n, that hear me to join with me in prayer....
First, for Christ's Catholic Church throughout the world, for her peace
and furtherance.... Next, for our England, for the conversion of all her
children; and, above all, for her Grace, my Queen and yours, that God
will bless and save her in this world, and her soul eternally in the
next. For these and all other such matters I will beg all Catholics to
join with me and to say the _Our Father_; and when I am in my agony to
say yet another for my soul."

"_Our Father_...."

From the whole packed space the prayer rose up, in great and heavy waves
of sound. There were cries of mockery three or four times, but each was
suddenly cut off.... The waves of sound rolled round and ceased, and the
silence was profound. The priest opened his eyes; closed them again.
Then with a loud voice he began to cry:

"O Christ, as Thine arms were extended--"

* * * * *

He stopped again, shaken even from that intense point of concentration
to which he was forcing himself, by the amazing sound that met his ears.
He had heard, at the close of the _Our Father_, a noise which he could
not interpret: but no more had happened. But now the whole world seemed
screaming and swaying: he heard the trample of horses beneath
him--voices in loud expostulation.

He opened his eyes; the clamour died again at the same instant.... For a
moment his eyes wandered over the heads and up to the sky, to see if
some vision.... Then he looked down....

Against the ladder on which he stood, a man's figure was writhing and
embracing the rungs kneeling on the ground. He was strangely dressed, in
some sort of a loose gown, in a tight silk night-cap, and his feet were
bare. The man's head was dropped, and the priest could not see his face.
He looked beyond for some explanation, and there stood, all alone, a
girl in a hooded cloak, who raised her great eyes to his. As he looked
down again the man's head had fallen back, and the face was staring up
at him, so distorted with speechless entreaty, that even he, at first,
did not recognize it....

Then he saw it to be his father, and understood enough, at least, to act
as a priest for the last time.

He smiled a little, leaned his own head forward as from a cross, and
spoke....

"_Absolvo te a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus
Sancti_...."

VI

He only awoke once again, after the strangling and the darkness had
passed