had made:  then I say to myself, Good Milo, how wouldst thou have received thy calling to be king and sovereign count?  Wouldst thou have said, as Count John said, “Lord Christ, Alain, what shall we do?” Or rather, “God have mercy, I am very wicked.”  It is true that Count John was not called to those estates, and that King Richard was.  But I choose sooner to think that each was confronted with his dead father, and not the emptied throne.  In which case Count John thought of his safety and King Richard of his sin.  Such musing is a windy business, suitable to old men.  But I suppose that you who read are very young.’

CHAPTER XIII.

HOW THEY MET AT FONTEVRAULT

Communing with himself as he rode alone over the broomy downs, King Richard reined up shortly and sent back a messenger for Milo the Abbot; so Milo flogged his old mule.  Directly he was level with his master, that master spoke in a quiet voice, like one who is prepared for the worst:  ’Milo, what should a man do who has slain his own father?  Is repentance possible for such a one?’

Milo looked up first at the blue sky, then about at the earth, all green and gold.  He wrinkled close his eyes and let the sun play upon his face.  The air was soft, the turf springy underfoot.  He found it good to be there.  ‘Sire,’ he said, ’it is a hard matter; yet there have been worse griefs than that in the world.’

‘Name one, my friend,’ says the King, whose eyes were fixed on the edge of the hill.

Milo said, ’There was a Father, my lord King Richard, who slew His own Son that the world might be the better.  That was a terrible grief, I suppose.’  The King was silent for a few paces; then he asked—­

‘And was the world much the better?’

‘Beau sire,’ replied Milo, ’not very much.  But that was not God’s fault; for it had, and still has, the chance of being the better for it.’

‘And do you dare, Milo,’ said the King, turning him a stern face, ’set my horrible offence beside the Divine Sacrifice?’

‘Not so, my lord King,’ said Milo at large; ’but I draw this distinction.  You are not so guilty as you suppose; for in this world the father maketh the son, both in the way of nature and of precept.  In heaven it is otherwise.  There the Son was from the beginning, co-eternal with the Father, begotten but not made.  In the divine case there was pure sacrifice, and no guilt at all.  In the earthly case there was much guilt, but as yet no sacrifice.’

‘That guilt was mine, Milo,’ said Richard with a sob.

‘Lord, I think not,’ answered the old priest.  ’You are what your fathers have made you.  But now mark me well:  in doing sacrifice you can be very greatly otherwise.  Then if no more guilt be upon you than hangs by the misfortunes of tainted man, you can please Almighty God by doing what you only among men can do, wholesome sacrifice.’