CHAPTER IV.
THE MONKS OF ELY FEAST.
It was on a wet evening in Autumn, as the rain was descending intorrents upon swamps that seemed to have collected all the rains thathad been falling since the departure of summer, and just as the monksof Ely were singing the Ave Maria (_Dulce, cantaverunt Monachi inEly!_)[63] that Elfric, the whilom novice of Spalding, surrounded bysome of the Lord Abbat's people, and many of the town folk, who wereall laughing and twitching at his cloak, arrived at the gate of thehospitium.[64] Our Lord Abbat Frithric had brought with him two holybooks. Elfric, our novice, had brought with him two grim Norman heads,for he had not been idle on the road, but had surprised and killed onthe borders of the fen country, first one man-at-arms, and thenanother; and the good folk of Ely were twitching at his mantle in orderthat they might see again the trophies which he carried under his broadsleeve. At his first coming to the well-guarded ford across the Ouse,the youth had made himself known. Was he not the youngest son ofGoodman Hugh, who dwelt aforetime by Saint Ovin's Cross, hard by thevillage of Haddenham, and only a few bow-shot from the good town ofEly.[65] And when the Saxons had seen the two savage Norman heads, andhad looked in the youth's face, the elders declared that he was thevery effigies of the Goodman Hugh; and some of the younkers said that,albeit his crown was shorn, and his eye not so merry as it was, theyrecalled his face well, and eke the days when Elfric the son of GoodmanHugh played at bowls with them in the bowling-alley of Ely, and bobbedfor eels[66] with them in the river, and went out with them to snarewild water-fowl in the fens. Judge, therefore, if he met not with anhospitable reception from town and gown, from the good folk of Ely, andfrom all the monks!
So soon as Elfric had refreshed himself in the hospitium, he was calledto the presence of Abbat Thurstan, and in truth to the presence of allthe abbat's noble and reverend guests, for Thurstan was seated in hisgreat hall, where the servitors were preparing for the supper. Elfricwould have taken his trophies with him, but the loaf-man who broughtthe message doubted whether the abbat would relish the sight of deadmen's heads close afore suppertime, and told him that his prowess wasalready known; and so Elfric proceeded without his trophies to thegreat hall, where he was welcomed by the noble company like anotherDavid that had slain two Goliaths.[67] When he had told the story ofIvo Taille-Bois' long persecution and night attack, and his own flightand journey, and had answered numerous questions put to him by thegrave assembly, Abbat Thurstan asked him whether he knew what hadhappened at Spalding since his departure, and what had become of FatherAdhelm and his monks, and what fate had befallen the good Abbat ofCrowland.
"After my flight from the succursal cell," said the youth, "I dwelt fora short season at Crowland, hidden in the township, or in Deeping-fen,whither also came unto the abbey Father Adhelm and the rest of thatbrotherhood of Spalding; and there we learned how Ivo Taille-Bois hadsent over to his own country to tell his kinsmen that he had to offerthem a good house, convenient for a prior and five friars, ready built,ready furnished and well provided with lands and tenements; and howthese heretical and unsound Norman monks[68] were hastening to crossthe Channel and take possession of the succursal cell at Spalding. MyLord Abbat of Crowland, having what they call the king's peace, andholding the letters of protection granted by Lanfranc".... "They willprotect no man of Saxon blood, and the priest or monk that accepts themdeserves excommunication," said Frithric, the Abbat of Saint Albans.
"Amen!" said Elfric; "but our Abbat of Crowland, relying upon thesehollow and rotten reeds, laid his complaints before the king's councilat that time assembled near unto Peterborough, and sought redress andrestitution.[69] But the Normans sitting in council not only refusedredress and absolved Taille-Bois, but also praised him for what he haddone in the way of extortion, pillage, sacrilege, and murder; and"....
"My once wise brother thy Abbat of Crowland ought to have known allthis beforehand," said the Abbat of Saint Albans; "for do not theseforeigners all support and cover one another, and form a close league,bearing one upon another, even as on the body of the old dragon scaleis laid over scale?"
"_Sic est_, my Lord Abbat," said the youth, bowing reverentially to thedignitary of the church and the best of Saxon patriots, "so is it mylord! and dragons and devils are these Normans all! Scarcely had thedecision of the king's council reached our house at Crowland, ere itwas surrounded by armed men, and burst open at the dead of night, asour poor cell at Spalding had been, and Father Adhelm and all those whohad lived under his rule at Spalding, were driven out as disturbers ofthe king's peace! I should have come hither sooner, but those to whommy obedience was due begged me to tarry awhile. Now I am only theforerunner of Father Adhelm and his brethren, and of my Lord Abbat ofCrowland himself; for the abbat can no longer bear the wrongs that areput upon him, and can see no hope upon earth, and no resting-place inbroad England, except in the Camp of Refuge."
"Another abbat an outcast and a wanderer! This spacious house will beall too full of Saxon abbats and bishops: but I shall make room forthis new comer," said Frithric of Saint Albans to Egelwin, Bishop ofDurham.[70]
Divers of the monks of Ely, and _specialiter_ the chamberlain, who keptthe accounts of the house, and the cellarer, who knew the daily drainmade on the winebutts, looked blank at this announcement of moreguests; but the bounteous and big-hearted Abbat of Ely said, "Ourbrother of Crowland, and Father Adhelm of Spalding, shall be welcomehere--yea, and all they may bring with them; but tell me, oh youth, arethey near at hand, or afar off in the wilderness?"
"The feet of age travel not so fast as the feet of youth," said Elfric,"age thinks, youth runs. I wot I was at Ramsey[71] mere before they gotto the Isle of Thorney, and crossed the Ouse before they came to theNene, but as, by the blessing of the saints," and the youth might havesaid, in consequence of exercise and low living, "Father Adhelm'spodagra hath left him, they can hardly fail of being here on the day ofSaint Edmund,[72] our blessed king and martyr, and that saint's day isthe next day after to-morrow."
"It shall be a feast-day," said Thurstan; "for albeit Saint Edmund benot so great a saint as our own saint, Etheldreda, the founder of thishouse, and the monks of Saint Edmund-Bury (the loons have submitted tothe Norman!) have more to do with his worship than we have, King Edmundis yet a great saint--a true Saxon saint, whose worship is old in theland; and it hath been the custom of this house to exercise hospitalityon his festival. Therefore will we hold that day as we have been wontto hold it; and our brothers from Crowland and Spalding, who must befaring but badly in the fens, shall be welcomed with a feast."
So bounteous and open-handed was the true Saxon Abbat of Ely. But thechamberlain set his worldly head to calculate the expense, and thecellarer muttered to himself, "By Saint Withburga[73] and her holywell, our cellars will soon be dry!"
On Saint Edmund's eve, after evening service in the choir and aftersaying his prayers apart in the chapel of Saint Marie, Frithric, theAbbat of Saint Albans departed this life. His last words were, thatEngland would be England still;[74] and all those who heard the wordsand had English hearts, believed that he was inspired, and that thespirit of prophecy spoke in his dying voice. The Abbat of Crowland wasso near, that he heard the passing-bell, as its sad sounds floated overthe fens, telling all the faithful that might be there of their duty toput up a prayer for the dead. On Saint Edmund's day the way-farers fromCrowland arrived, and that abbat took possession of the cell, and ofthe seat in the refectory which had been occupied by Frithric. Fittingplace was also found for Father Adhelm, who had grown so thin upon thejourney that even Elfric scarcely knew him again. The feast in the hallwas as magnificent as any that had been given there to King Canute, oreven to any that had been given in the happy days of King Edward theConfessor; and the appetites of the company assembled were worthy ofthe best times. Fish, flesh, and fowl, and pasties of venison--nothingwas wanting. The patrimony of Saint Etheldreda, the lands and watersappertaining unto the abbey, and administere
d by the bountiful abbat,furnished the best portions of the feast. Were there in the world sucheels and eel-pouts as were taken in the Ouse and Cam close under thewalls of the abbey? Three thousand eels, by ancient compact, do themonks of Ramsey pay every Lent unto the monks of Peterborough, forleave to quarry stone in a quarry appertaining to Peterborough Abbey;but the house of Ely might have paid ten times three thousand eels, andnot have missed them, so plenty were there, and eke so good![75] Thefame of these eels was known in far countries; be sure they were notwanting on this Saint Edmund's day. The streams, too, abounded withpike, large and fit for roasting, with puddings in their bellies; andthe meres and stagnating waters swarmed with tench and carp, proper forstewing. Ten expert hinds attended to these fresh-water fisheries, andkept the abbat's stews and the stews of the house constantly filledwith fish. It is said by an ancient historian that here in the fennycountry is such vast store of fish as astonishes strangers; for whichthe inhabitants laugh at them: nor is there less plenty ofwater-fowl;[76] and for a single halfpenny five men may have enough ofeither, not only to stay their stomachs, but for a full meal! Judge,then, if my Lord Abbat was well provided. It was allowed on all sidesthat, for the Lenten season, and for all those fast-days of the Churchwhen meat was not to be eaten, no community in the land was so wellfurnished as the monks of Ely; and that their fish-fasts were feasts.While the brethren of other houses grew thin in Quadragesima, the monksof Ely grew fat. Other communities might do well in roast meats andbaked meats; but for a fish dinner--for a banquet in Lent--there wasnot in the land anything to compare with the dinners at Ely! Nor wasthere lack of the fish[77] that swim the salt sea, or of the shell-fishthat are taken on the sea-coast, or of the finny tribes that come upthe river to spawn; the fishermen of Lynn were very devout to SaintEtheldreda, and made a good penny by supplying the monks; they ascendedthe Ouse with the best of their sea-fish in their boats, and with everyfish that was in season, or that they knew how to take. And so, at thislate November festival there were skates and plaice, sturgeon andporpoises, oysters and cockles spread upon my Lord Abbat's table. Ofthe sheep and beeves we speak not; all men know the richness of thepasture that springs up from the annually inundated meadows,[78] andthe bounty of the nibbling crop that grows on the upland slopes withthe wild thyme and the other savoury herbs that turn mutton intovenison. Of the wild boars of the forest and fen only the hure or headwas served up in this Aula Magna, the inferior parts being kept belowfor the use of the lay-brothers and hinds, or to be distributed by thehospitaller to the humbler degrees of pilgrims and strangers, or to bedoled out to the poor of the town of Ely--for wot ye, when the LordAbbat Thurstan feasted in Ely none fasted there: no! not the poorestpalmer that ever put cockle-shell in his cap or took the pilgrim'sstaff in his hand to visit the blessed shrine of Saint Etheldreda! Ofthe wild buck, though less abundant in this fenny country than theboar, nought was served up for my Lord Abbat and his own particularguests except the tender succulent haunch; the lay-brothers and theloaf-eaters of the house, and the poor pilgrims and the poor of thetown, got all the rest. The fat fowls of Norfolk, the capons of Caen inNormandie, and the pavoni or peacocks that first came from Italie apresent from the _Legatus a latere_ of his holiness the Pope, were keptand fattened in my Lord Abbat's farm-yard; and well did his coquinariusknow how to cook them! To the wild-fowl there was no end, and Elfric,our bold novice, the son of Goodman Hugh, who dwelt by Saint Ovin'sCross, hard by the village of Haddenham, and who had been a fen-fowlerfrom his youth, could have told you how facile it was to ensnare thecrane[79] and the heron, the wild duck and teal, and the eccentric andmost savoury snipe. Well, we ween, before men cut down the coveringwoods, and drained the marshes, and brought too many people into thefens and too many great ships up the rivers, the whole land of SaintEtheldreda was like one great larder; and my Lord Abbat had only tosay, "Go forth and take for me so many fowl, or fish, or boars," and itwas done. It is an antique and venerable proverb, that which sayethgood eating demands good drinking. The country of the fens was notproductive of apple-trees, and the ale and beer that were drunk in thehouse, and the mead and idromel likewise, were brought from Norfolk andother neighbouring countries; but the abbat, and the officials, and thecloister monks drank better wine than apple-wine, better drink thanmead or than pigment, for they drank of the juice of the generous vine,which Noah planted on the first dry hill-side he found. The monks ofGlastonbury and Waltham, and of many other houses of the firstreputation, cultivated the grape on their own soil, where it seldomwould ripen, and drank English grape-wine much too sour and poor. Notso our lordly monks of Ely! They sent the shipmen of Lynn to the Elbe,and to the Rhine, and to the Mosel, to bring them more generous drink;and they sent them to the south even so far as Gasconie and Espaing forthe ruby wine expressed from the grapes which grow in the sunniestclime. In the good times four keels, two from the German Ocean and twofrom the Gulf of Biscaye, steered every year through the sand-banks ofthe Wash to Lynn,[80] and from Lynn up the Ouse even unto Ely, wherethe tuns were landed and deposited in the cellars of the abbey, underthe charge of the sub-cellarer, a lay-brother from foreign parts, whohad been a vintner in his youth. And in this wise it came to be apassant saying with men who would describe anything that wassuper-excellent--"It is as good as the wine of the monks of Ely!"Maugre the cellarer's calculation of quantities, the best wine my LordAbbat had in hand was liberally circulated at the feast in silver cupsand in gold-mounted horns. Thus were the drinks equal to the viands, aswell in quantity as in quality; and if great was the skill of thevintner, great also was the skill of the cook. In other houses ofreligion, and in houses, too, of no mean fame, the monks had often tolament that their coquinarius fed them over long on the same sort ofdishes; but it was not so with our monks of Ely, who possessed a cookthat had the art of giving variety to the selfsame viands, and who alsopossessed lands, woods, and waters that furnished the most variedmaterials for the cook to try his skill upon. As Father Adhelm finishedhis last slice of porpoise,[81] curiously condimented with Easternspices, as fragrant to the nose as they were savoury to the palate, helifted up his eyes towards the painted ceiling, and said, "I did nothope, after the death of Oswald our cook at Spalding, to eat of soperfect a dish on this side the grave!"
Flowers[82] there were none to strew upon the floor; but the floor ofthe hall was thickly strewed with sweet-smelling hay, and with therushes that grow in the fens; and the feet of the loaf-men of the abbatand of the other servitors that waited on the lordly company made nonoise as they hurried to and fro with the dishes and the wine-cups anddrinking-horns. While dinner lasted, nought was heard but the voice ofthe abbat's chaplain, who read the Psalms in a corner of the hall, therattle of trenchers and knives, and, timeously,[83] such ejaculationsas these! "How good this fish! how good this flesh! how good this fowl!how fine this pasty! how rich this wine!" But when the tables werecleared, and grace after meat had been said, and my Lord Abbat'scupbearer had filled the cup of every guest with bright old Rhenish,Thurstan stood up at the head of the table, and said, "Now drink weround to the health of England's true king, and this house's bestfriend, the Saxon-hearted Harold,[84] be he where he will! And may hesoon come back again! Cups off at a draught, while we drink Health toKing Harold!"
"We drink his health, and he is dead--we wish him back, and he is lyingin his coffin in the church of the abbey of Waltham, safe in thekeeping of the monks of Waltham! The wine is good, but the toast isfoolish." Thus spake the envious prior to the small-hearted cellarer.But the rest of the goodly company drank the wassail with joy andexultation, and seemingly without any doubt that Harold was living andwould return. In their minds[85] it was the foul invention of theenemy--to divide and discourage the English people--which made KingHarold die at Hastings. Who had seen him fall? Who had counted andexamined that noble throng of warriors that retreated towards thesea-coast when the battle was lost by foul treachery, and that foundboats and ships, and sailed away for some foreign land? Was not Haroldin that throng, wounded,
but with no deadly wound? Was it not knownthroughout the land that the Normans, when they counted the slain, notbeing able to find the body of Harold, sent some of our Saxon slavesand traitors to seek for it--to seek but not to find it? Was it not amouldering and a mutilated corpse that the Normans caused to beconveyed to Waltham, and to be there entombed, at the east end of thechoir, as the body of King Harold? And did not the monks of Walthamclose up the grave with brick-work, and inscribe the slab, HIC JACETHAROLD INFELIX,[86] without ever seeing who or what was in the coffin?So reasoned all of this good company, who loved the liberties ofEngland, and who had need of the sustaining hope that the brave Haroldwas alive, and would come back again.
Other wassails followed fast one upon the other. They were all to thehealths of those who had stood out manfully against the invader, or hadpreferred exile in the fens, and poverty in the Camp of Refuge tosubmission to the conqueror. "Not less than a brimming cup can we drinkto the last arrived of our guests, our brother the Lord Abbat ofCrowland, and our brother the prior of Spalding," said Thurstan,filling his own silver cup with his own hand until the Rhenish ran overupon the thirsty rushes at his feet.
"Might I be allowed," said Father Adhelm at a later part of the feast,"might my Lord Abbat vouchsafe me leave to call a wassail for an humbleand unconsecrated member of the Saxon church--who is nevertheless achild of Saint Etheldreda, and a vassal of my Lord Abbat, being nativeto this place--I would just drink one quarter of a cup, or it might beone half, to Elfric the Novice, for he travelled for our poor succursalcell when we were in the greatest perils; he carried my missives and mymessages through fire and water; he forewarned us of our last dangerand extremity; and, albeit he had not our order for the deed, and isthereby liable to a penance for disobedience--he slew with his arrowIvo Taille-Bois' man-at-arms that had savagely slain good Wybert ourwheel-wright."
"Aye," said Thurstan, "and he came hither across the fens as merry asDavid dancing before the ark; and he brought with him the heads of twoNorman thieves who, with their fellows, had been murdering our serfs,and trying to find an opening that should lead them to the Camp ofRefuge! Father Adhelm, I would have named thy youth in time; but asthou hast named him, let us drink his name and health even now! And letthe draught be one half cup at least;--'Elfric the novice of Spalding!'"
"This is unbecoming our dignity and the dignity of our house: next weshall waste our wine in drinking wassail to our loaf-eaters andswineherds," muttered the cellarer to the prior.
But while the cellarer muttered and looked askance, his heart not beingSaxon or put in the right place, the noblest English lords that werethere, and the highest dignitaries of the church, the archbishop andthe bishops, the Lord Abbats, and the priors of houses, that were sohigh that even the priors were styled Lords, _Domini_,[87] and woremitres, stood on their feet, and with their wine-cups raised high intheir hands, shouted as in one voice, "Elfric the novice;" and all theobedientiarii or officials of the abbey of Ely that were of rank enowto be bidden to my Lord Abbat's table, stood up in like manner andshouted, "Elfric the novice!" and, when the loud cheering was over, offwent the wine, and down to the ringing board the empty silver cups andthe golden-bound horns. He who had looked into those cups and hornsmight have smiled at Father Adhelm's halves and quarters: they werenearly all filled to the brim: yet when they had quitted the lip andwere put down upon the table, there was scarcely a heel-tap to be foundexcept in the cup of the cellarer and in that of the envious prior ofEly. So strong were the heads and stomachs of our Saxon ancestorsbefore the Normans came among us and brought with them all manner ofpeople from the south with all manner of effeminacies.
Judge ye if Elfric was a proud man that day! At wassail-time the widedoors of the Aula Magna were thrown wide open; and harpers, andmeni-singers, and men that played upon the trumpet, the horn, theflute, the pipe and tabor, the cymbal and the drum, or that touched thestrings of the viola, assembled outside, making good music withinstrument and voice; and all that dwelt within the precincts of theabbey, or that were lodged for the nonce in the guest-house, came, anthey chose, to the threshold of the hall, and saw and heard what wasdoing and saying inside and what outside. Now Elfric was there, withpalmers and novices trooping all around him, and repeating (albeitdry-mouthed and without cups or horns to flourish) the wassail of thelords and prelates, "Elfric the novice!" If at that moment my LordAbbat Thurstan or Father Adhelm had bidden the youth go and drive theNormans from the strong stone keep of their doubly-moated andtrebly-walled castle by Cam-Bridge, Elfric would have gone and havetried to do it. He no longer trod upon base earth, his head struck thestars, as the poets say.
The abbat's feast, which began at one hour before noon, did not enduntil the hour of Ave Maria; nay, even then it was not finished, butonly suspended for a short season by the evening service in the choir;for, after one hour of the night, the refectoriarius, or controller ofthe refectory, re-appeared in the hall with waxen torches and brightlanterns, and his servitors spread the table for supper.
As Abbat Thurstan returned to the refectory, leading by the hand hisguest the Abbat of Crowland, that dispossessed prelate said to hishost, "Tonight for finishing the feast; to-morrow morning for counsel."
"Aye," responded Thurstan, "to-morrow we will hold a chapter,--ourbusiness can brook no further delay--our scouts and intelligencersbring us bad news,--King Harold comes not, nor sends--the Camp ofRefuge needs a head--our warriors want a leader of fame and experience,and one that will be true to the Saxon cause, and fearless. Woe thewhile! where so many Saxons of fame have proved traitors, and havetouched the mailed hand of the son of the harlot of Falaise infriendship and submission, and have accepted as the gift of the butcherof Hastings the lands and honours which they held from their ancestorsand the best of Saxon kings--where, I say, may we look for such a Saxonpatriot and liberator? Oh, Harold! my lord and king, why tarriest thou?Holy Etheldreda, bring him back to thy shrine, and to the Camp ofRefuge, which will cease to be a refuge for thy servants if Haroldcometh not soon! But, courage my Lord of Crowland! The Philistines arenot upon us; our rivers and ditches and marshes and meres are not yetdrained, and no Saxon in these parts will prove so accursed atraitor[88] as to give the Normans the clue to our labyrinths. Thesaint hath provided another joyous meal for us. Let us be grateful andgay to-night; let us sup well and strongly, that we may be invigoratedand made fit to take strong and wise counsel in the morning."
And heartily did the monks of Ely and their guests renew and finishtheir feast, and hopefully and boldly did they speak of wars andvictories over the Normans, until the drowsiness of much wine overcamethem, and the sub-chamberlain of the house began to extinguish thelights, and collect together the torches and the lanterns, while thecellarer collected all the spoons, taking care to carry the LordAbbat's spoon in his right hand, and the spoons of the monks in hisleft hand, according to the statutes of the Order. It was the last timethat the feast of Saint Edmund the Martyr was kept in the true Saxonmanner in the great house at Ely. The next year, and the year followingthat, the monks had little wine and but little ale to drink; and afterthe long years of trouble although the cellars were getting filledagain, the true old Saxon brotherhood was broken up and mixed, aforeigner was seated in the place of Abbat Thurstan,[89] and monks withmis-shaven tonsures and mis-shaped hoods and gowns filled all thesuperior offices of the abbey, purloining and sending beyond sea whatmy Lord Thurstan had spent in a generous hospitality, among true-bornand generous-hearted Englishmen. But in this nether world even thegifts of saints and the chartered donation of many kings are to be keptonly by the brave and the united: conquest recognises no right exceptas a mockery: the conquered must not expect to be allowed to call theirlife and limbs their own, or the air they breathe their own, or theirwives and children their own, or their souls their own: they have noproperty but in the grave, no right but to die at the hour appointedfor them. Therefore let men perish in battle rather than outlivesubjugation, and look for mercy from conquerors! and, therefore, le
tall the nations of the earth be warned by the fate of the Anglo Saxonsto be always one-hearted for their country.
This patriotic and eloquent appeal may be very appropriately reiterated at the present day. The sentiment which it inculcates is as essential now as it was when the Saxons were defending the "Camp of Refuge." Is it not consolidation rather than extension which is needed for the well being of our country? Will not the future greatness of our nation hinge upon the development of the highest principles of humanity--the unity, loyalty and virtue of its peoples?
The Camp of Refuge: A Tale of the Conquest of the Isle of Ely Page 6
