Alberic the Wise and Other Journeys

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For my mother and father

ALBERIC THE WISE

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“Everything of use and value is made of stone,” he concluded, and rushed to seek employment with the master stonecutter.

And for two more years he busied himself learning the secrets of this new vocation – selecting and cutting only the finest stone from the quarry – matching, marking and extracting the giant blocks to be moved on heavy wheeled carts to each new building – and then noting carefully how each shaped stone was fitted in its place so that walls and buttresses grew and arches sprang from pier to pier with such precision that no blade however sharp could slip between the joints. Soon he learned to mix and measure mortar and operate the windlasses whose ingenious ropes and pulleys allowed one man to lift for fifty. Then to make his first careful cuts with bolster and chisel and then stop and watch again as surer hands than his cut and shaped the graceful mouldings and intricate tracery which brought the stone to life. As he worked he questioned and remembered everything he saw and heard, and as each day passed, his confidence and his knowledge grew and he began to think of his future life as a great and skilful stonecutter.

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