CHAPTER XV.

A hermit’s tale.

The next day he discovered on his excursions plenty of eatable berries on the bushes; and now that he had no longer fear of hunger he resolved to stay for some little time, until his wounds, which had festered badly, had recovered, before making an attempt to rejoin the Christian army.

One day when employed in gathering berries he was surprised by meeting a wild-looking figure, who appeared suddenly from one of the caves.  It was that of a very old man, with an extremely long white beard flowing to his waist; his hair, which was utterly unkempt, fell to the same point.  He was thin to an extraordinary extent, and Cuthbert wondered how a man could have been reduced to such a state of starvation, with so plentiful a supply of fruit and berries at hand.

The old man looked at Cuthbert attentively, and then made the sign of the cross.  Cuthbert gave a cry of joy, and repeated the sign.  The old man at once came down from his cavern, and looked at him with surprise and astonishment, and then addressed him in the French language.

“Are you a Christian truly; and if so, whence do you come?”

Cuthbert at once explained that he had been taken prisoner when with King Richard’s army, and had effected his escape.  He also told the old man that he had been remaining for the last four days in a cave higher up the stream.  The hermit—­for he was one—­beckoned him to follow him, and Cuthbert found himself in a cave precisely similar to that which he himself inhabited.  There were no signs of comfort of any kind; a bed-place made of great stones stood in one corner, and Cuthbert, remembering the comforts of his own grassy couch, shuddered at the thought of the intense discomfort of such a sleeping-place.  In another corner was an altar, upon which stood a rough crucifix, before which the hermit knelt at once in prayer, Cuthbert following his example.  Rising again, the hermit motioned to him to sit down, and then began a conversation with him.

It was so long since the hermit had spoken to any living being that he had almost lost the use of his tongue, and his sentences were slow and ill-formed.  However, Cuthbert was able to understand him, and he to gather the drift of what Cuthbert told him.  The old man then showed him that by touching a stone in the corner of his cave the apparently solid rock opened, and revealed an entrance into an inner cave, which was lit by a ray of light which penetrated from above.

“This,” he said, “was made centuries ago, and was intended as a refuge from the persecutors of that day.  The caves were then almost all inhabited by hermits, and although many recked not of their lives, and were quite ready to meet death through the knife of the infidel, others clung to existence, and preferred to pass many years of penance on earth for the sake of atoning for their sins before called upon to appear