Cadfael looks very thoughtful for a long moment, turning the young man's words over in his mind.
'When I took up arms and left England for the first time, I told the young lady to whom I was betrothed that I would be gone no longer than three years. Three became five, five became ten, ten became twenty. I was well into my later life before I set foot on English soil again. But I was one of the fortunate ones who did return. So many men, good and true and honest men who thought only of fighting to reclaim the Holy Land for Christendom, did not live to see the fields they had left. And there were bad and cruel and dishonourable men who went to the Holy Land, seeking glory or fame or riches under the Lord's banner -- and some returned, and some did not. God will judge our hearts in the end, no matter how we died or what we died for. It is the only certainty we have.'
He meets Wellard's gaze, quite seriously. 'If your tutor thought that men are -- were -- any different in my time than they are in yours, Master Wellard, then I think he may have been mistaken. Well-intentioned, well-meaning...but mistaken.'
He nods slowly, and finally gives Cadfael a faint, humorless smile. "Certainly well intentioned and well meaning, but... I do not think he ever left England, and certainly never to fight in a war. The methods for that may have changed in all of those years, but men haven't changed. ... At least if I am allowed to dare draw that conclusion on my own."
Wellard frowns faintly, looking down at his hands. "Good or bad or dead... The reason for the wars change, is all."
'He would not be the first man, nor the last, to look to the past in search of a time of glory,' Cadfael muses. 'And I know that more than a few of my brethren do not think much of man's fallen state in my own time. But the world is not so wicked for there to be no hope for us yet. Our Lord would not have suffered and died for a world that was not worth saving.'
'Of course,' he says. 'Just because I have seen the evil of war does not mean that I have not seen the good that mankind can do. There may be a good sound apple tree in an orchard harmed by blight -- shall we not go looking for it, just in case?'
A small smile. 'I know that not everyone would agree. But any man who wishes to salvage what he can of his apple crop would do well to at least look for the good amongst the bad.'
'When I took up arms and left England for the first time, I told the young lady to whom I was betrothed that I would be gone no longer than three years. Three became five, five became ten, ten became twenty. I was well into my later life before I set foot on English soil again. But I was one of the fortunate ones who did return. So many men, good and true and honest men who thought only of fighting to reclaim the Holy Land for Christendom, did not live to see the fields they had left. And there were bad and cruel and dishonourable men who went to the Holy Land, seeking glory or fame or riches under the Lord's banner -- and some returned, and some did not. God will judge our hearts in the end, no matter how we died or what we died for. It is the only certainty we have.'
He meets Wellard's gaze, quite seriously. 'If your tutor thought that men are -- were -- any different in my time than they are in yours, Master Wellard, then I think he may have been mistaken. Well-intentioned, well-meaning...but mistaken.'
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Wellard frowns faintly, looking down at his hands. "Good or bad or dead... The reason for the wars change, is all."
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He studies his hands for a moment, then looks up to Cadfael. "You do think that then, even with everything you've seen, all those years?"
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'Of course,' he says. 'Just because I have seen the evil of war does not mean that I have not seen the good that mankind can do. There may be a good sound apple tree in an orchard harmed by blight -- shall we not go looking for it, just in case?'
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Compared to birds, apple trees would be easier to keep watch over- even as he reminds himself what it is really all about.
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