The Camp of Refuge: A Tale of the Conquest of the Isle of Ely

by Charles MacFarlane

  CHAPTER IX.

  ELFRIC THE EX-NOVICE, AND GIROLAMO OF SALERNO, PREPARE TO PLAY AT DEVILS.

  A feast was prepared in the great hall of the manor-house, and theyoung Lord of Brunn was about sitting down to table with his kinsmenand the good friends that had rallied round him in the hour of need,when Elfric arrived at Brunn from the house of the Ladie Alftrude atEy. To look at Lord Hereward's glad countenance as he talked in acorner of the hall with the new comer, one would have thought that hehad won a fairer house and a wider domain than those of his ancestorsof which he had repossessed himself in the morning. And for that matterhe had won or was winning his way to a better house and greater estate;for had not the fair young heiress of Ey sent again to tell him thatshe abided by her troth-plight, and looked for him to come and rescueher from that burthensome and dishonouring protection of the Normansunder which she had been living! The retainers of her father's house,and all the hinds and serfs, were devoted to her, and ready to receivethe young Lord of Brunn as their own liege lord and deliverer. Herfriends and neighbours had all been consulted, and would assemble inarms and meet Lord Hereward at any hour and place that it might suithim to name. Save some few men-at-arms that were at Crowland to protectthe intrusive Norman monks, there was no Norman force nearer to Ey thanStamford. The season of the year and all things were favourable forrecovering the whole of the fen-country, and for driving the invadersfrom every country in the neighbourhood of the fens.

  After putting a few questions to Elfric, such as lovers usually put totheir pages when they come from seeing their ladie-loves, Herewardasked what force there might be in Crowland Abbey. Elfric said thatthere might be one knight and from ten to fifteen men-at-arms; but thenall the monks that had been so recently brought over from France werefighting men, at a pinch; and these intruders were from thirty to fortyin number, and well provided with weapons and warlike harness. Theyoung man also bade Lord Hereward reflect that the great house atCrowland was not like the cell at Spalding, but a lofty and very strongplace, and built mostly of stone and brick. Elfric too had learned thatCrowland was well stored with provisions, so that it might stand a longsiege.

  "And yet," said the Lord of Brunn, "it is upon the great house ofCrowland that I would fain make my next attempt; and great in every wayare the advantages that would follow the capture of that strong andholy place, and the immediate restoration of the true Saxon Lord Abbatand his dispossessed brethren."

  "My silly head hath been venturing to think of this," said Elfric, "andI very believe that with the aid of Girolamo and with a little of thatblue fire and stinking smoke which he hath the trick of making, I coulddrive knight, men-at-arms, and monks all out of the abbey without anyloss or let to our good Saxons."

  "Why, what wouldst do?" said Hereward.

  "Only this, my lord. I would make the Normans believe that all theblubber-devils of Crowland were come back to earth to drive them fromthe house."

  "I see, yet do not fully comprehend," said Lord Hereward; "but we willtalk of these things with Girolamo to-night, when this my first feastas Lord of Brunn is over, and when every Saxon shall have seen that thehospitality of mine ancestors is not to know decrease in me."

  And late that night, when Hereward's first and most bountiful feast wasover, and when his guests had betaken themselves to the town of Brunn,or to their beds or to clean hay and rushes in the manor-house, Elfricand Girolamo followed Hereward to his inner chamber, and consulted withhim about the best means of driving out the French from Crowland. Firstcrossing himself--for although he feared not man, he had a lively dreadof all manner of goblins and demons--the Lord of Brunn said, "Elfric,thou mayest now tell us about thy Crowland devils."

  "You wist well, my lord," said Elfric, "for who should know it better,that in the heathenish times the whole of the isle[129] of Crowland andall the bogs and pools round about were haunted day and night, but mostat night, by unaccountable troops and legions of devils, withblubber-lips, fiery mouths, scaley faces, beetle heads, sharp longteeth, long chins, hoarse throats, black skins, hump shoulders, bigbellies, burning loins, bandy legs, cloven hoofs for feet, and longtails at their buttocks. And who so well as your lordship knoweth thatthese blubber-fiends, angered at that their fens and stinking poolsshould be invaded, allowed our first monks of Crowland no peace nortruce, but were for ever gibing and mowing at them, biting them withtheir sharp teeth, switching them with their filthy tails, putting dirtin their meat and drink, nipping them by the nose, giving them crampsand rheums and shivering agues and burning fevers, and fustigating andtormenting not a few of the friars even to death! And your lordshipknows that these devils of Crowland were not driven away until the timewhen that very pious man Guthlacus became a hermit there, and cut thesluices that lead from the fetid pools to the flowing rivers. Then, insooth, the devils of Crowland were beaten off by prayer and by holywater, and the horrible blue lights which they were wont to light uponthe most fetid of the pools, ceased to be seen of men."[130]

  "All this legend I know full well," said the Lord of Brunn, explainingit to Girolamo of Salerno, who crossed himself many times as he heardthe description of the very hideous Crowland devils.

  "All that dwell in the fen-country know the legend," continued Elfric;"the house of Crowland is full of the legend, and the usurping Normancrew must know the legend well, and in the guilt of their consciencemust needs tremble at it! The devils are painted in cloister andcorridor, their blue lights are painted, as they used to appear to ourfirst good monks; and the most pious anchorite Guthlacus[131] isdepicted in the act of laying the evil ones. If a Saxon saint laidthem, these Norman sinners have done enough to bring them back again;and it can only be by the bones of our saints and the other Saxonrelics that lie in the church of Crowland, that the devils of Crowlandare prevented from returning. Now all that I would do is this,--I wouldhaunt the house and the fens round about with sham devils, and so makethese Norman intruders believe that the old real blubber-fiends wereupon them! I do not believe they would stand two days and nights ofsuch a siege as I could give them, if your lordship would but consentand Girolamo lend his aid."

  "But were it not sinful for christened Saxon men to play at devils?"

  "Assuredly not, when playing against devils like these Normans, and fora holy end, and for the restoration of such good men and true Saxons asmy Lord Abbat of Crowland and his expelled brotherhood."

  Hereward put the question, as a case of conscience, to Girolamo, as_vir bonus et sapiens_, a good man and learned; and Girolamo was ofopinion that, as the wicked ofttimes put on the semblance of saints todo mischief, the good might, with certain restrictions, be allowed toput on the semblance of devils to do good. His patron Hereward, hesaid, would give him credit for being a true believer, and a devout,though weak and sinful, son of the church, yet would he think it no sinto play the part of a Crowland devil, or to give to Elfric the benefitof his science in making ghastly blue lights, or in causing flames toappear on the surface of the stagnant waters, or in fact in doinganything that might be required of him in order to scare away theNormans. Hereward had still some misgivings, but he yielded to therepresentations of Elfric and the exceeding great earnestness ofGirolamo; and when he dismissed them for the night he said, "Well,since you will have it so, go and play at devils in Crowland. Only havea care that ye be not taken or slain, and be back to this house as soonas ye can; for if Crowland cannot be taken, we must try and blockadeit, and proceed to Ey to collect more strength."

  "I have good hope, my lord," said Girolamo; "for with my white magic Ican do things that will carry terror to the hearts of these untaughtNormans; and then this young man Elfric hath ever succeeded in all thathe hath attempted: he already knoweth enough of my language (thanks tothe little Latin he got as a novice) to make out my meaning and to actas my interpreter to others. He tells me that even should the devilexperiment fail, he can assure our retreat, with scarcely any chance ofdanger."

  "Then go, Girolamo, and t
ake with thee such men and boats and otherappliances as thou mayest need. But have a care, for I have work onhand that cannot be done without thee; and if I lose Elfric I lose thenimblest-witted of all my Saxons. So good night, and may the blessedsaints go with ye both, although ye be dressed in devils' skins!"

  "Brother devil, that is to be," said Elfric to the Salernitan, "therebe bulls' hides and bulls' horns in the out-houses; and good coils ofiron chain in the kitchen, to do the clanking."

  "Boy," said Girolamo, "thou hast but a vulgar idea about demons! Dostthink I am going to make jack-pudding devils, such as are gazed at atwakes and country fairs? No, no; I will give you devils of another sortI guess. But leave all that to me, and apply your own mind to the meansof getting into the house at Crowland or of establishing acorrespondence therein, so that the Normans may be devil-ridden insideas well as outside."

  "And do thou, great master Girolamo, leave that to me," said Elfric,"for I know some that are within the house of Crowland that would facethe real devil and all his legions for the chance of driving out theFrench abbat and friars; and if I myself do not know every dark corner,every underground passage, and every hiding-hole in and about thehouse, why there is no one living that hath such knowledge."

  Here the two separated. The young Saxon lay down on some rushes nearthe door of Lord Hereward's chamber, and pulling his cloak over hisface was soon fast asleep: the Salernitan, who had a chamber all tohimself, sat up till a late hour among the packages and vessels he hadbrought with him: and yet was he ready to start on his journey forCrowland at the first glimpse of day. Those who entered his room in themorning, just after he was gone, smelt a strong smell of sulphur: and,sorely to Girolamo's cost, some louts remembered this smell at a laterseason.