“If you are pursued, it will be safer for you to take up your abode here.  I am known to all the inhabitants of this country, who look upon me as mad, and respect me accordingly.  None ever interfere with me, or with the two or three other hermits, the remains of what was once almost an army, who now alone survive.  I can offer you no hospitality beyond that of a refuge; but there is water in the river below, fruits and berries in abundance on the shrubs.  What would you have more?”

Cuthbert accepted the invitation with thanks; for he thought that even at the worst the presence of this holy man would be a protection to him from any Arabs who might discover him.

For three or four days he resided with the hermit, who, although he stretched his long lean body upon the hard stones of his bed, and passed many hours of the night kneeling on the stone floor in front of his alter, yet had no objection to Cuthbert making himself as comfortable as he could under the circumstances.

At the end of the fourth day Cuthbert asked him how long he had been there, and how he came to take up his abode in so desolate and fearsome a place.  The hermit was silent for a time, and then said,—­

“It is long indeed since my thoughts have gone back to the day when I was of the world.  I know not whether it would not be a sin to recall them; but I will think the matter over to-night, and if it appears to me that you may derive good from my narrative, I will relate it to you to-morrow.”

The next day Cuthbert did not renew the request, leaving it to the hermit to speak should he think fit.  It was not until the evening that he alluded to the subject; and then taking his seat on a bank near the edge of the river, he motioned to Cuthbert to sit beside him, and began,—­

“My father was a peer of France, and I was brought up at the court.  Although it may seem strange to you, looking upon this withered frame, sixty-five years back I was as bold and comely a knight as rode in the train of the king, for I am now past ninety, and for sixty years I have resided here.  I was a favourite of the king’s, and he loaded me with wealth and honour.  He, too, was young, and I joined with him in the mad carousals and feastings of the court.  My father resided for the most part at one of his castles in the country, and I, an only son, was left much to myself.  I need not tell you that I was as wild and as wicked as all those around me; that I thought little of God, and feared neither Him nor man.

“It chanced that one of the nobles—­I need not mention his name—­whose castle lay in the same province as that of my father, had a lovely daughter, who, being an only child, would be his heiress.  She was considered one of the best matches in France, and reports of her exceeding beauty had reached the court.  Although my allowance from my father, and from the estates which the king had give me personally, should have been more than enough for my utmost wants, gambling and riotous living swallowed up my revenue faster than it came in, and I was constantly harassed by debt.