“Dearest brother, thou art better, art thou not?”
“I am quite free from pain, only a hungered.”
“What food dost thou desire to enter thy lips first?”
“The Bread of Life.”
“But not as the Viaticum {[20]}, thank God. Wait awhile, I go to fetch it from the altar.”
And the successor of Adam de Maresco, the new head of the Oxford House, left the youth and went into their plainly-furnished chapel, where, in a silver dove, the only silver about the church, the reserved sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ was always kept for the sick in case of need. It hung from the beams of the chancel, before the high altar.
First the prior knelt and thanked God for having preserved the life of the youth they all loved.
“Thou hast yet great things for him to do on earth ere it come to his turn to rest,” he murmured. “To Thee be all the glory.”
Then he returned and gave the young novice his communion. Martin received it, and said, “I have found Him whom my soul loveth. I will hold Him and will not let Him go.”
From that time the patient was able to take solid nourishment, and grew rapidly better, until at last he could leave his room and sit in the sunny cloisters: