28.
Highly Ambiguous
ND then as the last shaken note of thunder died away, and as Melior fell to comforting the awakened baby, a tall warrior entered. He wore the most resplendent of ancient corselets, and embossed greaves protected his legs, but no helmet hid his flaxen curls. He now laid down an eight-sided shield, emblazoned argent with a cross gules, and he rustled his wings rather indignantly.
“Really, Hoprig,” said the new-comer, “this is carrying matters entirely too far; and you must not summon the princes of Heaven from their affairs to take part in your fisticuffs.”
“What more can you expect, good Michael, of misguided efforts to make saints of my people?”
This was a voice which was not unknown to Florian. And he saw that Janicot too had come,—not in that unreserved condition in which Florian had last seen him, but discreetly clothed and showing in everything as the neat burgess of Florian’s first encounter. And it was evident that this Janicot was not a stranger to St. Michael, either, when the archangel answered:
“It is well enough for you to grin, but with us the matter is no joke. This Hoprig has been duly canonized. When he invokes any of us we are under formal obligations to minister unto him, for he is entitled to all the perquisites of a saint: and he puts them to most inappropriate uses. For I must tell you—”
“Come, Monseigneur St. Michael,” observed Hoprig, waving toward Melior’s back, where she was comforting the mewing baby without the least attention to anything else,—“come, let us remember that a lady is present.”
“And for that matter, upon how many nights since you began going about earth—But I shall say no more upon a topic so painful. It is sufficient to state that the entire affair is most unsettling, and has displeased those high in authority. The Church has canonized you, and we have of course to stand by the Church, with which our relations have for some while been, in the main, quite friendly. I do not deny that if anything could have been done about you, just quietly—But we find the Church has provided no method whatever for removing saints from the Calendar—”