188 The Little Bedesman of Christ

lay listening he was aware that the sound
kept coming and going; and how could it
have been otherwise? for it was the lute-
playing of an Angel, far away, walking in
Paradise.

Sweet new songs he made in the language
of the common people, folk of field and
mountain, muleteers and vine-dressers, wood-
men and hunters, so that they in turn might
be light of heart amid their toil and sorrow.
One great hymn he composed, and of that I
will speak later; but indeed all his sayings
and sermons were a sort of divine song, and
when he sent his companions from one vil-
lage to another he bade them say: “‘ We are
God’s gleemen. For song and sermon we
ask largesse, and our largesse shall be that
you persevere in sorrow for your sins.”

Seeing that ladies of the world, great and
beautiful, took pleasure in the songs of the
troubadours sung at twilight. under their
windows, he charged all the churches of his
Order that at fall of day the bells should
be rung to recall the greeting with which
Gabriel the Angel saluted the Virgin Mother
of the Lord: “ Hail, full of grace, the Lord
is with thee, blessed art thou among women.”