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Title: The White Ladies of Worcester A Romance of the Twelfth Century

Author: Florence L. Barclay

Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16368]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHITE LADIES OF WORCESTER ***

Produced by Al Haines

The White Ladies of Worcester

A Romance of the Twelfth Century

by

Florence L. Barclay

Author of "The Rosary," "The Mistress of Shenstone," etc.

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York and London

The Knickerbocker Press

1917

COPYRIGHT, 1917

BY

FLORENCE L. BARCLAY

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

TO

FAITHFUL HEARTS

ALL THE WORLD OVER

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

       I. THE SUBTERRANEAN WAY
      II. SISTER MARY ANTONY DISCOURSES
     III. THE PRIORESS PASSES
      IV. "GIVE ME TENDERNESS," SHE SAID
       V. THE WAYWARD NUN
      VI. THE KNIGHT OF THE BLOODY VEST
     VII. THE MADONNA IN THE CLOISTER
    VIII. ON THE WINGS OF THE STORM
      IX. THE PRIORESS SHUTS THE DOOR
       X. "I KNOW YOU FOR A MAN"
      XI. THE YEARS ROLL BACK
     XII. ALAS, THE PITY OF IT!
    XIII. "SEND HER TO ME!"
     XIV. FAREWELL HERE, AND NOW
      XV. "SHARPEN THE WITS OF MARY ANTONY"
     XVI. THE ECHO OF WILD VOICES
    XVII. THE DIMNESS OF MARY ANTONY
   XVIII. IN THE CATHEDRAL CRYPT
     XIX. THE BISHOP PUTS ON HIS BIRETTA
      XX. HOLLY AND MISTLETOE
     XXI. SO MUCH FOR SERAPHINE
    XXII. WHAT BROTHER PHILIP HAD TO TELL
   XXIII. THE MIDNIGHT ARRIVAL
    XXIV. THE POPE'S MANDATE
     XXV. MARY ANTONY RECEIVES THE BISHOP
    XXVI. LOVE NEVER FAILETH
   XXVII. THE WOMAN AND HER CONSCIENCE
  XXVIII. THE WHITE STONE
    XXIX. THE VISION OF MARY ANTONY
     XXX. THE HARDER PART
    XXXI. THE CALL OF THE CURLEW
   XXXII. A GREAT RECOVERY AND RESTORATION
  XXXIII. MARY ANTONY HOLDS THE PORT
   XXXIV. MORA DE NORELLE
    XXXV. IN THE ARBOUR OF GOLDEN ROSES
   XXXVI. STRONG TO ACT; ABLE TO ENDURE
  XXXVII. WHAT MOTHER SUB-PRIORESS KNEW
 XXXVIII. THE BISHOP KEEPS VIGIL
   XXXIX. THE "SPLENDID KNIGHT"
      XL. THE HEART OF A NUN
     XLI. WHAT THE BISHOP REMEMBERED
    XLII. THE WARNING
   XLIII. MORA MOUNTS TO THE BATTLEMENTS
    XLIV. "I LOVE THEE"
     XLV. THE SONG OF THE THRUSH
    XLVI. "HOW SHALL I LET THEE GO?"
   XLVII. THE BISHOP is TAKEN UNAWARES
  XLVIII. A STRANGE CHANCE
    XLIX. TWICE DECEIVED
       L. THE SILVER SHIELD
      LI. TWO NOBLE HEARTS GO DIFFERENT WAYS
     LII. THE ANGEL-CHILD
    LIII. ON THE HOLY MOUNT
     LIV. THE UNSEEN PRESENCE
      LV. THE HEART OF A WOMAN
     LVI. THE TRUE VISION
    LVII. "I CHOOSE TO RIDE ALONE"
   LVIII. THE WARRIOR HEART
     LIX. THE MADONNA IN THE HOME
      LX. THE CONVENT BELL

The White Ladies of Worcester

CHAPTER I

THE SUBTERRANEAN WAY

The slanting rays of afternoon sunshine, pouring through stone arches, lay in broad, golden bands, upon the flags of the Convent cloister.

The old lay-sister, Mary Antony, stepped from the cool shade of the cell passage and, blinking at the sunshine, shuffled slowly to her appointed post at the top of the crypt steps, up which would shortly pass the silent procession of nuns returning from Vespers.

Daily they went, and daily they returned, by the underground way, a
passage over a mile in length, leading from the Nunnery of the White
Ladies at Whytstone in Claines, to the Church of St. Mary and St.
Peter, the noble Cathedral within the walls of the city of Worcester.

Entering this passage from the crypt in their own cloisters, they walked in darkness below the sunny meadows, passed beneath the Fore-gate, moving in silent procession under the busy streets, until they reached the crypt of the Cathedral.

From the crypt, a winding stairway in the wall led up to a chamber above the choir, whence, unseeing and unseen, the White Ladies of Worcester daily heard the holy monks below chant Vespers.

To Sister Mary Antony fell the task of counting the five-and-twenty veiled figures, as they passed down the steps and disappeared beneath the ground, and of again counting them as they reappeared, and moved in stately silence along the cloister, each entering her own cell, to spend, in prayer and adoration, the hours until the Refectory bell should call them to the evening meal.

This counting of the White Ladies dated from the day, now more than half a century ago, when Sister Agatha, weakened by prolonged fasting, and chancing to walk last in the procession, fainted and, falling silently, remained behind, unnoticed, in the solitude and darkness.

It was the habit of this saintly lady to abide in her own cell after Vespers, dispensing with the evening meal; thus her absence was not discovered until the following morning when Mary Antony, finding the cell empty, hastened to report that Sister Agatha having long, like Enoch, walked with God, had, even, as Enoch, been translated!

The nuns who flocked to the cell, inclining to Mary Antony's view of the strange happening, kneeled upon the floor before the empty couch, and worshipped.

The Prioress of that time, however, being of a practical turn of mind, ordered the immediate lighting of the lanterns, and herself descended to search the underground way.

She did not need to go far.

The saintly spirit of Sister Agatha had indeed been translated.

They found her frail body lying prone against the door, the hands broken and torn by much wild beating upon its studded panels.

She had run to and fro in the dank darkness, beating first upon the door beneath the Convent cloisters, then upon the door, a mile away, leading into the Cathedral crypt.

But the nuns were shut into their cells, beyond the cloister; the good people of Worcester city slept peacefully, not dreaming of the despairing figure running to and fro beneath them—tottering, stumbling, falling, arising to fall again, yet hurrying blindly onwards; and the Cathedral Sacristan, when questioned, confessed that, hearing cries and rappings coming from