"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.
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