Which he in no wise may escape” (commanded God the Father).
To whom Death replied that he would run the world over and search for all who lived “out of God’s laws.”
“Lo, yonder I see Everyman walking! (he exclaimed suddenly)—
Full little he thinketh on my coming.”
And indeed it seemed as though the slim and handsome youth who at that moment came from one of the houses in the courtyard had never thought seriously of anything. Careless and light-hearted, beautifully dressed, and playing on a lute as he walked, he was thinking only of amusement and gaiety, when, as he reached the platform, he was suddenly confronted with Death.
“Everyman, stand still! (commanded the mighty messenger).
Whither art thou going
Thus gaily? Hast thou thy Master forgot?”
At these words poor Everyman trembled and hesitated, and Death went on to say that he had been sent to him in great haste “from God out of His Majesty” to tell him he was bidden to take a long journey and to bring with him his book of reckoning, to answer before God for all his deeds in this, his present life. In vain Everyman begged for a delay.
“O Death” (he cried), “thou comest when I had thee least in mind!