The White Rose of Langley / A Story of the Olden Time

by Emily Sarah Holt

For the novel-reader of the fourteenth century was not very different from the novel-reader of the nineteenth. The lady smiled, but grew grave again directly. She sat down in one of the cushioned window-seats, keeping Maude’s treasured leaf in her hand.

“List, little maid, and thou shalt hear—that the great Knight, of whose mighty prowess this book doth tell, shall win His ’trothed love at last.”

And she began to read—very different words from any Maude expected. The child listened, entranced.

“And I saigh (saw) newe heuene and newe erthe; for the firste heuene and the firste erthe wenten awei; and the see is not now. And I ioon (John) saigh the hooli citee ierusalim newe comynge doun fro heuene maad redi of god as a wyf ourned to hir husbonde. And I herde a greet voice fro the trone seiynge (saying), lo a tabernacle of god is with men, and he schal dwelle with hem, and thei schulen be his peple, and he, god with hem, schal be her (their) god. And god schal wipe awei ech teer fro the ighen (eyes) of hem, and deeth schal no more be, neithir mournyng neither criyng neither sorewe schal be ouer, whiche thing is firste (first things) wenten awei. And he seide that sat in the trone, lo I make alle thingis newe. And he seide to me, write thou, for these wordis ben (are) moost feithful and trewe. And he seide to me, it is don, I am alpha and oo (omega) the bigynnyng and ende, I schal ghyue (give) freli of the welle of quyk (quick, living) water to him that thirstith. He that schal ouercome schal welde (possess) these thingis, and I schal be god to him, and he schal be sone to me. But to ferdful men, and unbileueful, and cursid, and manquelleris, and fornicatours, and to witchis and worschiperis of ydols and to alle lyeris the part of hem schal be in the pool brenynge with fyer and brymstoon, that is the secounde deeth. And oon (one) cam of the seuene aungelis hauynge violis ful of seuene the laste ueniauncis (vengeances, plagues), and he spak with me and seide, come thou and I schal schewe to thee the spousesse (bride) the wyf of the lombe. And he took me up in spirit into a greet hill and high, and he schewide to me the hooli cite ierusalem comynge doun fro heuene of god, hauynge the cleerte (glory) of god; and the light of it lyk a precious stoon as the stoon iaspis (jasper), as cristal. And it hadde a wall greet and high hauynge twelue ghatis (gates), and in the ghatis of it twelue aungelis and names writen yn that ben the names of twelue lynagis (lineages, tribes) of the sones of israel. Fro the eest three ghatis, and fro the north three ghatis, and fro the south three ghatis, and fro the west three ghatis. And the wall of the citee hadde twelue foundamentis, and in hem the twelue names of twelue apostlis and of the lombe. And he that spak with me hadde a goldun mesure of a rehed (reed) that he schulde mete the citee and the ghatis of it and the wall. And the citee was sett in a square, and the lengthe of it is so mych as mych as is the brede (breadth), and he mat (meted, measured) the citee with the rehed bi furlongis twelue thousyndis, and the highthe and the lengthe and breede of it ben euene. And he maat (meted, measured) the wallis of it of an hundride and foure and fourti cubitis bi mesure of man, that is, of an aungel. And the bilding of the wall thereoff was of the stoon iaspis and the citee it silff was cleen gold lyk cleen glas. And the foundamentis of the wal of the cite weren ourned (adorned) with al precious stoon, the firste foundament iaspis, the secound saphirus, the thridde calsedonyus, the fourthe smaragdus (emerald), the fifthe sardony (sardonyx), the sixte sardyus (ruby), the seuenthe crisolitus, the eighthe berillus, the nynthe topasius, the tenthe crisopassus, the elleuenthe iacinctus (jacinth), the tweluethe amiatistus (amethyst). And twelue ghatis ben twelue margaritis (pearls) bi ech (each), and ech ghate was of ech (each) margarite and the streetis of the citee weren cleen gold as of glas ful schinynge. And I saigh no temple in it, for the lord god almyghti and the lomb is temple of it, and the citee hath not nede of sunne neither moone that thei schine in it, for the cleerite of god schal lightne it, and the lombe is the lanterne of it, and the kyngis of erthe schulen bringe her glorie and onour into it. And the ghatis of it schulen not be closid bi dai, and nyght schal not be there, and thei schulen bringe the glorie and onour of folkis into it, neither ony man defouled and doynge abomynacioun and leesyng (lying) schal entre into it, but thei that ben writun in the book of lyf and of the lombe.”

When the soft, quiet voice ceased, it was like the sudden cessation of sweet music to the enchanted ears of little Maude. The child was very imaginative, and in her mental eyes the City had grown as she listened, till it now lay spread before her—the streets of gold, and the gates of pearl, and the foundations of precious stones. Of any thing typical or supernatural she had not the faintest idea. In her mind it was at once settled that the City was London, and yet was in some dreamy way Jerusalem; for of any third city Maude knew nothing. The King, of course, had his Palace there; and a strong desire sprang up in the child’s mind to know whether the royal mistress, who was to her a kind of far-off fairy queen, had a palace there also. If so—but no! it was too good to be true that Maude would ever go to wash the golden pans and diamond dishes which must be used in that City.

“Mistress!” said Maude to her new friend, after a short silence, during which both were thinking deeply.

The lady brought her eyes down to the child from the sky, where they had been fixed, and smiled a reply to the appeal.

“Would you tell me, of your grace, whether our Lady mistresshood’s graciousness hath in yonder city a dwelling?”

Maude wondered exceedingly to see tears slowly gather in the sapphire eyes.

“God grant it, little maid!” was, to her, the incomprehensible answer.