But they
were not small if to neglect them meant the eternity of torture that
awaited him who looked upon his neighbour's wife to covet her. There
were among the nobles who had taken the Cross not a few to whom the law
seemed less rigid and perdition less sure, and Eleanor herself gave her
sins gentle names; but the Englishman was old-fashioned, and even the
good Abbot of Sheering had been struck by his literal way of accepting
all beliefs, in the manner of a past time when the world had trembled
at the near certainty of the Last Judgment, expiating its misdeeds by
barefooted pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and its venial faults by cruel
macerations of the flesh.
Gilbert, therefore, looked upon all bodily weariness and suffering and
privation which he chanced to encounter on the march as so much penance
to be borne cheerfully because it should profit his soul; and while the
young blood coursed in his veins, and youth's bright lights danced in
his eyes, the cold spirit of the ascetic fought against the warm life
toward an end which the man felt rather than saw, and of which the
profound melancholy would have appalled him, could he have realized it.
As month followed month, though his strength increased upon him under
much labour, and though his cheeks were tanned by sunshine and weather,
the broad forehead grew whiter under his cap, and more thoughtful, and
his eyes were saddened and his features more spiritual; also, while he
longed daily to draw his sword and strike great blows at unbelievers
for faith's sake and to the honouring of the Holy Cross, the rough
fighting instinct of his people, that craved to see blood for its
redness and to take the world for love of holding it, no longer awoke
suddenly in him, like hunger or thirst, at the wayward call of
opportunity.
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