the pit which he hath digged for thee! Happy art thou to have come to me
with this thing, elsewise a great mischief might have befallen thee. Now
listen to my words and do as I counsel thee. Have no more to do with
this devil; send him to me, or appoint with him another meeting and I
will go in thy stead."

"Nay, nay," cried the Friar Gonsol, "the saints forefend from thee the
evil temptation provided for my especial proving! I should have been
reckoned a weak and coward vessel were I to send thee in my stead to
bear the mortifications designed for the trying of my virtues."

"But thou art a younger brother than I," reasoned the Friar Francis
softly; "and, firm though thy resolution may be now, thou art more like
than I to be wheedled and bedazzled by these diabolical wiles and
artifices. So let me know where this devil abideth with the booke; I
burn to meet him and to wrest his treasure from his impious possession."

But the Friar Gonsol shook his head and would not hear unto this
vicarious sacrifice whereon the good Friar Francis had set his heart.

"Ah, I see that thou hast little faith in my strength to combat the
fiend," quoth the Friar Francis reproachfully. "Thy trust in me should
be greater, for I have done thee full many a kindly office; or, now I do
bethink me, thou art assorted on the booke! Unhappy brother, can it be
that thou dost covet this vain toy, this frivolous bauble, that thou
wouldst seek the devil's companionship anon to compound with Beelzelub?
I charge thee, Brother Gonsol, open thine eyes and see in what a
slippery place thou standest."

Now by these argumentations was the Friar Gonsol mightily confounded,