Pabo, the Priest: A NovelBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Pabo, the Priest: A Novel
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Great Britain -- History -- Henry I, 1100-1135 -- Fiction; Priests -- Fiction; Wales -- Fiction
"And I care not," said the bishop. "Pabo was struck by fire from heaven,
because he opposed me. Why when Ahaziah sent captains of fifty with
their fifties against the prophet Elijah, did not lightning fall and
consume them and their fifties twice? Is a ragged old prophet under the
law of Moses to be served better than me, a high prelate under the
Gospel? I see but too plainly, Cadell, you, being a Welshman, would rob
me of the glory that appertains to me. What grounds have you for this
preposterous assertion?"
"There is a young man, the son of a former Archpriest, who has been
slighted and overpassed, and has harbored resentment against Pabo. He
came to me secretly and told me that we had been deceived--they used
subtlety so as to be able the more effectually to conceal their chief
from your just resentment."
"I do not believe a word of it. I have written and sent certified
testimonies that Pabo was burned by fire from Heaven. Where is this
alleged Pabo?"
"I know not. The young man I speak of is ready to assist us to secure
him."
"I do not want him. I want and will have my miracle. Did you not hear
me? When I visited Caio, I said to Pabo that I would call down fire from
Heaven upon his head. I take you to witness that you heard me."
"But what, my dear master and lord, if he were to appear, and all men
were to discover that there had been no miracle?"
"I _will_ have my miracle," persisted Bernard in petulant tones. "I have
gone too far with it to retract. Odds' life! I should become a
laughing-stock all through Wales; and I know well the humor of his
Majesty. Over his cups he would tell the tale and burst his sides with
laughing; and he would cast it in the teeth of my gracious mistress, the
Queen. I have gone too far--I will have my miracle. If there be a man
who is going about calling himself Pabo the Archpriest, let him be
arrested as an impostor."
"There will be talk concerning it."
"There must be no noise. By the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, we must hush
it up! As a minister of the Truth, a prelate of the Church, it is my
sovereign duty to put down all imposition. Go now! I will even send a
letter to Gerald of Windsor, who is at his castle of Carreg Cennen, in a
retired vale away from every road, and from most habitations. I will bid
him receive this false Pabo, and take such measures that the wretched
impostor trouble us no more. As to my brother, bid him, if he lay hand
on this dissembler and deceiver of men, this lying rogue, to get him
away unnoticed, and with no noise, out of Caio, where he may be
observed, and to send him under escort and by night to Gerald at Carreg
Cennen."
"It shall be so. And--with regard to the young man of whom I spake?"
"That young man is a pest. Why should he have disturbed us with his
suggestions?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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