This was to continue for the next ten days and both Father Hermann and myself were run off our feet. Halfway through this period, the good priest was heard to declare, ‘I cannot keep up with him, Sylvia. He preaches daily, recruiting for his crusade, and each day the children attending increase in number and come from everywhere. Only yesterday I met boys from Liège and Floreffe and they told of others from Marbach, Neresheim and Zwiefaltern. I came across a group of young girls from Schäftlarn in the east! I told them to return home, that embarking on a crusade was hard and dangerous and no place for girls.’ He laughed wearily. ‘One of them looked at me and said, “Who then will do the cooking, Father?” It was a good point, we have not thought of this.’ In fact we had not thought of very much. Nicholas had insisted that on his latest visitation the voice of Jesus had instructed him that he must leave on the day of Pentecost, just sixteen days after I’d returned from the visit to Brother Dominic’s grave.
