was little, since, forsooth, to strive was my pleasure and my life.

"So I became a man once more, and I rose up to my feet and went up and
down my prison what I could for my hopples, and into my mouth came
words of good cheer, even such as we to-day have sung, and stoutly I
sang them, even as we now have sung them; and then did I rest me, and
once more thought of those pleasant fields where I would be, and all
the life of man and beast about them, and I said to myself that I
should see them once more before I died, if but once it were.

"Forsooth, this was strange, that whereas before I longed for them and
yet saw them not, now that my longing was slaked my vision was
cleared, and I saw them as though the prison walls opened to me and I
was out of Canterbury street and amidst the green meadows of April;
and therewithal along with me folk that I have known and who are dead,
and folk that are living; yea, and all those of the Fellowship on
earth and in heaven; yea, and all that are here this day. Overlong
were the tale to tell of them, and of the time that is gone.

"So thenceforward I wore through the days with no such faint heart,
until one day the prison opened verily and in the daylight, and there
were ye, my fellows, in the door--your faces glad, your hearts light
with hope, and your hands heavy with wrath; then I saw and understood
what was to do. Now, therefore, do ye understand it!"

His voice was changed, and grew louder than loud now, as he cast his
hands abroad towards that company with those last words of his; and I
could feel that all shame and fear was falling from those men, and
that mere fiery manhood was shining through their wonted English
shamefast stubbornness, and that they were moved indeed and saw the