What danger
awaits us, reverend father? and when stood the power of England
so low that the noisy bluster of this new-made Duke's displeasure
should alarm her or her monarch?"
"I have looked forth from my mountain turret upon the starry host
of heaven, as each in his midnight circuit uttered wisdom to
another, and knowledge to the few who can understand their voice.
There sits an enemy in thy House of Life, Lord King, malign at
once to thy fame and thy prosperity--an emanation of Saturn,
menacing thee with instant and bloody peril, and which, but thou
yield thy proud will to the rule of thy duty, will presently
crush thee even in thy pride."
"Away, away--this is heathen science," said the King. "Christians
practise it not--wise men believe it not. Old man, thou dotest."
"I dote not, Richard," answered the hermit--"I am not so happy.
I know my condition, and that some portion of reason is yet
permitted me, not for my own use, but that of the Church and the
advancement of the Cross. I am the blind man who holds a torch
to others, though it yields no light to himself.
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