Page:The Story and Song of Black Roderick.djvu/65

Rh ‘Who hath let the little soul go free?’

And the bee answered:

‘Her gentleness, for she loveth all things, great and small, and hath fed the honey-bee when the earth refused him its sweets.’

Now, as the spirit of the little bride flew upward, freed from the grasp of the evil bird, there came upon her again the cruel claws of one of those two others that circled round her, holding her back upon her way.

‘Now,’ quoth she, ‘I shall never see the kingdom of heaven, and cannot reach the doors of Paradise;’ and bitter exceedingly was her crying.

But again a voice came from the dark night, saying:

‘Who holdeth back the coming soul from her place in heaven?’

And the black, evil bird answered:

‘Her despair, for she hath not held her head high above her sorrows, nor hath borne in patience her griefs, but hath mourned the afflictions that were put upon her till her heart