things of his were to be mine
to do as I pleased with them, for he had no kin in the world.

And after he had spoken of these things the King came in timidly from
the parlour, and stood by the door; I could see the pallour of his face
against the hangings.

"Come in, my lord King," said Master Richard very faintly. "I have done
what was to be done, and there now is nothing but to make an end."

The King knelt down at the further side of the bed.

"Is it the priest you want, Master Hermit?" he asked.

"Sir John will read the prayers presently," said Master Richard.

I heard the King swallow in his throat before he spoke again.

"And you will remember us all," he said, "before God's Majesty, and in
particular my poor soul in its passion."

"How could I forget that?" asked Master Richard, and by his voice I knew
that he laughed merrily to himself.

I asked him whether he would have lights.

"No, my father," he said, "there will be light enough."

* * * * *

It would be an hour later, I should suppose, after Master Blytchett was
come back, when he put out his hand again, and I knew that he wished for
the prayers.

Now there was only starlight, for he would have no candles, and the moon
was not yet risen. So I went across to the parlour door, and as I went
through I could see that the chamber was full of persons all silent, but
it was too dark to see who they were. I asked one for a candle, and
presently one was brought, and I saw that my lord cardinal was there,
and ... and ... [The names are omitted as usual. This discreet scribe is
very tiresome.] and many others. It was such a death-bed as a king might
have.

So I read the appointed prayers, kneeling on my knees in the doorway,
and I was answered by those behind me.

When I had done that, I stood up to go back, and my lord cardinal caught
me by the sleeve.

"For the love of Jesu," he said, "ask if we may come in."

I went back and leaned over Master Richard, taking his hand in my own.

"My lord and the rest desire to come in, my son," I said. "If they may
come, press my hand."

He pressed my hand, and I spoke in a low voice, bidding them to come in.

So they came in noiselessly, one after another; I could see their faces
moving, but no more--my lord cardinal and the great nobles and the
grooms and the rest--till the room was half full of them.

The door was put to behind them, but I could see the line of light that
shewed it, where the candle burned in the parlour beyond; and I could
hear the sound of their breathing and the rustle once and again of their
feet upon the rushes.

Then I knelt down, when the others had knelt, and waited for the agony
to begin, when I should begin the last commendation.

My children, I have prayed by many death-beds, but I have never seen one
like this.

The curtains were wide, and the windows, behind me, that he might have
breath to send out his spirit; and without, as I saw when I turned to
kneel, the heavens were bright with stars. This was all the light that
was in the room; it was no more than dark twilight, and I could see no
more of him than what I saw before, the glimmer of his face upon the
pillow and his long hair beside it. His fingers were in mine, but they
were very cold by now.

But he had said that there would be light enough, and so there was.

It may have been half an hour afterwards that the room began to lighten
softly, as the sky brightened at moonrise, and I could see a little more
plainly. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be breathing very softly
through his lips.

Then the moon rose, and the light lay upon the floor at my side. Then a
little after it was upon the fringes of the coverlet, and it crept up
moment by moment across the leopards and lilies that were broidered in
gold and blue.

At last it lay half across the bed, and I could see the King's face very
pale and melancholy upon the other side, and Master Blytchett a little
behind him.

And presently it reached Master Richard's hand and my own that lay
together, but my arm was so numbed that I could feel nothing in it; I
could see only that his fingers were in mine.

So the light crept up his arm to the shoulder, and when it reached his
face we saw that he was gone to his reward.

Of his Burying

_Quam dilecta tabernacula tua: Domine virtutum._

How lovely are Thy tabernacles: O Lord of
Hosts.--_Ps. lxxxiii. 1._

XVI

It was upon the next day that we took
Master Richard's body down again to the
country, and there was such an attendant
company as I should not have thought that
all London held.

The King had ordered a great plenty of
tapers and hangings and a herse such as is
used....

[The MS. ends abruptly at the foot of the page.]

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8