98 The Seven Years of Seeking

Abbey was most delightful, and so sheltered
from the weary wind of the west, and so open
to the radiance of the morning, that, save it
were Paradise, no man could come at a place
so gracious and delectable. There earliest
broke the land into leaf and blossom; and
there the leaf was last to fall; and there one
could not die, not even the very aged.
Wherefore, in order that the long years
of their pilgrimage might be shortened, the
brethren prevailed on the Abbot to remove
to another site, nearer the spring of the day;
and in this new house, one by one in due
season, they were caught up to the repose
of the heavens, the aged fathers dying first,
as is seemly..

This then was the second Abbey of the
Holy Face, and its pleasant woods ran down
to the shore of the sea. And going east or
going west, where the green billow shades
into blue water, the ships of the mariners
kept passing and repassing day after day;
and their sails seemed to cast an enchanted
shadow across the cloister ; and the monks,
as they watched them leaning over to the
breeze, dreamed of the wondrous Garden of

Eden, which had not been swallowed up by