第25章 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL(12)

'Flee away,'said his Soul,'for ever doth the sea come nigher,and if thou tarriest it will slay thee.Flee away,for I am afraid,seeing that thy heart is closed against me by reason of the greatness of thy love.Flee away to a place of safety.Surely thou wilt not send me without a heart into another world?'

But the young Fisherman listened not to his Soul,but called on the little Mermaid and said,'Love is better than wisdom,and more precious than riches,and fairer than the feet of the daughters of men.The fires cannot destroy it,nor can the waters quench it.Icalled on thee at dawn,and thou didst not come to my call.The moon heard thy name,yet hadst thou no heed of me.For evilly had I left thee,and to my own hurt had I wandered away.Yet ever did thy love abide with me,and ever was it strong,nor did aught prevail against it,though I have looked upon evil and looked upon good.And now that thou art dead,surely I will die with thee also.'

And his Soul besought him to depart,but he would not,so great was his love.And the sea came nearer,and sought to cover him with its waves,and when he knew that the end was at hand he kissed with mad lips the cold lips of the Mermaid,and the heart that was within him brake.And as through the fulness of his love his heart did break,the Soul found an entrance and entered in,and was one with him even as before.And the sea covered the young Fisherman with its waves.

And in the morning the Priest went forth to bless the sea,for it had been troubled.And with him went the monks and the musicians,and the candle-bearers,and the swingers of censers,and a great company.

And when the Priest reached the shore he saw the young Fisherman lying drowned in the surf,and clasped in his arms was the body of the little Mermaid.And he drew back frowning,and having made the sign of the cross,he cried aloud and said,'I will not bless the sea nor anything that is in it.Accursed be the Sea-folk,and accursed be all they who traffic with them.And as for him who for love's sake forsook God,and so lieth here with his leman slain by God's judgment,take up his body and the body of his leman,and bury them in the corner of the Field of the Fullers,and set no mark above them,nor sign of any kind,that none may know the place of their resting.For accursed were they in their lives,and accursed shall they be in their deaths also.'

And the people did as he commanded them,and in the corner of the Field of the Fullers,where no sweet herbs grew,they dug a deep pit,and laid the dead things within it.

And when the third year was over,and on a day that was a holy day,the Priest went up to the chapel,that he might show to the people the wounds of the Lord,and speak to them about the wrath of God.

And when he had robed himself with his robes,and entered in and bowed himself before the altar,he saw that the altar was covered with strange flowers that never had been seen before.Strange were they to look at,and of curious beauty,and their beauty troubled him,and their odour was sweet in his nostrils.And he felt glad,and understood not why he was glad.

And after that he had opened the tabernacle,and incensed the monstrance that was in it,and shown the fair wafer to the people,and hid it again behind the veil of veils,he began to speak to the people,desiring to speak to them of the wrath of God.But the beauty of the white flowers troubled him,and their odour was sweet in his nostrils,and there came another word into his lips,and he spake not of the wrath of God,but of the God whose name is Love.

And why he so spake,he knew not.

And when he had finished his word the people wept,and the Priest went back to the sacristy,and his eyes were full of tears.And the deacons came in and began to unrobe him,and took from him the alb and the girdle,the maniple and the stole.And he stood as one in a dream.

And after that they had unrobed him,he looked at them and said,'What are the flowers that stand on the altar,and whence do they come?'

And they answered him,'What flowers they are we cannot tell,but they come from the corner of the Fullers'Field.'And the Priest trembled,and returned to his own house and prayed.

And in the morning,while it was still dawn,he went forth with the monks and the musicians,and the candle-bearers and the swingers of censers,and a great company,and came to the shore of the sea,and blessed the sea,and all the wild things that are in it.The Fauns also he blessed,and the little things that dance in the woodland,and the bright-eyed things that peer through the leaves.All the things in God's world he blessed,and the people were filled with joy and wonder.Yet never again in the corner of the Fullers'

Field grew flowers of any kind,but the field remained barren even as before.Nor came the Sea-folk into the bay as they had been wont to do,for they went to another part of the sea.