There were spectators of that scene who were wont to say, when this
sequel had freshened their memories, that amid the wild tumult of the
gratitude of the island's poor people he who was the subject of it made
one quick glance of pain upward to the mount, now standing empty above
the green, and then, parting the crowds that encircled him, pushed
through them without word or glance or sign. Seeing at last that he
shrunk from their thanks, the people followed him no further, but
remained on the green, watching him as he passed on toward Slieu
Whallin, and then up by the mountain track. When he had reached the top
of the path, where it begins its descent to the valley beyond, he paused
again and turned about, glancing back. The people below saw his full
figure clearly outlined against the sky, and once more they sent up
their shout by one great impulse in one great voice that drowned the
distant rumble of the sea: "God bless the priest!" "Heaven save the
priest!" And he heard it, for instantly he faced about and disappeared.
When he was gone it seemed as if a spell had broken. The people looked
into one another's faces in bewilderment, as if vaguely conscious that
somewhere and some time, under conditions the same yet different, all
that they had then seen their eyes had seen before. And bit by bit the
memory came back to them, linked with a name that might not be spoken.
Then many things that had seemed strange became plain.
In a few days the whisper passed over Man, from north to south, from
east to west, from the sod cabins on the Curragh to the Castle at
Castletown, that he who had cured the people of the sickness, he who had
been mistaken for the priest out of Ireland, was none other than the
unblessed man long thought to be dead; and that he had lived to be the
savior of his people.
The great news was brought to Bishop's Court, and it was found to be
there already. Rumor said that from Castletown an inquiry had come
asking if the news were true, but none could tell what answer Bishop's
Court had made. The Bishop had shut himself up from all visits, even
those of his clergy. With Mona and the child, Ewan's little daughter, he
had passed the days since Thorkell's death, and not until the day of
Thorkell's funeral did he break in upon his solitude. Then he went down
to the little churchyard that stands over by the sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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