The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry Read Free Book Online Page A

and I gabbled at him, and begged him to come to my father, that there was a great need for him there, and would he come, would he come.
    'I will come,' said Fr Gaunt, for he was not one of those people that shy away from you when you need them, like many of his brethren, too proud to taste the rain in their mouths. And indeed going back up the hill we had the rain against our faces, and soon his long black coat was glistening wet the whole front of it, and myself also, and for my part I had put on no coat, but showed only wet legs now to the world.
    'What person needs me?' said the priest sceptically, when I led him in the gates of the graveyard.
    'The person that needs you is dead,' I said.
    'If he is dead, is all this great hurry necessary, Roseanne?'
    'The other person that needs you is living. It is his brother, Father.'
    'I see.'
    Inside the graveyard the stones were glistening also in the wetness, and the wind was dancing about among the avenues, so you didn't know where the rain would catch you.
    When we reached the little temple, and walked in, the scene had hardly changed, as if the four living persons and certainly the dead had frozen in their spots when I went out and never moved. The irregular soldiers turned their young faces on Fr Gaunt as he stepped in.
    'Fr Gaunt,' said my father. 'I am sorry to call you out. These youngsters asked that you be got.'
    'Are they holding you prisoner?' said the priest, affronted by the sight of guns.
    'No, no, they are not.'
    'I hope you will not shoot me?' said Fr Gaunt.
    'There was never a priest shot yet in this war,' said the man I called the third man. 'Bad as it is. There is only this poor man shot, John's brother, Willie. He is quite dead.'
    'Is he long dead?' said Fr Gaunt. 'Did anyone take his last
    breath?'
    'I took it,' said the brother.
    'Then give it back into his mouth,' said Fr Gaunt, 'and I will bless him. And let his poor soul go up to heaven.'
    So the brother kissed his brother's dead mouth, returning I think the last breath that he had taken at the moment of his brother's death. And Fr Gaunt blessed him and leaned into him, and gave the sign of the cross over him.
    'Can you absolve him, Father, so he will be clear to go to heaven?'
    'And has he done murder, has he killed another man in this war?'
    'It is not murder in a war to kill a man. It is war itself only.'
    'My friend, you know very well the bishops have forbidden us to absolve you, for they have decided that your war is wrong. But I will absolve him if you tell me he has not done murder, as far as you know. I will do that.'
    The three then looked at each other. There was a strange dark fear in those faces. They were young Catholic boys, and they feared this priest, and they feared to tell a lie about this matter, and they feared that they would fail in their responsibility to help their comrade to heaven, and I am sure each of them was racking his brains for an answer that would be truthful, for only the truth would get the dead man to paradise.
    'Only the truth will serve you,' said the priest, making me jump that he had echoed my own thoughts. They were the simple thoughts of a simple girl, but maybe that Catholic religion is simple enough always in its intents.
    'None of us seen him do anything in that way,' said the brother finally. 'If we had we'd say.'
    'That's good then,' said the priest. 'And I sympathise greatly with your sorrow. And I am sorry I had to ask. Greatly sorry.'
    He walked up close to the dead man and touched him with utmost gentleness.
    'I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.'
    And all there, my father and myself included, spake the Amen to that.

chapter five
    Dr Grene's Commonplace Book
    It would be a very good thing if occasionally I thought I knew what I was doing.
    I have completely underestimated the Department of Health, which in honest fact I thought would never happen. I am told for a fact that work on site will begin shortly,