"
"I would have them live as others and do men's work in the world,
preaching by their lives rather than their words. I would have
them come forth from their lonely places, mix with the borel
folks, feel the pains and the pleasures, the cares and the
rewards, the temptings and the stirrings of the common people.
Let them toil and swinken, and labor, and plough the land, and
take wives to themselves----"
"Alas! alas!" cried Alleyne aghast, "you have surely sucked this
poison from the man Wicliffe, of whom I have heard such evil
things."
"Nay, I know him not. I have learned it by looking from my own
chamber window and marking these poor monks of the priory, their
weary life, their profitless round. I have asked myself if the
best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high
walls as though it were some savage creature. If the good will
lock themselves up, and if the wicked will still wander free,
then alas for the world!"
Alleyne looked at her in astonishment, for her cheek was flushed,
her eyes gleaming, and her whole pose full of eloquence and
conviction.
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