"It is the road, dear child, God has chosen for us, and His Name is 'Love,'" said the hermit. "Every step of the way has been foreordained by Him Who tasted the bitter cup for us; and when we have gained the shore of eternity we shall see that infinite wisdom ordered it all for the best."
"Is it really so? Can it be for the best?" said Evroult.
"Listen, my son: this is God's Word; let me read it to you." And from his Breviary he read this extract from that wondrous Epistle to the Romans—
"'For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose.'"
"Now God has called you out of this wicked world: you might have spent turbid, restless lives of fighting and bloodshed, chasing the phantom called 'glory,' and then have died and gone where all hope is left behind. Is it not better?"
"Yes, it is," said Richard; "it is, Evroult, is it not—better as it is?"
"Nay, Richard, but had I been well, I had been a knight like my father. Oh, what have we not lost!"
"An awful doom at the end perhaps," said Meinhold. "Let me tell you what I saw with mine own eyes. A rich baron died near here who had won great renown in the wars, in which, nevertheless, he had been as merciless as barons too often are. Well, he left great gifts to the Church, and money for many Masses for his soul: so he was buried with great pomp—brought to be buried, I mean, in the priory church he had founded.
"Now when we came to the solemn portion of the service, when the words are said which convey the last absolution and benediction of the Church, the corpse sat upright in the bier and said, in an awful tone, 'By the justice of God, I am condemned to Hell.' The prior could not proceed; the body was left lying on the bier; and at last it was decided so to leave it till the next day, and then resume the service.
"But the second day, when the same words were repeated, the corpse rose again and said, 'By the justice of God, I am condemned to Hell.'