“It is late, and we have not yet heard Mass, and it is Sunday, and we cannot very well go without a shirt. What is to be done?”
“By my oath!” said the host, “I know of nothing better than to lend you each one of my shirts, such as they are. They are not as good as yours, but they are clean, and there is nothing better to be done.”
They were obliged to take their host’s shirts which were too short and too small, and made of hard, rough linen, and God knows they were a pretty sight in them.
They were soon ready, thank God, but it was so late that they did not know where they could hear Mass. Then said Montbleru, in his familiar way,
“As for hearing Mass, it is too late to-day; but I know a church in this town where at least, we shall not fail to see God.”
“That is better than nothing,” said the worthy lords. “Come, come! let us get away, for it is very late, and to lose our shirts, and not to hear Mass to-day would be a double misfortune; and it is time we went to church if we want to hear Mass.”
Montbleru took them to the principal church in Antwerp, where there is a God on an ass (*).
(*) A picture or bas-relief, representing Christ’s entry
into Jerusalem, is probably meant.
When they had each said a paternoster, they said to Montbleru, “Where shall we see God?”
“I will show you,” he replied. Then he showed them God mounted on an ass, and added, “You will never fail to find Him here at whatever hour you come.”