Blanquerna

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In the neighbourhood of that part of the foreft wherein Blanquerna journeyed was a shepherd keeping a large flock of beads. That shepherd had a son of the age of seven years. For the great love which the shepherd bore to his son, he took him one day with him. It chanced that the shepherd slumbered beyond his wont, and the child Strayed from the place where his father was sleeping, and a wolf came to the fold and found the child there and carried him off. At the cries of the child, when the wolf carried him away, the shepherd awoke, and saw that the wolf was carrying off his son. So he gave chase to the wolf with his dogs ; but, ere he could reach him, the wolf had killed and mangled the child and devoured his heart within his breaft. When the shepherd came to the place where he found his son dead, he was in despair, and cried out in these words: iH

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2. “ Alas, thou wretched one 1 Thou hast loft: that which thou inoft didft love. Dead is thy son; and thou art the occasion of his death, for againfl the will of his mother didft thou bring him into this foreif. So haft thou given to thy wife grief and sorrow all the days of her life. Despair above all despair else muff be thine, and tears more than any yet shed. Needs muff thou lament so bitterly that never more canft thou have consolation or joy. Shame and guilt with respeft to thy wife are thine.” As the shepherd lamented thus, he embraced and kissed his son, saying : “ Son ! Where is the fairness that thy countenance aforetime showed ? And whither has fled the great delight that my mind was wont to have therein ? O son 1 Thy death makes me to yearn for death also. Naught had I in my mind but thee; from henceforth, what will be in my mind? I am old and fain would die; grievous sorrow do I bear because I feel not death ; my life is death by reason of thy death ; no hope have I of comfort nor of pardon for my sin in being the occasion of thy death.”1

3. So great were the cries and the complaints and the weeping of the shepherd that because of his cries and the barking of the dogs that fought with the wolf, Blanquerna made his way towards the sound of voices, at the which he •marvelled greatly. When he arrived at that place, the shepherd was weeping and lamenting and ever embracing and kissing his son. Blanquerna desired to console him, b.ut the shepherd gave no semblance of seeing him or hear¬ ing his words, so greatly affli&ed was he by the anguish and the grief which he suffered.

4. Blanquerna saw that the wolf had killed one of the dogs, and held the other fa£f on the ground, and he thought that he would aid the dog, and that together they would slay the wolf, that by his death the shepherd might in some

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degree be comforted. So Blanquerna took a Staff which the shepherd carried, and went againft the wolf right speedily and as one that by the death of the child was moved to pity. The wolf endeavoured to flee, but the dog held him fait until he had been slain by Blanquerna. Then said Blanquerna to the shepherd : “ Dead is thy foe, and by reason of his death should thy sorrow be turned into

$. Many words, devout and of great consolation, spake Blanquerna to the shepherd, but for all that he said or did the shepherd would not answer him nor cease from bewail¬ ing his grief with all his might. Greatly did Blanquerna marvel at the grief of the shepherd, and great was his pity thereat, and he perceived that the exceeding fury and sorrow of the shepherd had made his memory1 to flee, and that he had no understanding of Blanquerna and of his words. Therefore, that he might give him consolation, and under¬ standing of his words, through the which he might be the more inclined to consolation, he began to speak after another manner, which is according to natural reasoning ; and he spake to the shepherd these words :

6. “ Oh, caitiff, and fool, that art the occasion of the death of thy son 1 Wherefore weepeSt thou not, neither lamenteSt the harm that thou haft wrought ? Haft thou no understanding, that thou consoleft thyself thus lightly for the loss of that which thou so greatly loveft ? Dead is thy son ; and the wolf has slain thy wife and all thy dogs.” The shepherd loved his wife very greatly, and supposed that Blanquerna spake the truth, and that he himself had not wept nor made lamentation as in faft he had done. While the shepherd reflefted thus, he spake these words: “ Is my wife in truth dead ? And this that I do is it to weep or to be comforted ? ” Blanquerna answered : “ Come with me, and thou shall see thy wife whom the wolf has

OF CONSOLATION slain.” The shepherd followed Blanquerna to the place where the wolf lay dead. “ This is thy wife,” said Blan¬ querna. Great was the wonder of the shepherd at the words of Blanquerna, and he thought that he had loft his senses and that the wolf was his wife.

7. When Blanquerna saw that the memory of the shep¬ herd was beginning to return and to aft once more according to its nature, and that his understanding had begun again to do its work, Blanquerna led the shepherd back to the place where his son lay dead, and took the child and began to kiss and to embrace it, and to weep and lament accord¬ ing as its father had done. Greatly did the shepherd marvel at the lamentations of Blanquerna ; and the greater was his wonder, the more did his intelleft, which he had loft, return. When the shepherd had recovered his wits, he went again to the place and knew that it was the wolf that was slain, and had joy because it was not his wife, and this joy in some wise restrained and assuaged his sorrow. Then he came to Blanquerna, who was holding the body of his son and weeping over it. “ Sir 1 " said the shepherd, “ Why weepeft thou for my son ? Give his body to me again and let me return to the tears that were mine.” Blanquerna answered the shepherd and said: “ It is a cuftom of the parts whence I come that a man takes a share in the lamen¬ tations and the weeping of others; wherefore I will share in thy weeping and lamentations, that thy bewailing of the death of thy son may be great, and indeed it is very right that thou shouldft lament greatly. And if thou desireft to follow the cuftom of my country I will show thee an art and method whereby thou mayeft lament and weep for the death of thy son, since thou art guilty of his death.” “ Sir I ” answered the shepherd. “ Thy words are agreeable to me, and I pray thee to tell me the manner and the cuftom of thy country, according to the which I may greatly weep and lament while death yet suffers me to live, that I may endure the more torment in my lifetime.”

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3. Blanquerna answered the shepherd : “ Ere thou canft know the manner wherein thou mayefl fitly bewail thysqlf, thou muil needs have knowledge of charity, justice, pru¬ dence, fortitude and hope, and thou muff needs tell me the truth concerning that which I shall ask thee.” “ Sir 1 ” said the shepherd, “ AH things will I learn of thee and all that thou askeftof me will I tell thee, so that thou wilt but show me the manner wherein I may have such sorrow and grief as may slay me, over and above the despair that I needs have concerning my son.” Blanquerna conjured the shepherd to tell him the truth; which had he loved the more, whether God, or his son ? The shepherd answered and said that he had had more love to his son than to God, Blanquerna said that it was defett of charity in a man to love any thing more than God; and that justice is that which punishes men that love God less than any thing soever. “ As thou hadft greater love to thy son than to God,” said Blanquerna, “ therefore has justice punished thee in the death of thy son, and the Wisdom of God wills that henceforward thou love God above all things, that prudence may be in thee, and thou mayeft have fortitude to aid thee againft thy present wrath, and to mortify thy mind, and have hope of seeing thy son, who is in the glory of God.”

9. The shepherd began to remember and understand the words which Blanquerna spake, and the more he con¬ sidered them, even so the more did he feel relief from his sadness, and considered how that he ought rather to in¬ crease his grief. Wherefore he marvelled greatly, and spake to Blanquerna these words: “The more deeply I have remembrance of thy words, the less do I feel in myself of sadness and the more am I comforted. Where is the sorrow that by thy words thou desire* to increase in me ? ” Blanquerna answered and conjured the shepherd to tell him the truth: before the death of his son, which did he love the more, whether joy or sorrow ? The shepherd answered

OF CONSOLATION and said that he loved the rather joy. Then said Blanquerna: “ If thou loveft sadness the rather, now that thy son is dead, then is death .the miSlress of joy and of sadness, according as thou loveft. Wherefore as death has been to thee so cruel a foe, thou should^ not give to it such great dominion that it should make thee to desire sorrow more than patience and joy ; but it behoves thee to be the greater enemy of death, now that it has robbed thee of thy son, than thou wcrt aforetime when thy son yet lived.”

jo. “ Blanquerna! ” said the shepherd. “ How may I be the enemy of death, who has slain my son and who refuses to slay me ? ” Blanquerna answered : “ With patience and consolation, by having joy in that which is done by the justice of God, and gladness of heart whence comes fortitude against sorrow. To have joy at possessing prudence, and to consider the utility even of hurt received as touching these earthly things, puts man in opposition to bodily and spiritual death, and in accord with that heavenly life which is everlasting even to the end of time.”

ii. Long would it take to recount the words which Blanquerna spake to the shepherd to console him ; and by the art and method which Blanquerna used did he draw the shepherd from sadness and lead him to comfort and joy, the which joy the shepherd had as he spake these words : “ Glad is my soul henceforward in knowing its Creator and in having the virtues which it was neither wont to have o/ old nor was able to use. For my son has departed from great peril, and is with his Lord in glory. May my will be ever subjeft in obedience to the Will of my Lord God.” When the shepherd had said these words, and many more, he took the body of his son and kissed it and set it upon his back, and blessed and praised God, saying that greater was the profit that he had gained through the death of the child, by using the virtues aforementioned, than was the hurt which he had received thereby. Blanquerna and the shepherd took courteous leave the one of die other, and

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Blanquerna prayed the shepherd to have God ever in his remembrance, and consolation and patience in his will, all the days of his life. The shepherd promised that he would have consolation and patience, but he was troubled as to how he should comfort his wife for the death of her son whom she loved above all things.

12. Blanquerna counselled the shepherd that he should comfort his wife according to the same manner wherein he had comforted him ; and he told him to recount to his wife the death of their son, recounting together therewith the death of a brother of his wife, whom she greatly loved ; and that afterwards the brother should come to comfort his sifter, for in that he would yet be alive she would have as great comfort as the shepherd himself had had when he perceived that the wolf was not his wife.