When they finally got
his hand open, they found that the thing which he had held in such an iron
grip was a pair of white root bulbs, which he had torn from among the moss
and leaves.
When the lay brother who had accompanied Abbot Hans saw the bulbs, he took
them and planted them in Abbot Hans' herb garden.
He guarded them the whole year to see if any flower would spring from
them. But in vain he waited through the spring, the summer, and the
autumn. Finally, when winter had set in and all the leaves, and the
flowers were dead, he ceased caring for them.
But when Christmas Eve came again, he was so strongly reminded of Abbot
Hans that he wandered out into the garden to think of him. And look! as he
came to the spot where he had planted the bare root bulbs, he saw that
from them had sprung flourishing green stalks, which bore beautiful
flowers with silver white leaves.
He called out all the monks at Oevid, and when they saw that this plant
bloomed on Christmas Eve, when all the other growths were as if dead, they
understood that this flower had in truth been plucked by Abbot Hans from
the Christmas garden in Goeinge forest. Then the lay brother asked the
monks if he might take a few blossoms to Bishop Absalon.
And when he appeared before Bishop Absalon, he gave him the flowers and
said: "Abbot Hans sends you these. They are the flowers he promised to
pick for you from the garden in Goeinge forest.
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