The Secret Chamber at Chad

by Evelyn Everett-Green

It was growing towards the westering of the sun when they beheld the great sea lying before them far below, and Edred's eyes glowed with joy as he saw the white-winged shallops flitting hither and thither on the wide expanse of blue water, and pictured how soon Brother Emmanuel would be sailing away out of the reach of peril. Truly God had been very good in hearing and answering prayer. Edred had, by some instinct for which he could not account, addressed his prayers of late less to the blessed Virgin and more to the Son of God Himself--struck, perhaps, by the words he had heard from the lips of the heretic peddler about the "one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus." He now turned in his saddle and waited till Brother Emmanuel came up. It was too solitary a place for them to care to keep up the appearance of master and servant.

Riding thus side by side, Brother Emmanuel talked with the boys out of the fulness of his heart. His week of captivity had been spent in deep and earnest thought, and some of these thoughts were imparted to the boys in that last serious talk. He bid them hold in all reverence and godly fear that Church which was the body of Christ, and those ordinances which had been given at the beginning for the perfecting of the saints, and which were God's ways of dealing with man. But he warned them in solemn tones of the fearful disease which had attacked the body, and which threatened a fearful remedy before that body could be cleansed; he warned them also of the perils which beset the path of those who should live to see the coming struggle. There would be men who would vow that whatever the Church said and did must be right because the Church was the body of Christ, not knowing that even that body can become corrupt (though never the Head) if the will of man be put in the stead of the will of God; and these would cling to the corruptions as closely as to the ordinances of God, and become bitter persecutors of those who would arise and seek to cleanse and renew the body by God-given remedies. But again there would be men who would arise and deny that there was a body, would condemn the very name of the Church, and avow that what the Lord wanted was not a body, but a number of individuals each seeking light and salvation in his own fashion. That would be a fearful evil--an evil which would rend the body into a thousand schisms, and bring down at last the heavy wrath of God, who has from the beginning taught men that the body must be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing before it can be fit to be the bride of the Lamb.

The young monk earnestly strove to show the perils of both these ways to the boys who rode beside him, and his words were earnestly listened to, and, by one at least, laid seriously to heart, to be remembered in after days almost as the words of prophecy, and destined to have a lasting effect upon his own future career.

From that day Edred renounced all thought of the monastic life, feeling that such a life would but trammel his conscience and stultify his judgment. He resolved to live his life in the world, whilst seeking to be not of the world. How that resolve was kept there is no space in these pages to tell.

Slowly and quietly the three friends jogged down into the little fishing and trading hamlet that lay at the base of the cliffs. In the small bay lay one or two sloops and frigates, and it was not hard to find the owner of the one which was to sail that night and carry Brother Emmanuel away. Julian found the man, and made all arrangements; whilst Edred saw that Brother Emmanuel made a sufficient meal, and sat talking with him to the very last, drinking in new thoughts and aspirations with every word, and striving, in the joy of knowing his beloved preceptor to be safe, to still the ache at heart which this parting involved.

The sun was just setting as the boat bearing Brother Emmanuel to the sloop pushed off from shore. The skipper resolved to set sail forthwith, and the boys stood watching whilst she shook out her canvas to the favouring breeze, and glided like a white-winged sea bird out from the shelter of the bay and into the wide ocean.

There were smarting tears in Edred's eyes despite his joy and relief. But Julian had room only for the latter feeling, and waved his cap with an air of exultant triumph as the sails expanded more and more and the little vessel went skimming its way over the shining sea.

"He is safe, and we have saved him!" he cried with flashing eyes. "Let men say what they will, but he was no heretic. I fear not but that we have done right in the sight of God, even though we may not whisper in the confessional this deed, nor receive priestly absolution therefor."

"God will give us His pardon if we have done amiss," said Edred thoughtfully. "But I have no fear that He regards this deed as a sin. It was done in His name, and as such will He receive it."

"Yes, verily; though perchance it were better to leave such words unsaid. And now we must to horse and make all speed back to Chad. As it is we shall not reach it till after nightfall, and they will something wonder at our delay."