Babylon of Blessed John's Vision--with a few holy ones who would
surely be caught up ere judgment fell, amongst them Sir John and
Lady Eleanor.

A good knight and a God-fearing man was Sir John, tender to his
children, gentle with his people, a faithful servant to God and
King Edward; shrewd withal, and an apt reader of men. Therefore,
and because of the love he bore to Prior Stephen, he set Hilarius
to attend his eldest daughter, who seemed to belong as little to
this world as the lad himself; and felt that in so doing he had
achieved the best possible for his old friend, according to his
asking.

Hilarius for his part served the Lady Eleanor as an acolyte tends
the chapel of a saint, only she was further removed from him than a
saint, by reason of her pale humanity. He soon perceived, as he
watched her at banquet, tourney, or pageant, that she went to a
revel as to the Sacrament, and sat at a mummers' show with eyes
fixed on the Unseen. She moved through the gay vivid world of
Court gallants and joyous maidens like a shadow, and the rout grew
graver at her coming.

It was much the same with her lover, Guy de Steyning--brother of
that Hugh de Steyning men wot of as Brother Ambrosius--a gentle
knight with mild blue eyes, a peaked red beard, and great fervour
for heavenly things. The pair liked one another well; but their
time was taken up with preparation for Paradise rather than with
earthly business, and their speech lent itself more readily to
devout phrases than to lovers' vows. It was small wonder,
therefore, that another year saw them both by glad consent in the