bably covered with vine
and ivy leaves, with nymphs and satyrs, long since consecrated with holy
water to a new and better use. Inside that lies the saint, asleep, yet
ever awake. So they had best consider in whose presence they are, and
fear God and St. Quemdeusvult, and cast away the seven deadly sins
wherewith they are defiled; for the saint is a righteous man, and died
for righteousness' sake; and those who rob the orphan and the widow, and
put the fatherless to death, them he cannot abide; and them he will watch
like an eagle of the sky, and track like a wolf of the wood, fill he
punishes them with a great destruction. In short, the bishop preaches to
the king and his men a right noble and valiant sermon, calling things by
their true names without fear or favour, and assuming, on the mere
strength of being in the right, a tone of calm superiority which makes
the strong armed men blush and tremble before the weak and helpless one.

Yes. Spirit is stronger than flesh. 'Meekly bend thy neck, Sicamber!'
said St. Remigius to the great conquering King Clovis, when he stept into
the baptismal font--(not 'Most Gracious Majesty,' or 'Illustrious Caesar,'
or 'by the grace of God Lord of the Franks,' but Sicamber, as a
missionary might now say Maori, or Caffre,--and yet St. Remigius's life
was in Clovis's hand then and always),--'Burn what thou hast adored, and
adore what thou hast burned!' And the terrible Clovis trembled and
obeyed.

So does the wild king at the shrine of St. Quemdeusvult. He takes his
bracelet, or his jewel, and offers it civilly enough. Will the bishop be
so good as to inform the great Earl St. Quemdeusvult, that he was not
aware of his rights, or even of his name; that perhaps he will deign to
accept this jewel, which he took off the neck of a Roman
General--that--that on the whole he is willing to make the amende
honorable, as far as is consistent with the feelings of a nobleman; and
trusts that the saint, being a nobleman too, will be satisfied therewith.

After which, probably, it will appear to the wild king that this bishop
is the very man that he wants, the very opposite to himself and his wild
riders; a man pure, peaceable, just, and brave; possessed, too, of
boundless learning; who can read, write, cipher, and cast nativities; who
has a whole room full of books and parchments, and a map of the whole
world; who can talk Latin, and perhaps Greek, as well as one of those
accursed man-eatin