the Lost Brother 243

be it; but if he longs for rest, this shall be
the place of his rest until the end. And if
these things cannot be now, then let them be
when they may be.”

And Bede went on his long wayfaring and
found the Lost Brother, a man happy and of
fair fame, and blessed with wife and child.
And the monk sat with the little maid on his
knee, and even while he prayed for her and
her father, he understood how it might be
that the man was well content, and how that
neither to-day nor to-morrow could he re-
turn to that old life of the Priory in the forest.

“ Yet,” said he, “ tell the Prior that surely
some day I shall see his face again, if it be
but for mere love of him; for well I know
there be among the monks those who would
more joyfully rend me or burn me at the
stake than give the hand of fellowship to one
who has cast aside the cowl.”

When he heard of these things the Prior
only prayed the more earnestly for the home-
coming of his friend.

Now it was in the autumn of that year, at
the season when the days and nights are of
one length, that the great inroad of the sea