So they prayed together with many tears, and after that Katherine felt easier in her mind. For many days Thomas struggled with the fierce prompting which the Monk had put into his heart and strove to put it by him, saying to himself, ‘I would gladly take sword and buckler and do service for Jesus Christ, but verily I am a married man and I must needs look to my wife and my four young children.’ But ever he would be answered from within himself, ‘If thou settest thy hand to the Lord’s work, shall the Lord forsake thee and thine?’ One day, as Katherine was plucking a fowl, he came in from the village, whence he had been to Church. His face was calm and set, and a solemn smile played about his countenance. Katherine had not seen him so pleasant for many a long day, and she was glad in her heart. But she fell also into some little awe of him, for he was, as it were, lifted far off from her. ‘Ay, Thomas, but thou lookest kindly,’ she said. ‘Katherine, do not blame me overmuch; forgive me that I cannot but put sore trouble upon thee. The Lord hath strictly told me that I must go and serve Him in the Holy Land, and I have this morning made oath to Sir John, our priest.’ ‘Holy Mother, have pity, have pity,’ cried Katherine. ‘Oh husband, thou must not leave me, not after all these years. Say thou wilt not go.’ ‘Dear Katherine,’ he said sweetly, ‘I must go. I have not been able to escape God these many days, and I must not disobey Him. It is He that hath commanded me.’ ‘Ah, dear God. And is this all thy love for me and thy little ones, to leave me now for these cursed wars? I shall not see thee again, I know I shall not, and I and my little ones shall all perish. Thou never lovedst me or thou wouldst not desert me now.’ ‘Dear Katherine, I love thee now more than ever I did, but I cannot refuse my God; I must go.’ ‘But the children that you have made so much of? Oh husband, bethink thyself; thou mayst wipe out thy oath by a fine to the Archdeacon.’ ‘That I may not do, dear Katherine, for I have made my oath to God. As for the children, He knows how heavy my heart is to leave them, but Sir John has given me a word of comfort from Holy Writ, that the Lord is mindful of His own.’ The tears burst from Katherine’s eyes, and she flung herself at his feet, convulsed with great sobs and clinging to his knees. ‘Don’t go, don’t go!’ she cried, but her husband sadly raised her, kissing her again, and said,’I must; I must.’ Then Thomas gently disengaged her arms from his body and laid her on the settle, and went forth to prepare for his journey. Going to town, he sold a herd of swine for coined silver, and exchanged thirty parcels of wool with a Flanders merchant, who happened to be in the village, against a gold Byzant. Having thus furnished himself with ready money to pay his way across the sea, he returned home and fetched down his leather and iron jerkin from the wall, and furbished his great sword and shield.