Now then the Carline did wisely, and she got to see the steward, and
fell to talk with him, and did him to wit that, for all the simplicity
of their raiment, they had both the will and the might to make a fair
oblation to the Saint; and she took from the aforesaid necklace two
sapphires and two emeralds, all great and very fair, and the steward's
eyes danced in the head of him at the sight, and he said: "This is a
fair gift indeed, and if ye will come with me into the church I will
show you to the Sub-prior, and if ye have any honest desire, as is
like, since ye have such love of Holy Church, he and I between us will
help you therein. And if not, nought is your time wasted in seeing our
church, which is of itself worth a long journey to behold."
So they went, well pleased, and when they were in the church they
found that he had said nought but the sooth: so many pillars there
were reaching up and toward the sky, so nobly wide it was, and as long
as it should be. And there were many altars therein, all as well
furnished as might be done; and long had it taken any lettered man to
have told up the number of histories on the walls and in the windows,
wherein they were all as if done with gemstones; and everywhere the
fair stories told as if they were verily alive, and as if they who did
them had seen them going on on the earth and in the heavens. So the
two waited there ravished while the steward went to fetch the
Sub-prior, and brought him presently, a kind and holy man, and humble
of demeanour.
He spake to them and said: "My daughters, it is told me that ye need
somewhat of our house in all honesty and holiness; now when ye have
laid your gift on the altar, if ye will come with me and our steward
here to the parlour, I will hearken to all ye have to say, and if the
thing ye need of us can be done, done it shall be." They thanked him
humbly and went and made their oblation, and prayed, and the Sub-prior
blessed them, and brought them out of the church into the parlour, and
there they sat down together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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