Retinue

“ While the master is hunting, or gathering together his retainers for the feast, the women are spinning or sewing, gossiping, confessing, or doing penance; while the priest studies in his apartment, shares in the mirth, or soothes the troubles of the household, and rules the mind of the noble by securing the confidence of his wife. Out of doors, there are the retainers, by whatever name they may be called. Their poor dwellings are crowded round the castle of the lord ”

“ I was about to say to the rector that he must prepare to follow me, when he himself spoke to me, pale and trembling like an aspen leaf. "Appearances are against me," he said, "but this is the work of the devil and his angels. There is One above who will bring my innocence to light. Come, judge, I will await my fate in fetters. Comfort my daughter. Remember that she is your betrothed bride." ”

“ When we lock the doors at the night time, we find them opened when we rise. Nay, more; thy wife and son will not keep away from the man any more than the rest of them." And when the king heard this, he went to look at the seals which he put to the doors. And he found the seals as they were, and said to the jailers, "Why are you telling lies? for certainly these seals are quite safe. And how do you say that Tertia and Mygdonia go within the prison?" And the wardens said, "We have told thee the truth."
163. And after this the king went to the house of judgment and sent for Judas. ”

“ The king came and saw the cradle coloured with the blood, and he cried out “where was the child gone?” and every one said it was the dog had eaten it.
The king said: “It is not: loose him, and he will get the pursuit himself.”
When I was loosed, I found the scent of the blood till I came to a door of the room in which the child was. I went to the king and took hold of him, and went back again and began to tear at the door. The king followed me and asked for the key. The servant said it was in the room of the stranger woman. ”

“ It was the custom of the Lazarists to expose their dead with the face uncovered. Louis XV. wished to try his equerry's firmness. 'You have lost your confessor, I hear,' said the King. 'Yes, Sire.'—'He will be exposed with his face bare?'—'Such is the custom.'—'I command you to go and see him.'—'Sire, my confessor was my friend; it would be very painful to me.'—'No matter; I command you.'—'Are you really in earnest, Sire?'—'Quite so.'—'It would be the first time in my life that I had disobeyed my sovereign's order. ”

“ Folks had said that the Rector, like many a man who marries late in life, had made an idol of his motherless boy, and they had said, again, that the father's heart was broken and the print of death was on his face as he stood by his child's open grave. ”

“ So he summoned the grandees of his realm and said to them, ‘There is come upon me a sore sickness, peradventure a mortal one, and I have therefore summoned you to consult you respecting a certain matter, on which I would have you counsel me as you deem well.’ ‘What is the matter of which thou wouldst take counsel with us, O King?’ asked they; and he answered, ‘I am old and sickly and I fear for the realm, after me, from the enemies ”

“ Thou errest, thou errest, my son, if it is another life that thou lookest for. Shall the disciple be above his master, and the servant greater than his Lord? Since, then, I have suffered in the flesh, arm thyself too with the same thought, and rather he glad than sorry if thou art deemed worthy to suffer reproach for my Name. ”

“ When the latest witnesses were telling their story, I noted the possible contradiction, and hoped it might prove a loophole of escape. But, alas, it was all only too true, and the guilt of the rector proven beyond a doubt. It was not at all impossible for a man to do such things in his sleep. Just as it was quite possible that a man with a fractured skull could run some distance before he fell to die. The rector's story bore the stamp of truth, although the doubt will come that he desired thus to save a shred of honor for his name. ”

“ I tell you fairly, that if flesh could be seen through, like a glass window, you might see every one’s soul at the inside of his body peeping out through the ribs, like the prisoners at the jail of Maryborough through their iron bars: and the moment the breath is out of a man or woman, the soul escapes and makes off to be dealt with as it deserves, and that’s the truth;—so say your beads and remember your clergy! ”

“ I would attend to the fellow no more than to that red-headed rector—every priest is a rector now—who often held my horse at his father's forge, when T happened to throw a shoe hunting,—and would half break his back bowing, if I handed him now and then a sixpence. ”

“ The king listened to what he said, and answered, "If you be able to perform what you promise, I will enrich you and your posterity. Do you assure me that you will cure my leprosy without potion, or applying any external medicine?" "Yes, Sire," replied the physician, "I promise myself success, through God's assistance, and to-morrow, with your majesty's permission, I will make the trial." ”

“ Inseparable from and a part of the spiritual beauty of this scene is the thought of the old blind rector, who is now custodian of the abbey and who still speaks lovingly of the beauty of the things he can no longer see. He has been there twenty-nine years, and through many of those years he has been going blind. Yet he told us cheerfully that he was greatly encouraged by our interest. “I never destroy anything that is old,” he said; “I stick to the old.” ”

“ In religious usage, a “retreat” is a period and place set apart for prayer, self-examination and other spiritual exercises. Such “retreats” conducted by a director have long been the practice in the Roman Church. They were introduced into the English Church by Pusey. The word is also used of an institution or home where insane persons or habitual inebriates may be treated. ”

“ Then the marshal, who was to be executed first, left his companions and placed himself in the hands of his executioners. He took off his cap, knelt, kissed a crucifix, and made a pious oration to the crowd much in the style of his address to his friends Pontou and Henriet.
[1] The case of the Sire de Retz is one to make us see the great danger there is in trusting to feelings in matters of religion. “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” said our Lord. How many hope to go to heaven because they have pious emotions! ”

“ I, Master John Hus, in chains and in prison, now standing on the shore of this present life and expecting on the morrow a dreadful death, which will, I hope, purge away my sins, find no heresy in myself, and accept with all my heart any truth whatsoever that is worthy of belief. ”

“ My father nursed a man's grudge against these well-meaning women chiefly on account of the crowdy suggestion so persistently thrust upon his farm labourers; the offensive word was so often on his lips that I have never forgotten it. He was always contrasting the existing régime with that of the late rector, who used to like to play whist and ride to hounds with him, and of whom I remember nothing but the fact of his death. My father and I, driving past the rectory gates, saw a gig slowly moving up and down before them. ”

“ A gentleman of the court of Charles XI., when leaving court, being asked by the emperor for what reason he was leaving, answered, that in order to be saved it is necessary that some interval should elapse between the time of repentance from a sinful life and the hour of death, so that a period of repentance may be passed through. ”

“ The real penitents, who show it by tears and fear and good works, after finishing their penance among the hearers, may, perhaps, take part among those that pray; and the bishop may show them even greater lenity."
13. That a dying penitent may receive the sacrament:
Communion at the Point of Death.
"Concerning those who die, the ancient and ecclesiastical law shall now be observed, that, if any one is about to expire, he may not be deprived of the viaticum of the Lord. ”

“ He soon fell a victim to the attacks of two or three priests, a petty king, and a procurator, and a few remarkable prodigies alone distinguished Him from a crowd of other existences which had nothing whatever to do with the destinies of humanity. ”

“ My brethren, until the seventy-first year of my age, which is the one in which I now am, with the exception of the little sins through which, all holy though he be, a Christian renders himself culpable before God, but which it is allowed to us to repurchase by penitence, I believe I led a Christian life, and merited the praise and renown bestowed upon me in this diocese, where I was raised to the high office of grand penitentiary, of which I am unworthy. ”

“ Lord Lovel desired a surgeon and a confessor.
“You shall have both,” said Sir Philip; “but you must first answer me a question or two. Did you kill your kinsman or not?”
“It was not my hand that killed him,” answered the wounded man. ”

“ Another class of men called retainers, who appear to have been of no small importance among our ancestors, were habited in a similar manner. They were a sort of servants, not residing in the master's house like other menial domestics, but attending occasionally for the purpose of ostentation, and retained by the annual donation of a livery consisting of a hat or hood, a badge, and a suit of clothes. ”

“ If the testimony of physicians is true as to the existence of intemperance among this class of working nuns, how can we wonder, any more than we should at the same weakness, if it were practicable, within the walls of a convent? ”

“ The testimony of the other witness also should be rejected, as he supposes this person to be his wife, who leads a quarrelsome life with him, and bears him great enmity; which is the truth.
12. The prisoner supposes that the cause of the misfortune in which he now finds himself, is, his having given his wife a good beating on the festival of the Resurrection, on which account she probably has directed her malice against him, and suborned the other witnesses; which is the truth. ”

“ For an instant he sat in petrified awe, as did all of us for that matter, so compelling was the pure beauty of the ancient relic; then he suddenly bent forward on his knees as if to prostrate himself. ”

“ The good father has only to say the word, and the princes of his race will pour a thousand crowns into his lap. And such a confessor, dame! the best in Rome. His head is leagues and leagues away all the while; he never heeds what you are saying. ”

“ Ella’s Suspicions. The formula of the oath fell upon my ears in a dull monotone, as mechanically I raised the Bible to my lips, afterwards replying to the Coroner’s formal questions regarding my name, address and occupation. The discovery I had made filled me with fierce, bitter hatred against my dead companion, and, dazed by the startling suddenness of the revelation, I stood like a man in a dream. ”

“ Take heed to this, ye who care not though a tyrant possess his throne, and as it were, spoil him from his princely robes; take heed to this, ye who stand, not to hold down his kingdom, by upholding his enemies.— 3dly, Ye must (if ye would enter into these chambers) close with all the inconveniences that follow him, his cross must be taken up, Luke ix. 23, 24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it. ”

“ While I was examining with some interest the hiding-place of these relics, the landlady entered.
"What are these?" I asked.
[Pg 248]
"Oh, signore!" she said, half sobbing as she spoke. "Those are relics of my poor husband. He was an artist like yourself, signore. He was—he was—ill, very ill—and in mind as well as body, signore. May the Blessed Virgin rest his soul! He hated the crucifix, he hated the scapular, he hated the priests. Signore, he—he died without the sacrament, and cursed the holy water. I have never dared to touch those relics, signore. ”

“ He rode on with a set and brooding face, and the Resident fell once more to pondering the queer scene of which he had been the witness. Even at that moment when his life was in the balance his thoughts would play with it, so complete a piece of artistry it seemed. ”

“ Though a description of the Retreat has surely no connection with the title of this article, yet in noticing some of the objects that beautify our city, we trust to be forgiven for introducing the beauty of that benevolence which is the glory of any people, and which in this instance devotes itself to the mitigation of one of the severest ills that can afflict humanity. ”

“ Somewhat fragile—a piece of delicate porcelain among the rough delf of this world—not able to endure much knocking about; fastidious, loving everything that was beautiful, and supporting with difficulty that which was not, the rector looked like a choice example of the very height of civilization and refinement. ”

“ CHAPTER XV REMEDIAL VIRTUES ASCRIBED TO RELICS
A relic has been defined as an object held in reverence or affection, because connected with some sacred or beloved person deceased. And specifically, in the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, a saint's body or portions of it, or an object supposed to have been associated with the life or body of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, or of some saint or martyr, and regarded therefore as a personal memorial, worthy of religious veneration. ”