her  nuns  had  thriven  more  during  one  year  "in
worldly  goods"  than  he  should  have  done  in  a  hun-
dred. But  "  worldly  goods"  can  little  soothe  a  bleed-
ing heart  like  that  of  Heloise  ;  they  will  rather  give
it  warmth  to  bleed  more  freely. And  now  the  sharpest
pain  a  noble  mind  can  know  came  upon  her. While
she  had  been  comparatively  peaceful  and  protected,
he,  she  learns,  has  still  been  buffeted  amid  storms  and
perils. The  long,  mournful  recital  of  their  common
misfortunes,  and  of  those  which  he  had  endured
alone,  was  by  some  chance  thrown  in  her  way. How
the  tomb  of  the  Past  was  re-opened  for  her  as  she
read,  how  the  demure  Abbess  became  at  once  again
the  impassioned  mistress,  how  the  last  fifteen  years
of  sorrow  and  solitude  dropped  away  like  a  vesture,
and  the  days  when  Abelard  sang  to  her  and  wooed
her,  rushed  over  her  again,  may  be  conjectured  by
the  letter  which  she  wrote  to  him  immediately  after : —

"  To  her  lord,  nay,  her  father  ;  to  her  husband,  nay,  Heioise  writes
her  brother;  from  his  handmaid,  nay,  daughter ;  from
his  wife,  nay,  sister ;  to  Abelard  from  Heloise."

She  begins  very  quietly  to  say  how  his  narrative,
full  of  gall  and  wormwood,  had  touched  her. No
one,  she  thinks,  could  read  it  with  dry  eyes. She
implores  him  in  the  name  of  Christ  to  inform  herself
and  her  nuns,  who  are  Christ's  handmaids  and  his,  of
his  good  or  evil  fortune,  in  order  that  "  we  who  alone
remain  to  thee  may  be  partakers  of  thy  joy  or  grief."
He  has  discharged  his  duty  to  his  friend  by  writing
to  him  ;  he  owes  a  greater  debt  to  them  who  are  not
to  be  called  friends,  \>ui  friendliest,  not  companions,  but
daughters,  or  any  other  sweeter  and  holier  name  that
can  be  thought  of. "For,"  she  continues,  in  words


318  THE   LIFE   AND   TIMES  [BOOK  III,

A.D. 1135. that  seem  saturated  with  love  and  fondness,  "  of  this
eioise's  letter,  very  place  after  God  thou  art  the  sole  founder;  the
sole  constructor  of  this  oratory;  this  congregation  is
owing  solely  to  thee. Thou  hast  built  nothing  on
another  man's  foundation ;  all  that  is  here  is  of  thy
creation. 