Oh, how the memory of his mother and her counsels came before the poor orphan.
Still, how could he help it? He had done rightly, he felt sure; and he knew that his father would say so were hecums alive.
"And so would my grandfather," thought he, "once the friend of the Ironside, of whose wondrous exploits he often told me in olden days around our winter fire. Would his spirit were with me now, and a little of his skill in arms."
And thus musing, he arrived at the castle and betook himself, with Pierre, to the tilt yard. Louis went off to seek Etienne, whose second he was to be.
[CHAPTER VI]. A REVELATION.
The night was growing dark when Wilfred approached the priory, with the intention of seeking Father Elphege, and putting, as Pierre had said, "his spiritual gear in order."
As we have remarked in other pages, men then attached no notion of sin to the mere act of fighting--there could not be a duty clearer to Christians of that strange epoch than to fight with each other whensoever the exigencies of society demanded--the very institution of knighthood was bound up with the idea.
So he had no anticipation that the good father would say, "Don't fight."
But when he approached the great door of the priory, with the venerable figure of the patron saint bending over the archway, a messenger--a lay brother--issued forth.
It was almost dark, but the man recognised Wilfred.