The Hermit and the Wild Woman | Page 6

took a vow that he would not look upon the lauds till
he lay dying.
So the Hermit, for many years, lived to the glory of God and in great
peace of mind.

II

ONE day he resolved to set forth on a visit to the Saint of the Rock,
who lived on the other side of the mountains. Travellers had brought
the Hermit report of this solitary, how he lived in great holiness and
austerity in a desert place among the hills, where snow lay all winter,
and in summer the sun beat down cruelly. The Saint, it appeared, had
vowed that he would withdraw from the world to a spot where there

was neither shade nor water, lest he should be tempted to take his ease
and think less continually upon his Maker; but wherever he went he
found a spreading tree or a gushing spring, till at last he climbed up to
the bare heights where nothing grows, and where the only water comes
from the melting of the snow in spring. Here he found a tall rock rising
from the ground, and in it he scooped a hollow with his own hands,
labouring for five years and wearing his fingers to the bone. Then he
seated himself in the hollow, which faced the west, so that in winter he
should have small warmth of the sun and in summer be consumed by it;
and there he had sat without moving for years beyond number.
The Hermit was greatly drawn by the tale of such austerities, which in
his humility he did not dream of emulating, but desired, for his soul's
good, to contemplate and praise; so one day he bound sandals to his
feet, cut an alder staff from the stream, and set out to visit the Saint of
the Rock.
It was the pleasant spring season, when seeds are shooting and the bud
is on the tree. The Hermit was troubled at the thought of leaving his
plants without water, but he could not travel in winter by reason of the
snows, and in summer he feared the garden would suffer even more
from his absence. So he set out, praying that rain might fall while he
was away, and hoping to return again in five days. The peasants
labouring in the fields left their work to ask his blessing; and they
would even have followed him in great numbers had he not told them
that he was bound on a pilgrimage to the Saint of the Rock, and that it
behoved him to go alone, as one solitary seeking another. So they
respected his wish, and he went on and entered the forest. In the forest
he walked for two days and slept for two nights. He heard the wolves
crying, and foxes rustling in the covert, and once, at twilight, a shaggy
brown man peered at him through the leaves and galloped away with a
soft padding of hoofs; but the Hermit feared neither wild beasts nor
evil-doers, nor even the fauns and satyrs who linger in unhallowed
forest depths where the Cross has not been raised; for he said: "If I die,
I die to the glory of God, and if I live it must be to the same end." Only
he felt a secret pang at the thought that he might die without seeing his
lauds again. But the third day, without misadventure, he came out on
another valley.
Then he began to climb the mountain, first through brown woods of

beech and oak, then through pine and broom, and then across red stony
ledges where only a pinched growth of lentisk and briar spread in
patches over the rock. By this time he thought to have reached his goal,
but for two more days he fared on through the same scene, with the sky
close over him and the green valleys of earth receding far below.
Sometimes for hours he saw only the red glistering slopes tufted with
thin bushes, and the hard blue heaven so close that it seemed his hand
could touch it; then at a turn of the path the rocks rolled apart, the eye
plunged down a long pine-clad defile, and beyond it the forest flowed
in mighty undulations to a plain shining with cities and another
mountain-range many days' journey away. To some eyes this would
have been a terrible spectacle, reminding the wayfarer of his
remoteness from his kind, and of the perils which lurk in waste places
and the weakness of man against them; but the Hermit was so mated to
solitude, and felt such love for all things created, that to him the bare
rocks sang of their Maker and the vast distance bore witness to His
greatness. So His servant journeyed