Before that any could speak or hinder, Master Richard was on his knees by the King, and had laid his lips to the white right-hand, seeing as he did so the red ring on the first finger.  My lord cardinal sprang forward to tear him off, but the King turned his stony eyes; and my lord fell back.

Then Master Richard knew that he had not given the whole message; and that our Lord had not intended it at first.  The message of the passion and death was to be first; and the second, second—­first the wound, and then the balm.

So he began to speak; and these were the words as he told them to me.

“My lord King,” he said, “Our Lord does not leave us comfortless when He sends us sorrow.  This is a great honour, greater than the crown that you bear, to bear the crown of thorns.  That bitter passion of Christ that He bore for our salvation is wrought out in the Body which is His Church, and especially in those members, which, like His sacred hands and feet, receive the nails into themselves.  Happy are those members that receive the nails; they are the more honourable; it was on His feet that He went about to do good; and with His hands that He healed and blessed and gave His precious body; and with His burning heart that He loves us.

“My lord King; men will name you fool and madman and crowned calf; it is to their shame that they do so, and to your honour.  For so they named our Saviour.  All who set not their minds on this world are accounted fools; but who will be the merrier in the world that is to come?

“And, last, our Lord has bestowed on your highness an honour that He bestows upon few, but which Himself suffered; and that, the knowledge of what is to be.  In this manner the passion is borne a thousand times a day, by foreknowledge; and for every such pain there is a joy awarded.  It is for this reason that you may bear yourself rightly, and that He may crown you more richly that our Lord has sent me to you, and bidden me tell you this.”

* * * * *

All this while Master Richard was looking upon the King’s face, but there was no alteration in his aspect.  It was as the colour of ashes, and his eyes like stone; and yet Master Richard knew very well that his grace heard what was said, but could not answer it. (It was so with him often afterwards:  he would sit thus without speaking or answering what was said to him:  he would go thus to mass and dinner and to bed, as pale as a spirit:  he would even ride thus among his army, with his crown on his head, and his sword in his hand, dumb but not deaf; and looking upon what others could not see:  and all, as those about him knew very well, began from the hearing of the message that Master Richard Raynal brought to him from God’s Majesty).