But Master Richard did not cry out for mercy. And I hold that he passed
this first trial bravely.




Of the Second Temptation of Master Richard: and how he overcame it


_Exacuerunt ut gladium linguas suas: interderunt arcum rem amaram: ut
sagittent in occultis immaculatum._

They have whetted their tongues like a sword: they have bent their bow a
bitter thing, to shoot in secret the undefiled.--_Ps. lxiii, 4, 5._


X


As Master Richard had striven to serve God in the trinity of his nature,
so was he to be tried in the trinity of his nature. It was first in his
body that he was tempted, by pain and the fear of it; and his second
trial came later in the same day--which was in his mind.

He lay abed that morning till his dinner was brought to him, knowing
sometimes what passed--how a rat came out and looked on him awhile,
moving its whiskers; how the patch of sunlight upon the wall darkened
and passed; and how a bee came in and hummed a great while in the room;
and sometimes conscious of nothing but his own soul. He could make no