I
followed Olioll but now, and by his slow steps and his bent head I
saw that the weariness of his stupidity was over him, and when he
came to the little wood by the quern-house I knew by the path broken
in the under-wood and by the footmarks in the muddy places that he
had gone that way many times. I hid behind a bush where the path
doubled upon itself at a sloping place, and understood by the tears
in his eyes that his stupidity was too old and his wisdom too new to
save him from terror of the rod. When he was in the quern-house I
went to the window and looked in, and the birds came down and perched
upon my head and my shoulders, for they are not timid in that holy
place; and a wolf passed by, his right side shaking my habit, his
left the leaves of a bush. Olioll opened his book and turned to the
page I had told him to learn, and began to cry, and the beggar sat
beside him and comforted him until he fell asleep. When his sleep was
of the deepest the beggar knelt down and prayed aloud, and said, "O
Thou Who dwellest beyond the stars, show forth Thy power as at the
beginning, and let knowledge sent from Thee awaken in his mind,
wherein is nothing from the world, that the nine orders of angels may
glorify Thy name"; and then a light broke out of the air and wrapped
Aodh, and I smelt the breath of roses.
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