For the Faith by Evelyn Everett-Green
page 31 of 272 (11%)
page 31 of 272 (11%)
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take in the future, yonder spectacle would have been enough!"
For many hours he wandered through the streets and lanes of the city, so intent on his own thoughts that he scarce noted the buildings and fine sights he passed by. But his feet brought him back to the spot of the morning's pageant, and towards evening he found himself looking upon the ashes of what had been the books brought with so much risk by the Hanse merchants and the Stillyard men, and so eagerly desired by the poorer people of the city. All the platforms had been removed. The crucifix no longer glittered overhead, the doors of the cathedral were shut, and none of the pomp of the morning could be seen here now. But several humble persons were raking amid the ashes where the books had been burnt, as though to see whether some poor fragments might not have been left unconsumed; and when they failed to find even this--for others had been before them, and the task of burning had probably been well accomplished--they would put a handful of ashes into some small receptacle, and slip it cautiously into pocket or pouch. One man, seeing Dalaber's gaze fixed upon him, went up to him almost defiantly and said: "Are you spying upon us poor citizens, to whom is denied aught but the ashes of the bread of life?" Dalaber looked him full in the face, and spoke the words he had heard from Clarke's lips the previous evening: "Crede et manducasti." |
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