France -- History -- Louis IX, 1226-1270 -- Juvenile fiction
The person who was sent was the Dominican monk, Brother Anselmo, who was
met by the two boys and Bernard, on the occasion when we first made
their acquaintance. Brother Anselmo was a quiet-spoken man, making no
pretensions to authority or to superior knowledge; and the Countess
talked with him and answered his questions freely and unsuspectingly.
She knew he was a Dominican, and she knew he had come to the
neighborhood of Viteau on purpose to talk with her on certain religious
subjects; but this did not surprise her, as she supposed all good people
were just as much interested in these subjects as she was; but she had
no idea that he was connected with the Inquisition at Toulouse.
Bernard, the squire, however, knew well who he was, and it troubled him
greatly to know it.
Some weeks after the Dominican had begun to make his almost daily visits
to Viteau, he came, one day, accompanied by another monk, who did not
enter the grounds, but who remained outside the little gate, waiting for
his companion to return.
Bernard noticed the monk waiting outside, and thinking that this unusual
occurrence had something suspicious about it, he followed Brother
Anselmo when he left the chateau, and, as he rejoined his fellow monk,
the squire slipped quietly up to the wall and listened to what they said
to each other. In this case, Bernard did not consider that he was doing
a very improper thing. He feared that danger threatened the household of
Viteau, and that these two monks were the persons through whom the evil
would come. Therefore, he believed that it was his duty to employ every
possible means of averting this danger; and he listened with all his
ears.
What he heard was very little. The two monks stood silent a few moments,
and then the one who had been waiting said something in a low voice,
which Bernard could not hear. To this Brother Anselmo answered: "We have
done all we can. I think it is a case for the Holy Inquisition."
And then the two walked off together.
Bernard now knew that his fears were correct. His beloved mistress, on
account of some of her religious opinions, was in danger of being
carried a prisoner to Toulouse, there to be tried before the officers of
the Inquisition. He had no doubt that her opinions, whatever they were,
were entirely correct, for he had a great respect for her religious
knowledge, and he felt sure she knew more than the monks who came to the
chateau, but he well understood that, if she should be put on trial, and
if the doctrines she believed to be true were found to differ, in the
least point, from those taught by the priests, she would be considered
guilty of heresy, and perhaps be put to death.
The squire went away from the wall a very sad man. He was certain that
no one at the chateau but himself knew of the danger of its mistress,
and he felt that it rested on him to take some immediate steps to save
her, if that were possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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