Saint Ursula: I. The Story of St. Ursula. II. The Dream of St. Ursula.Ruskin, John
Religion
Saint Ursula: I. The Story of St. Ursula. II. The Dream of St. Ursula.
Ruskin, John
Carpaccio, Vittore, 1455?-1525? Dream of Saint Ursula; Ursula, Saint
When it was day, Ursula rose to bless and glorify the name of God. She
put on for covering and for beauty an enwrought mantle like the starry
sky, and was crowned with a coronet of gems. Then, straightway passing
to her father's chamber, she told him what grace had been done to her
that night, and all that now was in her heart to answer to the
ambassadors of Over-sea. So, though long he would not, she persuaded
her father.
Then Maurus, and his lords and councillors, and the ambassadors of the
heathen King, were gathered in the Hall of Council. And when Ursula
entered the place where these lords were, one said to the other, "Who
is this that comes from Paradise?" For she moved in all noble
gentleness, with eyes inclined to earth, learned and frank and fair,
delightful above all women upon earth. Behind her came a hundred
maidens, clothed in white silk, fair and lovely. They shone brightly
as the stars, but Ursula shone as the moon and the evening star.
Now this was the answer Ursula made, which the King caused to be
written, and sealed with the royal seal, and gave to the ambassadors
of the King of the Over-sea.
"I will take," she said, "for spouse, Æther, the son of my lord, the
King of Over-sea. But I ask of my lord three graces, and with heart
and soul pray of him to grant them.
"The first grace I ask is this, that he and the Queen and their son,
my spouse, be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit.
"The second grace is that three years may be given me, before the
bridal, in which to go to and fro upon the sea, that I may visit the
bodies of the Saints in Rome, and the blessed places of the Holy Land.
"And for the last grace, I ask that he choose ten fair maidens of his
kingdom, and with each of these a thousand more, all of gentle blood,
who shall come to me here in Britain, and go with me in gladness upon
the sea, following this my holy pilgrimage."
Then spake one of the nobles of the land to Maurus, saying, "My lord
the King, this your daughter is the Dove of Peace come from Paradise,
the same that in the days of the flood brought to the Ark of Noah the
olive-branch of good news." And at the answer were the ambassadors so
full of joy that they well-nigh could not speak, and with praise and
triumph, they went their way, and told their master all the sweet
answer of Ursula.
Then my lord the King said, "Praised and blessed be the name of our
God Malcometto, who has given my soul for comfort that which it
desired. Truly there is not a franker lady under the wheel of the sun;
and by the body of my mother I swear there is nothing she can ask that
I will not freely give. First of the maidens she desires shall be my
daughter Florence." Then all his lords rose, man by man, and gladly
named each his child.
So the will of Ursula was done; and that King, and all his folk, were
baptized into the Holy Faith. And Æther, with the English maidens, in
number above ten thousand, came to the land of Britain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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