When I reached the gate and had gone through it, I turned round again
towards the hut, ashamed of the terror that had lain on me as I walked
down, for I had walked like one in a nightmare, not daring to turn my
head.

And as I turned, for one instant I saw Master Richard himself, in his
brown kirtle and white sleeves standing at the door of his hut, with his
arms out as if to stretch himself, or else as our Saviour stretched them
on the rood. I could not observe his face, for in an instant he was
gone, before I had time to see him clearly, but I am sure that his face
was merry, for it was at this hour that he found his release before my
lord cardinal, and cried out, as you shall hear in the proper place.

I stood there a long while, stretching out my own hands and crying on
him by name, but there was no more to be seen but the hut and its open
door, and the may-trees on either side, and the wood behind, and the
yellow-flowered meadow before me, and no sound but the drone of the bees
and the running of the water. And I dared not go up again, or set foot
in the meadow.

* * * * *

So I went home again, and told no man, for I thought that the vision was
for myself alone, and as night fell the messenger came to bid me come to
town, and to deliver to me the letter from the old priest of whom I have
spoken.