Brother Paul, master of the novices and the boys, who veryrarely laid a hand upon his pupils, and certainly only when theyhad well deserved it, smiled and held his peace.

“In too much mercy is too little kindness,”pronounced Jerome, conscious of his own eloquence, and mindful ofhis reputation as a preacher. “The Rule itself decrees thatwhere the child offends he must be beaten, and these folk of theForegate, what are they but children?”

They were called by the bell to Compline at that moment, but inany case it was unlikely that any of them would have troubled toargue with Jerome, whose much noise and small effect hardlychallenged notice. No doubt he would preach stern sermons at theparish Mass, on the two days allotted to him, but there would bevery few of the regular attenders there to listen to him, and eventhose who did attend would let his homily in at one ear and out atthe other, knowing his office here could last but a few days.

For all that, Cadfael went to his bed that night verythoughtful, and though he heard a few whispered exchanges in thedortoir, himself kept silence, mindful of the rule that the wordsof Compline, the completion, the perfecting of the day’sworship, should be the last words uttered before sleep, that themind should not be distracted from the ‘OpusDei’. Nor was it. For the words lingered with himbetween sleep and waking, the same words over and over, faintlyreturning. By chance the psalm was the sixth. He took it with himinto slumber.

“Domine, ne in furore—O Lord, rebuke me notin thine anger, neither chasten me in thy displeasure… Havemercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak…”

Chapter Two