"Nay, my lord," he answered, "I will have it to-day and of my own."

Then he sprang up and ran to his smithy, and came back holding in his
hand a bar of iron that had been heating in the coals to make a shoe.
The end of it was glowing red.

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!" he
cried in a loud voice.

And as he spoke the words, he had laid the red-hot point to his breast
and had drawn it down and crosswise; and a little line of thin, white
smoke followed the hissing iron along the seared flesh. He threw the
bar down upon the threshold of his door and came to join the throng,
the strange smile on his rough face and the light of another world in
his fire-reddened eyes. But though the multitude sent up a great cry of
praise and wonder, yet Bernard shook his head gravely and walked on,
for he loved not any madness, not even a madness for good deeds, and
the light by which he saw was as steady and clear and true as a life-
long day.

Moreover, even while he had been speaking he had felt that fanatic
deeds were not far off, and a deep sadness had fallen upon him, because
he knew that true belief is the fulness of true wisdom and by no means
akin to any folly.

Therefore, when he was alone that night, he was very heavy-hearted, and
sat a long time by his square oak table in the light of the three-
cornered brazen lamp which, stood at his elbow. The principal chamber
of the presbytery was cross-vaulted and divided into two by a low round
arch supported on slender double columns with capitals fantastically