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During all the first part of the service he neither saw nor heard, but did his work mechanically like one in a dream; and in every pause of it the old chant recurred to him, filling his heart with a separate undercurrent of solemn supplication, now in French: "Agneau de Dieu, qui effacez les peches du monde, ayez pitie de nous," and now in Latin: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis."
Kyrie Eleison. Christe Eleison. Sursum Corda. Deus Refugium nostrum et virtus. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi miserere mihi. Sancta Trinitas unus Deus, miserere nobis. Ab infestationibus Daemonum, a ventura ira, a damnatione perpetua. Libera nos Domine. Quem quaerimus adjutorem nisi te Domine qui pro peccatis nostris juste irascaris?
Beach' besetting sin of over-elaboration, but it proclaims a great ripeness of technic. The "Qui Tollis" is especially perfect in its sombre depth and richness. The "Credo" works up the cry of "crucifixus" with a thrilling rage of grief and a dramatic feeling rare in Mrs. Beach' work. This work was begun at the age of nineteen and finished three years later.
When he came to the Qui tollis, the tears trickled from his eyes and he was obliged to desist, saying with the deepest emotion, "Yes, that was precisely my feeling when I composed it." His journal entries at the time of beginning work on the Mass in D show how completely the subject had taken possession of him.
The spell of the old chant was still upon him, and instead of preparing his mind for his task, he let it murmur on: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, parce nobis Domine" while a rapt silence fell upon the congregation not a ribbon rustled; the expression of expectation was most intense.
He opened the book to study his solo for the afternoon service, but before he was halfway through his mind was busily rendering, not the music before him, but "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, parce nobis Domine."
He had not thought of the chant for years, nor had there been anything apparently to recall it now; but all that day it possessed him, and at intervals he caught himself involuntarily singing it aloud: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, parce nobis Domine, Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mimdi, exaudi nos Domine, Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis."
After a long silence, he cried huskily: "The curse is taken away out of my blinded eye I see Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi " A slight spasm shook him, and feeling his cheek grow colder, Beryl threw off the fur cloak, and folded it closely around the wasted body which leaned heavily against her.
Upon their breasts hung a piece of lead with this inscription: 'Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem. The confraternity spread into Aquitaine, and the routiers were defeated in pitched battles with great slaughter; but the chaperons in course of time became lawless fanatics, and were almost as great a nuisance to society as those whom they had undertaken to exterminate.
A legend was a-making round about the strange life not fifty years closed, a life which seems, extravagance apart, to have been a lyrical outburst, a strophe in the hymn of praise which certain happy people were singing just then. It was a Gloria in Excelsis for a second time in Christian Annals which did not end in a wail of "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata, miserere." Why should it?
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