Part 5 (1/2)

”Your own heart is your best counsellor,” was the priest's answer. ”Go as it guides you, knowing that, through it, it is G.o.d who guides. Nor fear that you will fail. But if love and the joys of life should leave you, then come back, and we will talk again.

Go on, pure knight of Christ, fearing nothing and sure of the reward, and take with you the blessing of Christ and of his Church.”

”What penance must I bear, father?”

”Such souls as yours inflict their own penance. The saints forbid that I should add to it,” was the gentle answer.

Then with a lightened heart G.o.dwin returned to the altar rails, while his brother Wulf was summoned to take his place in the confessional. Of the sins that he had to tell we need not speak.

They were such as are common to young men, and none of them very grievous. Still, before he gave him absolution, the good Prior admonished him to think less of his body and more of his spirit; less of the glory of feats of arms and more of the true ends to which he should enter on them. He bade him, moreover, to take his brother G.o.dwin as an earthly guide and example, since there lived no better or wiser man of his years, and finally dismissed him, prophesying that if he would heed these counsels, he would come to great glory on earth and in heaven.

”Father, I will do my best,” answered Wulf humbly; ”but there cannot be two G.o.dwins; and, father, sometimes I fear me that our paths will cross, since two men cannot win one woman.”

”I know the trouble,” answered the Prior anxiously, ”and with less n.o.ble-natured men it might be grave. But if it should come to this, then must the lady judge according to the wishes of her own heart, and he who loses her must be loyal in sorrow as in joy. Be sure that you take no base advantage of your brother in the hour of temptation, and bear him no bitterness should he win the bride.”

”I think I can be sure of that,” said Wulf; ”also that we, who have loved each other from birth, would die before we betrayed each other.”

”I think so also,” answered the Prior; ”but Satan is very strong.”

Then Wulf also returned to the altar rails, and the full Ma.s.s was sung, and the Sacrament received by the two neophytes, and the offerings made all in their appointed order. Next they were led back to the Priory to rest and eat a little after their long night's vigil in the cold church, and here they abode awhile, thinking their own thoughts, seated alone in the Prior's chamber.

At length Wulf, who seemed to be ill at ease, rose and laid his hand upon his brother's shoulder, saying:

”I can be silent no more; it was ever thus: that which is in my mind must out of it. I have words to say to you.”

”Speak on, Wulf,” said G.o.dwin.

Wulf sat himself down again upon his stool, and for a while stared hard at nothing, for he did not seem to find it easy to begin this talk. Now G.o.dwin could read his brother's mind like a book, but Wulf could not always read G.o.dwin's, although, being twins who had been together from birth, their hearts were for the most part open to each other without the need of words.

”It is of our cousin Rosamund, is it not?” asked G.o.dwin presently.

”Ay. Who else?”

”And you would tell me that you love her, and that now you are a knight--almost--and hard on five-and twenty years of age, you would ask her to become your affianced wife?”

”Yes, G.o.dwin; it came into my heart when she rode the grey horse into the water, there upon the pier, and I thought that I should never see her any more. I tell you it came into my heart that life was not worth living nor death worth dying without her.”

”Then, Wulf,” answered G.o.dwin slowly, ”what more is there to say?

Ask on, and prosper. Why not? We have some lands, if not many, and Rosamund will not lack for them. Nor do I think that our uncle would forbid you, if she wills it, seeing that you are the properest man and the bravest in all this country side.”

”Except my brother G.o.dwin, who is all these things, and good and learned to boot, which I am not,” replied Wulf musingly. Then there was silence for a while, which he broke.

”G.o.dwin, our ill-luck is that you love her also, and that you thought the same thoughts which I did yonder on the quay-head.”

G.o.dwin flushed a little, and his long fingers tightened their grip upon his knee.

”It is so,” he said quietly. ”To my grief it is so. But Rosamund knows nothing of this, and should never know it if you will keep a watch upon your tongue. Moreover, you need not be jealous of me, before marriage or after.”

”What, then, would you have me do?” asked Wulf hotly. ”Seek her heart, and perchance--though this I doubt--let her yield it to me, she thinking that you care naught for her?”

”Why not?” asked G.o.dwin again, with a sigh; ”it might save her some pain and you some doubt, and make my own path clearer.