or
crazed fool who would cry out and confess at the touch of the whip.

But Master Richard did not cry out for mercy. And I hold that he passed
this first trial bravely.

Of the Second Temptation of Master Richard: and how he overcame it

_Exacuerunt ut gladium linguas suas: interderunt arcum rem amaram: ut
sagittent in occultis immaculatum._

They have whetted their tongues like a sword: they have bent their bow a
bitter thing, to shoot in secret the undefiled.--_Ps. lxiii, 4, 5._

X

As Master Richard had striven to serve God in the trinity of his nature,
so was he to be tried in the trinity of his nature. It was first in his
body that he was tempted, by pain and the fear of it; and his second
trial came later in the same day--which was in his mind.

He lay abed that morning till his dinner was brought to him, knowing
sometimes what passed--how a rat came out and looked on him awhile,
moving its whiskers; how the patch of sunlight upon the wall darkened
and passed; and how a bee came in and hummed a great while in the room;
and sometimes conscious of nothing but his own soul. He could make no
effort, he told me, and he did not attempt it. He only lay still,
committing himself to God Almighty.

He could not eat the meat, even had he wished it, but he drank a little
broth and ate some bread, and then slept again.

* * * * *

He did not know what time it was when he awoke and found one by his bed,
looking down on him, he thought, compassionately. It was growing towards
evening, for it way darker, or else his eyes were heavy and confused
with sickness, but he could not see very clearly the face of the man who
stood by him.

The man presently kneeled down by the bed, murmuring with pity as it
seemed, and Master Richard felt himself raised a little, and then laid
down again, and there was something soft at the nape of his neck over
the wooden pillow and against his torn shoulders. There was something,
too, laid across his body and legs, as if to keep him from chill.

He said nothing for a while; he did not know what to say, but he looked
steadily at the face that looked on him, and saw that it was that of a
young man, not five years older than himself, shaven clean like a clerk,
and the eyes of him seemed pitiful and loving.

"_Laudetur Jesus Christus!_" said Master Richard presently, as his
custom was when he awoke.

"_Amen_," said the man beside the bed.

That