had passed through the guardroom and heard the anger
and laughter of the men-at-arms, and sustained their blows, and when he
had looked about it, at the little narrow window high up upon the wall,
and the water that dripped here and there from the stones, and the
strong door shut upon him, the first thing that he did was to go down
upon his knees in the puddle, and thank God for solitude.

(There be two kinds of men in the world, those that love solitude, and
those that hate it; for there be two kinds of souls, the full and the
empty. Those that be full have enough to occupy them with, and those
that be empty are for ever seeking somewhat wherewith to occupy them.)

When he had done that he looked round again upon the walls and the
ceiling and the floor, and sitting down upon the wood that was to be his
pillow, first girding up his kirtle that it might not be fouled, he
sought to unite himself with all that he saw, that it might be his
friend and not his foe. So he told me when I asked him, but I do not
know if I understood him aright.

There he sat then a great while, communing with God, and the saints,
with his cell and with his soul, and after a little time his interior
quiet was again restored. Then, as he knew he would have no light that
night, and that the cell would grow dark early, for his window looked
eastwards, and was a very little one, he made haste to say the rest of
his office from the book that he had with him. But he said it slowly, as
the Carthusians use, sucking the sweetness out of every word, and saying
_Jesu_ or _Mary_ at every star [the break in each verse of the psalter
is marked with an asterisk], and after a while the sweetness
was so piercing that he could scarcely refrain from crying out.

When he had done he looked again at his window, and saw that the strip
of sky was becoming green with evening light, and he thought upon his
hazels at home.

Half an hour afterwards a fellow came with his bread and water for
supper, on a wooden plate and in a great jug, set them down and went out
without speaking.

* * * * *

Now I will tell you all that Master Richard did; it was his custom when
he was at home, and he observed it here too.

He first poured water upon his hands, saying the psalm _lavabo_, and he
dried them upon the sleeves of his habit, for he had no napkin; then he
set the second stool before him, and broke the bread upon it into five
parts, in memor