The Miracle at St. Bruno's

He could talk knowledgeably with my father of the crops and the animals. He found such joy in the newborn creatures and he liked to share that excitement with others, particularly me. I remember his taking me out to see a recently born foal and pointing out the grace of the creature. Animals knew him and were his friends as soon as they saw him; he had that special gift. He could shear a sheep with greater skill than the shearers; and he always knew the precise moment to start to cut the corn. He could predict the weather and smell rain a day or so off. My father said he was a true man of the soil.

Haymaking was a happy time; then we would all go into the fields, even Kate rather grudgingly, and then she would begin to enjoy it when the home-brewed ale was brought around and when we rode in on the hay cart. The harvest was the best time though; and when it had been bound and cocked and the poor had finished their gleaning there would be a merry harvest supper. From the kitchens all that day would have come the smell of roasting goose and baking pies. My mother would fill the house with flowers and there would be general excitement everywhere. Kate and I would hang up the miniature corn sheaves which would be kept all through the year to bring good luck to the next harvest. Then we would dance and Kate would come into her own; but my father always liked Rupert to take me out to the floor and open the harvest ball.

At this time conversation seemed to center about the King's marriage with Anne Boleyn.

He had put away Queen Katharine who had gone to Ampthill. Bruno used to tell us a great deal more than we learned elsewhere because visiting friars brought news to the Abbey.

One day as we sat on the grass keeping within the shelter of the bushes lest we should be seen, we talked about the poor sad Queen and he and Kate were once more in conflict.

"Queen Katharine was a saint," said Bruno; and he went on to describe her sufferings.

I loved to watch him as he talked. His face seemed to me so beautiful; his profile was clear-cut, proud and yet innocent in a way; and the manner in which his hair curled about his head reminded me of the pictures I had seen of Greek heroes. He was tall and slender; and I believe now that what I found so attractive was that blending of saintliness and paganism and the manner in which he changed from being a boy, fallible and quarrelsome, into a superior being who looked down on Kate and me from heights which we could never hope to reach. I believe Kate felt this too although she would not admit it and fought against it. To be with Bruno was so different from being with Rupert. My cousin was so gentle, so careful of me that sometimes I thought he regarded me as one of his newborn foals or lambs. I enjoyed being cherished, I always had; but when I was in the presence of Bruno an exultation took possession of me; and I was excited as I could never be in the company of any other person. I knew that Kate shared this feeling with me because she never lost an opportunity of trying to score over him, as though she must convince herself, as well as us, of her superiority.

Now because Bruno talked so sympathetically of Queen Katharine she retorted that the Queen was old and plain. It was said that she had no right to be Queen and that Anne Boleyn with her Frenchified ways and her beautiful clothes was as fascinating as a siren.

"She is a siren who has lured the King to dishonor with her singing," said Bruno.

Kate had no use for metaphor and she was bored with old legends. Whenever she talked of Anne Boleyn her eyes danced and I knew she imagined herself in her place. How she would have enjoyed it! To have had the eyes of everyone upon her; she would have reveled in the admiration and the envy. The jewels and the flattery would have delighted her and she would have snapped her fingers at those who showed their hatred of her.

"And the true Queen," insisted Bruno, "reproves her women when they curse Anne Boleyn.

'Pray for her,' she says. 'Lament her case for the time is coming when she will need your prayers.' “

"She'll not need their prayers," cried Kate. "She is Queen in truth though there are many to say she is not.”

"How can she be Queen when we have a Queen already?”

"You speak treason, Holy Child," said Kate with a sneer. "Take care I do not inform on you.”

"Would you do that?" he asked intently.

She smiled at him slyly. "You don't believe I would? Well, I shan't tell you. I shall keep you guessing.”

"Then since we are unsure we should not speak of these things to you," I ventured.

"Hold your tongue, Silly Child." She had made that my title when she was angry with me, just as he was Holy Child. The terms expressed her exasperation or her desire to mock. "You will hide nothing from me.”

"We do not want to be informed against," I said.

"He is safe," she said pointing a finger at Bruno. "If anyone tried to harm him the whole countryside would be in arms. Besides he only has to work a miracle.”