’Thus by precept, by trope and flower of speech, I gaufred the edges of my discourse; then turning eastward with a cry, I grasped the pulpit firmly with one hand, the while I raised the other.  Sorrow, I said, is more enduring than the pride of life, my lords, and to renounce than to heap riches.  Behold the King of Sorrows!  Behold the Man beggared!  Ai, ai, my lords! is there to be no end to His sorrows, or shall He be stripped for ever?  Yesterday He put off life itself, and to-day ye bid Him do away with the price of life.  Yesterday He hung upon the Tree; and to-day ye hear it said, Down with the Tree; let Mahomet kindle his hearth with it.  Let us be done, say you, with dead Lords and wooden stocks:  we are kings, and our stocks golden.  It is well said, my lords, after the fashion this world holds honourable.  But I ask, did Job fear God for nought?  But I say, consider the Maccabees.  All your broad lands are not worth the rent of that little garden enclosed, where among ranked lilies sat Mary singing, God rest Thee, babe, I am Thy mother and daughter.  You wag the head and an enemy dieth.  You say, Come up, and some wretch getteth title to make others wretched.  But no power of life and member, no fountain of earthly honour, no great breath nor acclamation of trumpets, nor bearing of swords naked, nor chrism, nor broad seal, nor homage, nor fealty done, is worth that doom of the Lord to a man; saying, I was naked (Christ is naked!) and ye clothed Me; I was anhungered (Christ is hungry!) and ye gave Me meat; I was in prison (so is Christ!) and ye visited Me.  Therefore again I say unto you, Kings, by the spirit of the Lord which is in me, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.  Awake, do on your panoplies, shake your sceptres over the armied earth!  So Hierusalem, that bride among brides, that exalted virgin, that elect lady crowned with stars, shall sit no longer wasted in the brothel of the heathen:  Amen!

’I said; and a great silence fell on all the length and breadth of the church.  King Richard sat up stiff as a tree, staring at the Holy Rood as though he had a vision of something at work.  King Philip of France, moody, was watching his greater brother.  Count John of Mortain had his head sunk to his breast-bone, his thin hands not at rest, but one finger picking ever at another.  Even the Duke of Burgundy, the burly eater, was moved, as could be seen by the working of his cheek-bones.  Two nuns were carried out for dead.  All this I saw between my hands as I knelt in prayer.  But much more I saw:  it seems that I had called down testimony from on high.  I saw Countess Jehane, half-risen from her seat, white in the face, open-mouthed, gaping at the Cross.  “Saviour, the Rood! the Rood!” she cried out, choking, then fell back and lay quite still.  Many rose to their feet, some dropped to their knees; all looked.

’We saw the great painted Christ on the Rood stoop His head forward thrice.  At the first and second times, amid cries of wonder, men looked to see whither He bent His head.  But at the third time all with one consent fell upon their faces, except only Richard King of England.  He, indeed, rose up and stood to his full height.  I saw his blue eyes shine like sapphires as he began to speak to the Christ.  Though he spoke measuredly and low, you could mark the exultation singing behind his tones.