Chapter XXV.
OF THE MANNER OF THE CITY AND HOW YWAIN FELL ADROWSING THEREIN.

AH, said Ywain, what is this city and by whom builded? For it is certain that I came never here until now, and yet there is not one tower of it that I know not of old time. And Bartholomy answered him not, but out of the dusk a voice came and answered him, saying: Good truth and good reason, for this city was builded from the beginning, and all men are by nature free thereof; so that come they what day they will they come not as strangers but inheritors. Then Ywain saw a man before him standing, habited after the fashion of the religious: and he saw him gladly, for he took comfort in the words that he had spoken. And Bartholomy was comforted also, for he had been in doubt how they should come that night into the city, seeing that by likelihood the gates would be shut and guarded. And he took the man by the hand and entreated him that he would make good his saying: and he told him how they were of Paladore, come hither by reason of weariness, and how they were by name Ywain and Bartholomy. And he answered them, Yea, but they should have new names for a new life; for he also had in the world a name worldly, but was now become Vincentius, and prayed daily against remembrance of things past.

Then Bartholomy said Ay: and Ywain spoke no word, but his lips trembled. And Vincent looked upon their two faces, and he perceived the diversity of them, for he read them as the pages of a book. And he said to Bartholomy: What look you to find here? And he answered Peace: and Vincent said to him, It is well. Then he asked of Ywain also the same question: and Ywain said openly: I am a lover and a seeker, and I look only to love and to seek. And Vincent answered him: It is well with you also, since you are come hither: for you shall love that which you desire not, and seek that which you have never seen.

Then he led them down toward the city: and as they went they were astonished that he should so have met with them in the nick of need. But Vincent said that it was no marvel: for that every day at the time of twilight it was his custom to come forth out of the city and walk abroad, to the intent that he might lead in any that were forwandered. So they came to the gate and passed in with him, and he brought them through the city to a house where they should be lodged, and they supped there within the hour.

And while they sat at supper they spoke of all that had fortuned to them: and Vincent heard them and answered them comfortably, as a Doctor will answer them which are diseased. But of that which he said Ywain heard not the half, by reason of the bells which continued sounding above the city: for the sound of them wrapt him about as it were with softness and with sleep. And his weariness became pleasant to him and his thought a dream: and he desired nothing else but to hear those bells continually both by night and by day.

And so it fortuned to him and to Bartholomy: for this was the manner of the city whereto they were come, and when it was showed to them they received it to their joy and solace. Then might you have seen them rising lively from their beds, and going forth under morning mist to keep the daily ordinance: for though the city was thronged with all manner of folk yet there was but one and the same rule for all. And they rang bells at the point of day, and again when they had broken fast: and they rang before noon and after, and at evening and at midnight, so that they went never an hour without ringing of bells in some part of that city. And they took all their delight therein, and when they met together, as at board or bench or whatsoever doing, then they would have their converse of bells and of the comfort they took thereby. For they supposed that the properties of bells were many and diverse: and they heard one bell for courage and another for meditation, and one for ruth and another for gladness. And the deepest they heard for fellowship, seeing that the sound of it was very great and came into every house both near and far. And in sum, the life of those which dwelt in that city was all to ring bells and to hear them, and to do no other thing: and therefrom was their sustenance and their repute.

So Ywain went daily aringing with the rest: and he lived as it were by sound alone and thought to have found peace. For his sorrow was rocked continually as a child is rocked in a cradle, and his soul was stilled as with a lullaby.