the Spanish mystic was the
first to use it.] This only can I say of the state itself: that Master
Richard said that it was in a manner what our Lord suffered upon the
rood when he cried to His Father _Eloi, Eloi, etc._

But I can tell you something of the signs of that affliction, as they
shewed themselves to Master Richard. Of the interior state of his soul I
cannot even think without terror and confusion. Compared with the
darkness of it, the other _nights_, he said, are but as clouds across
the sun on a summer's day compared with a moonless midnight in winter.
He had suffered a shadow of it before, when he was entering the
contemplative state, or the prefect Way of Union. Now it fell upon him.
Before I tell you how it came, I must tell you that this _night_, as he
explained it, takes its occasion from some particular thought, and the
thought from which it sprang you shall hear presently.

When the clerk had left him, sighing, as I said, as if with a kindly
weariness (to encourage the other to call for him, I suppose), Master
Richard committed himself again to God and lay still.

A fellow came in soon with his supper (for it was now growing dark), set
it by him and went out. Master Richard took a little food, and after a
while, as his custom was after repeating the name of Jesu, began to
think on God, on the Blessed and Holy Trinity, and on His Attributes,
numbering them one by one and giving thanks for each, and marking the
colour and place of each in the glory of the throne. He was too weary to
say vespers or compline, and presently he fell asleep, but whether it
was common sleep or not I do not know.

In his sleep it seemed to him that he was walking along a path beneath
trees, as he had walked on his way to London; but it was twilight, and
he could not see clearly. There was none with him, and he was afraid,
and did not know what he feared. He was afraid of what lay behind, and
on all sides, and he was yet more afraid of what lay before him, but he
knew that he could not stay nor turn. He went swiftly, he thought, and
with no sound, towards some appointed place, and the twilight darkened
as he went; when he looked up there was no star nor moon to be seen, and
what had been branches when he set out seemed now to be a roof, so thick
they were. There was no bray of stag, nor rustle of breeze, nor cry of
night-bird. He tried to pray, but he could remember no prayer, and not
even the healthful name of _Jesu_ came to