The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-03-13
CHAPTER v.

Reginald Hardelot found his brother
in the place to which the host had di-
rected him, st. Gregory's churchyard,
talking with the gaunt and dishevelled
old hermit who had built himself
roug'' shelter among the graves. They
parted with anger on the one side, ard
deep sorrow and agitation but no change
of purpose on the other.
Later in the day, when the sun had
gone down, and the mists were rising
from the valley of the Stour, and the
still water cleaned softly in the dim
light, as Ralph was walking in the
r7riars' meadow with the soothing
charm of the scene and hour upon him,
he was accosted by Simon d'Ypres.
The merchant spoke to him as travel
ing stranger; and looking round on the
quiet meadow with the priory on one
side, encircled by its high garden wall,
its roofs overhung and half hidden by
shadowy masses of foliage, hardly dis
tinguishable in the twilight, he re-
marked on the repose of the life of the
cloister, and thus led the young man
on to contrast with it the life of action,
and to speak out his own burning
thoughts, disclosing, with the fearless
frankness of an enthusiast, his imme-
diate aims and plans. When it ap-
peared that one of those plans was to
visit the great fair of Stourbridge,
where men would be gathered together
from all parts, the merchant proposed
that Ralph should ride with his party
to Cambridge on the following day.
Next morning, accordingly. Ralph
Hardelot joined the merchants party
as they rode out of Sudbury. He was
waiting for them on the wayside be-
yond the bridge, no longer in the russell
garb of the poor priest, but in the dress
of sober clerk of Oxford. 1t was
warm September day, with fine dry
ing wind, an ideal husbandman's day
for the threshing out and winnowing of
corn. The blithesome beat of fails,
and the hum and laughter Of busy
workmen, came from threshing floor
few fields off; and near at hand a
plowman, with loose rein flowing in the
wind, was shouting with joyful vigor to
his horses.
1t was a day and scene to inspire
young prophet, however deep his sense
of evils to be overcome, with certain
delight in active existence, in move
ment for movements sake; and Ralph
cantered up to meet the company of
merchants as soon as they came in
sight. Simon and his trusty lieuten-
ant Lawrence rode first, in high peaked
hats of soft felt, and gowns and man.
ties of good broadcloth, all of a brown
ish hue; Simon's fur trimmings and
the ornaments on the pouch at his Cir
die marking him out as the superior in
rank Behind them rumbled the cum
brous four horsed wagon, piled high
with bales bearing the name of the
owner and the mark of the custom
house. The WAGNER seated aloft
cracked his long whip, and his two as
sistants, who had dismounted to lead
the horses across the bridge, were
clambering up behind, to journey at
their ease on the top of the cargo. In
the rear rode two young men in long
hose and doublets, and round loaf
shaped hats, their cloaks strapped be-
fore them on their horses. They
laughed and talked together in the
manner of jolly apprentices out for a
holiday.
A more peaceful scene could not have
been conceived. 1t was vision of
happy and prosperous industry-nature
smiling on the labors of man and back
ing up his efforts with genial aid-Pro-
duction and Exchange vocal in the beat
of the fail and the rumble of the wag-
on, all sounding musical in the soft,
warm air. And yet that mysterious,
impalpable atmosphere, the common
thought of men, was charged with dan
gerous electricity. A mighty storm was
gathering that would shake every tim
Der in the framework of society. The
agents of revolution were abroad.
Among these agents must be reck-
oned the disciples of Wycliffe, of whom
Ralph Hardelot was one of the most
ardent and enterprising. Not that
Wycliffe was revolutionary in the sense
that he counselled the poor to rise in
armed rebellion against the rich He
had no quarrel with the feudal system
except that lords and knights did not
live up to the strict conception of their
duty in the commonwealth, which was
to prevent wrongdoing and protect la
boring men in the exercise of their in
dustry, guarding them against fraud
and robbery, against the subtleties of
knaves and the oppression of strong
handed enemies, foreign and domestic.
His aims were not directly political.
1t was religious reformation that he