Lady Sybil's Choice: A Tale of the CrusadesHolt, Emily Sarah
History
Lady Sybil's Choice: A Tale of the Crusades
Holt, Emily Sarah
Crusades -- Fiction; Historical fiction
Lady Judith would have said more, I fancy, but Melisende came in, and
she quietly dropped the matter, as she generally does if any third
person enters. But the next morning, as Marguerite was dressing my
hair, I asked her what her notion of Heaven was.
"Inside with the blessed Lord, and the Devil and all the sins and evil
things left outside," she said. "Ah, it will be rest to be rid of evil;
but it will be glory to be with the Lord."
"And the pleasures, and the flying, and all the delightful things,
Margot!" said I.
"Ah, yes, that will be very nice," she admitted. "And to meet those whom
we have lost—that will be the very next best thing to seeing the good
Lord."
"Hast thou lost many whom thou hast loved, Margot?"
"Ah, no—very few, compared with some. My mother, and my husband, and my
two children:—that is all. I never knew my father, and I was an only
child. But it may be, the fewer one has to love, the more one loves
them."
"An only child!" said I. "But Perette calls thee aunt?"
"Ah, yes, she is my husband’s niece,—the same thing."
I think Marguerite seems to agree with Lady Judith, though of course she
does not express herself so well.
And I cannot help wondering how they arrange in Heaven. I suppose there
will be thrones nearest the good Lord for the kings and the princes who
will be there: and below that, velvet settles for the nobles; and
beneath again, the crowd of common people. I should think that would be
the arrangement. Because, of course, no one could expect them to mingle
all together. That would be really shocking.
Yet I cannot altogether make it out. If Messeigneurs the holy Apostles
were originally fishermen, and worked for their living—it is very queer.
I do not understand it. But I suppose the holy angels will take care to
put it right, and have a proper barrier between the Apostles and the
nobles, and the poor villeins, who are admitted of special grace,
through their own good deeds, and the super-abundant merits of the holy
saints.
In the afternoon, when Guy was in audience of the Lord King and the Lady
Queen, and Lady Isabel and Melisende were riding forth, with Messire
Homfroy and Amaury as their cavaliers, I found Lady Judith and Lady
Sybil busy spinning, and I brought my broidery and sat down with them.
We did not talk much for a while,—only a few words now and then: when
all at once Lady Judith said—
"Helena, wilt thou try this needle for thy work?"
I took the needle, and threaded it, and set to work again: but I found
to my surprise that I could not get on at all. The needle would hardly
go through the silk, and it left an ugly hole when it did. Lady Judith
went on with her spinning for a few minutes, but at length she looked up
and said—
"Well, Helena, how dost thou like that needle?"
"Not at all, holy Mother, if it please you," said I, "for I cannot get
on with it."
She selected another, and gave it me.
"Oh, this is beautiful for broidery!" I said; "so fine and sharp."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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