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

by Charles MacFarlane

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  THE DANES AND THEIR KING'S SON.

  Svend Estrithson sat upon the throne of Danemarck, and was a powerfulking and a great warrior, having fought many battles by sea against hisneighbour the King of Norway. When his brother Osbiorn Jarl abandonedthe Saxons and returned from England into Danemarck, Svend Estrithsonwas exceedingly wroth at him, and his anger was the greater because theJarl had not only lost the treasure which William the Norman had givenhim as the price of his treasons to the English people, but had lostlikewise nearly the whole of the Danish fleet; for a great storm aroseat sea and swallowed up most of the two hundred and forty returningships.[187] Osbiorn Jarl escaped drowning; but when he presentedhimself before the face of his brother the king, Svend loaded him withreproaches, deprived him of his lands and honours, and drove him into adisgraceful banishment.[188] Even thus was bad faith punished, andvengeance taken upon the Danes for that they had both plundered andbetrayed the Saxon people, who were fighting for their libertiesagainst the Normans.

  Svend Estrithson, being of the line of the great King Canute,[189]raised some claim to the throne of England, and had ever considered hisright better and more legal than that of William of Normandie. Beforethe arrival at his court of the earnest invitation of the monks of Elyand the great Saxon lords in the Camp of Refuge, he had resolved in hisown mind to try his fortune once more on our side the sea, hoping thatif he should do no more he should at least be enabled to make up forthe loss of his great fleet, a loss which pressed heavily upon hisheart, and destroyed his peace by day and his rest by night. He hadsummoned his jarls and chiefs, the descendants of the sea-kings orgreat pirates of old, and had taken counsel of the old sea-rovers andwarriors who had been in England with the great Canute, or who hadserved under Canute's sons, King Harold Harefoot and King Hardicanute.Now these jarls and chiefs, together with many of their followers, werewell acquainted with all the eastern side of England from the Scottishborder to the end of Cornwall; and they knew every bay, harbour, andcreek on the coast, and all the deep inlets of the sea and the riverswhich gave access to the interior of the country, for they had warredor plundered in them all, aforetime. Being called upon by King Svend togive their advice, these chiefs and nobles all said that anotherexpedition ought to be attempted without loss of time; and it wasagreed at a great meeting of the Viborgting, which corresponds with theWitangemot of old England, that another great fleet should be gotready, and that the king or his eldest son should take the command ofit. Some doubts, however, occurred as to the present strength of theNormans and the present condition of the English; and, although theymeant to betray them or conquer them themselves, the Danes proposed tobegin merely as allies of the English,[190] and felt little good couldbe done unless the English on the eastern coast were unsubdued by theNormans, and ready to receive the Danes with open arms. At thisjuncture a ship arrived from Lynn with the envoy from the Camp ofRefuge on board. As soon as the Englishman had presented the lettersand the gold and silver he brought to Svend Estrithson, the king calledtogether his great council. The envoy from the Camp of Refuge wasallowed to speak at great length before the council, and the shipmen ofLynn were more privately examined touching the present situation ofaffairs in the fen country. All doubts were removed, and the fleet wasforthwith ordered to get ready for the voyage to England. Already manythousands of long and yellow-haired warriors had been collected for theenterprise, and now many thousands more flocked towards the fleet fromall parts of Jutland, Zealand, and Holstein, and from Stralsund and theIsle of Rugen, and the other isles that stand near the entrance of theBaltic Sea; for whenever an expedition to the rich and fertile countryof the Anglo-Saxons was on foot, the hearts of the Danes rejoiced inthe prospect of good booty, even as the hearts of the coast-dwellingpeople rejoice when they hear that a rich wreck or a large fat whalehath been stranded near to their doors. King Svend Estrithson, of acertainty, would have gone himself[191] into England with the fleet,but his royal shield fell to the ground and broke as he was lifting itdown from the wall, and a hare crossed his path as he was walking inhis garden, and the priest his chaplain sneezed three times while hewas saying mass before him, and he was greatly enamoured of thePrincess Gyda,[192] and in consequence of all these evil omens the kingresolved to stay at home, and to send his eldest son Knut intoEngland.[193] Taking with him the royal standard of the black raven,and many jarls of high renown into his own ship, Knut began his voyageforthwith, being followed by two hundred and fifty keels, large andsmall. The royal ship was rich and splendid; it had thirty benches ofrowers; its prow was adorned with a dragon's head, the eyes of whichwere of precious stones and the tongue of red gold; and the sides andthe stern of the ship glowed with burnished gold; the whole body of theship glittered in the sun like some great and marvellous fish or someswimming dragon; and, in sooth, the whole ship was dragon-shaped. Themasts and the cordage and the sails were surpassing rich and gay; themasts were covered with ivory and pearl, the cords seemed to be coveredwith white silk, and the sails were of many and bright colours. Therewere cloths of gold spread all about, and the flag that waved at themainmast-head was all of silk and gold; and the windlass and the rudderwere bepainted with blue and gold. And on board this right royal shipevery warrior wore bright steel-chain armour, and carried a shield andbattle-axe inlaid with gold and jewels, and each of value enough topurchase a hide of land. A few other ships there were in this greatfleet only a little less splendid than that of Knut. The rest were of acoarser make, and with no adornments about them except the figure-headat the prow and the banner at the mast-head; and they varied in sizeand burthen from the great ship which could carry two hundred fightingmen, down to the little bark which carried but ten. To speak the truth,many of the fleet were little better than fishing barks. The summerwind blew fresh and fair for England, the waves seethed before theirprows, and on the morning of that glad evening at Brunn when LordHereward captured Torauld of Fescamp and put Ivo Taille-Bois to flightand shame, nearly the whole of the great fleet came to anchor off theWash, and not far from the chapel of our Ladie. Knut, the king's son,being uncertain and suspicious, like one that had treacherous plans inhis own mind, despatched one of his smallest and poorest keels with acrafty and keen-sighted chief up the Wash and up the Ouse, to conferwith Abbat Thurstan and the Saxon chiefs at Ely, to spy into thecondition of the Camp of Refuge, and to invite the Lord Abbat and someof the great chiefs to come down to Lynn, in order to hold there asolemn conference with his jarls and chiefs. The messenger-barkproceeded on her voyage prosperously, and landed the cunning Dane atEly. Good Abbat Thurstan wondered and grieved that the prince had notcome himself; yet he bade his envoy welcome, and feasted him in hishall. But still more did Thurstan wonder and grieve when he was toldthat Knut meant not to come to Ely, but was calling for a congress atLynn.

  "There may be danger," said the Lord Abbat to the cunning old envoy,"if I quit this house, and the great thanes leave the Camp of Refuge,though only for a short season; but there can be no peril in thyprince's coming hither, and assuredly it is only here that we canentertain him as the son of a great king ought to be entertained."

  The old Dane said that the prince his master had schemes of operationwhich would not allow him to send his ships up the Ouse for thispresent; that he would come hereafter, when good progress should havebeen made in the war against the Normans; and that in the meanwhile itwere best for my Lord Abbat, and some other of the prelates, and someof the great lay lords, to go down to Lynn and hold a conference, andmake a combined plan of operations with the prince and the jarls.

  Much did the Saxon lords wish to make out what was the nature of theplan the prince had already adopted; but the astutious old envoy wouldtell them nothing, and protested that he knew nothing about it. TheSaxons plied him hard with wine; but the more he drank, the more closethe old Dane became. And although he would tell nothing himself, hewanted to know everything from the English: as, what was the streng
thof their army in the Camp of Refuge--what their means ofsubsistence--what the names of all their chiefs--what theircorrespondence and alliance with other Saxon chiefs in other parts ofEngland--what the strength of the Normans in various parts of England,and which the provinces and the chiefs that had entirely submitted tothem, with many other particulars. It was too confiding, and indeedvery unwise so to do; but the Saxons, albeit often betrayed before now,were not much given to suspicion, and so they satisfied him accordingto the best of their knowledge on all these points, and conducted himinto their camp that he might see with his own eyes how matters stoodthere, and afforded him all possible opportunities of judging forhimself as to the means they had in hand, and the chances they had ofsuccessfully terminating a struggle which had already lasted for years.The crafty old man thought the nakedness of the land much greater thanit really was, and he afterwards made a report conformably to Knut hismaster and prince. Yet, on the morrow morning, when he was about totake his departure from the ever hospitable house of Ely, he took theLord Abbat aside, and with bland looks and most gentle voice asked himwhether he had not in the abbey some small matter to send as a presentand welcoming gift to the royal Dane. Now good Thurstan, who was neverof those that had expected a vast and unmingled good from the coming ofthe Danes, told him how he had broken open the shrine-boxes andstripped the shrines, and contaminated the house with dealing withusurers, in order to get what had been sent into Danemarck as a presentfor the king.

  "But," said the greedy Dane, "have there been no pilgrims to thy shrinesince then?"

  "Nay," said the Lord Abbat, "some few there have been that have lefttheir little offerings; and, doubtless, many more will come ere manydays be past, for in this blessed month occur the festivals of oursaints, to wit, that of Saint Sexburga, queen and second abbess of thishouse, and that of her kinswoman and successor, Saint Withburga, virginand abbess. On such seasons the donations of the faithful were wont tobe most liberal; but alas! few are the Saxons now that have anythingleft to give to Saxon saints! And the matter we have in our coffers atthis present is too small for a gift to a prince, and is, moreover,much needed by this impoverished brotherhood."

  To this the cunning, clutching old Dane said that a small matter wasbetter than no money at all; that it had been the custom in all timesto propitiate kings and princes with free gifts; that the Lord Abbathad better send such gold and silver as he had; and that the great Knutmight come up to Ely after the festival of the two saints, when theshrine-boxes would be fuller, and so give the monks of Ely occasion tomake a more suitable offering.

  At these words Lord Thurstan grew red in the face, and stared at theDane with a half incredulous look; and then he said, "Wouldst thou skinus alive? Wouldst take the last silver penny? Wouldst see the shrinesof four among the greatest of our saints left in dirt and darkness?Dane, can it be that thou art herein doing the bidding of a royal and aChristian prince? Hast thou thy master's orders to ask that which thouart asking?"

  Not a whit discountenanced, the old Dane said that men who lived withprinces learned to know their wishes, and hastened to execute them,without waiting for express commands; and that he must repeat that hethought the best thing the Abbat of Ely could do would be to sendPrince Knut all the money he had in the house.

  "By the rood," quoth Thurstan, still more angered, "these Danes be asrapacious as the Normans! By Saint Sexburga and Saint Witburga, and byevery other good saint in the calendarium, I will not consent to this!I will not rob the shrines to get a mere beggar's alms. I cannot do thething thou askest of mine own authority. Such matters must be discussedin full chapter, and settled by the votes of the officials andcloister-monks of the house. But I will not do even so much as to namethe matter!"

  "Then," said the phlegmatic old Dane, "I will speak to the prior, or tothe chamberlain, or to some other official; and as time presses, myLord Abbat, thou wilt hold me excused if I go and do it at once!"

  And thus saying, he left good Thurstan, and went to some of the monkswho had been standing near enough to overhear every word that had beensaid since the Lord Abbat waxed warm. The envious prior was there, andbeing ever ready to give pain to his superior, he proposed that thechapter should be summoned on the instant. This being agreed to by themajor part, the monks withdrew towards the chapter-house, the cunningand cool old Dane saying to some of them as they went thither, that hemuch feared that if any distaste or disappointment were given to Knut,he would take his fleet back to Danemarck and do nothing for theEnglish. Short, therefore, was the chapter, and decisive the vote,notwithstanding the opposition of Thurstan and a few others: theshrine-boxes were again emptied, and the truly beggar-like amount ofsilver and gold was put into a silken purse to be carried to Lynn. Soincensed was the bounteous Lord Abbat, who ever had a large heart and ascorn for mean and covetous things, that he almost vowed not to go backwith the old Dane to salute his royal master, and be present at thedelivery of such a gift; but he bethought him that if he went not theprior must go, and that if the prior went some evil might come of it.And so the right noble Abbat of Ely went down to Lynn, together withthe exiled abbats of other houses and sundry lords from the Camp ofRefuge, much wishing that the Lord of Brunn were with him to aid him inthe conference.

  As Thurstan landed at Lynn, where he expected to see the royal ship anda good part of its attendant fleet, he was mortified to find that therewere no ships there except a few Lynn barques; and, upon going into thetown, he was yet more disappointed and distressed by hearing, from somegood Saxons who had come in from the hamlets on the coast, that theDanish fleet had sailed away to the northward, leaving only a few ofthe smaller barks at the anchorage near the Wash. Sharply did hequestion the old Dane as to these movements. The Dane said that it waspossible the prince had run a little along the north coast to pick upnews, and that it was quite certain he would soon be back. More thanthis he would not say, except that patience was a virtue. Some of ourSaxons went almost mad with impatience; but on the next day theyreceived intelligence that the fleet had returned to the anchorage offthe chapel of our Ladie, and on the day next after that, Knut, with sixof his largest ships, sailed up the Wash. In his run to the northward,if he had not picked up much news, he had picked up every English shipor barque that he found afloat, and he had plundered every defencelessvillage or township that lay near to that coast. He now cast his anchora long way before he came to Lynn, and instead of proceeding to thatgood town to meet the English prelates and nobles, he sent up amessenger to summon them on board his own ship. At this the Abbat ofEly was much vexed and startled; and he said to himself, "Who shalltell me that this is not a plot, and that the Danes will not seize usand carry us off, or even deliver us up to the Normans?" but nearly allthose who had accompanied him from Ely despaired of the salvation ofEngland without Danish assistance, and were eager to go on ship-boardand meet the prince in the way it pleased him to prescribe, andThurstan grew ashamed of his fears and suspicions. Other good men,however, had their suspicions as well as the Lord Abbat; and when heembarked in the small Danish craft which had been left waiting for theenvoy at Lynn, many trusty Saxons of the township and vicinage wouldabsolutely go with him, and every bark or boat that could swim wascrowded by the bold Lynn mariners, and rowed down to the Wash.

  Knut, the son of the king of Danemarck, standing on his proud gildedship, received the English prelates and chiefs with great stateliness,yet not without courtesy; and when the silken purse and the scrapingsof the shrine-treasures had been presented to him (Thurstan blushingthe while), he sat down with his jarls on one side of a long table, andthe Englishmen sat down on the opposite side; and then the conferencebegan. Unhapily for the English landsmen a summer storm began to blowat the same time, causing the royal ship to roll, and thus making themfeel the terrible sickness of the sea. At this Thurstan almost wishedthat he had let the prior come, instead of coming himself. Knut, theprince, spoke first in a very few words, and then his jarls furtherpropounded and explained his plan of the war. The Danes ind
eed hadnearly all the talking to themselves, for not many of them understoodwhat the English said, or had patience to hear it interpreted; thequalms and sickness of the English almost took away their power ofspeech, and, moreover, they very soon discovered that nothing theycould say had any effect in altering the opinions and decisions of thepredetermined Danes. It was grievous, they said that the English, whohad been so rich, should now have so little money to share with theirfriends and deliverers! They hoped that the good prelates and lordswould be able to hold out in the isle of Ely and throughout the fencountry; and as they had held out so long, no doubt they could hold outlonger. In the meanwhile they, their good allies the Danes, woulddivide their fleet, and scour all the coast, and sail up all the greatrivers, for this would distract the attention of the Normans, wouldalarm them at one and the same time in many different and distantplaces, and infallibly compel them to recall their forces fromCam-bridge and Stamford, and to give up all premeditated attacks on thefen country.

  "Aye," said a sea-rover, whose yellow hair had grown as white as snowwith excess of age, and whose sunken eye glistened at the memory ofpast adventures of that sort, "Aye, Saxons! we will sweep all thiseastern coast from north to south and from south to north, as with abesom! We will sail or row our barks up every river that flows into thesea on this side of your island, and that hath keels on its waters ortowns on its banks. Tweed, Tyne, and Humber, Trent, Orwell, Stour, andThamesis, with all the rivers that run between them or into them, shallhear our war-cry as of yore!"

  "But, alas!" said one of the Saxon lords, "who will suffer in this kindof war but the Saxons? The Normans have very few ships. The ships onthe coast and on the rivers, and the townships and hamlets, are allEnglish still, and cannot be seized or destroyed without ruin to us andthe cause which the king of Danemarck hath engaged to support."

  The old sea-rover was silent, and the other Danes pretended not tounderstand what the Saxon lord said. Abbat Thurstan told the princethat of a surety the Saxons in the Camp of Refuge could continue todefend themselves; but that they could do still better if the Daneswould spare them some arms and other warlike harness, and remain for awhile in the Wash and in the rivers which empty themselves into it, inorder to co-operate with the Saxons. Knut, who well knew that there wasnothing to be picked up in those waters, shook his head, and said thathis own plan was the best, and could not be altered; and that, touchingthe matter of arms and harness, he had none to spare, but that he wouldsend over to the Netherlanders' country and buy, _if_ the Saxons wouldgive him the money. Here the abbat and the Saxon lords were silent. Butwhen Knut spoke of the great losses which the Danes had suffered in thefoundering of their return fleet the year before,[194] Thurstanreddened and said, "The Jarl Osbiorn acted a traitorous part, and hathbeen treated as a traitor by his brother and king. That loss was thedirect judgment of Heaven! The fleet was loaded with the spoils ofEngland and with the money taken from the Norman for betraying theEnglish! Prince, and jarls all! if ye be come to do as Osbiorn did lastyear, I say look to your fleet, and look to the health of your ownsouls!"

  Hereupon Knut and his great chiefs began to cross themselves, and tomake many promises and protestations; and then the prince called forwine and pledged the Lord Abbat of Ely and the other English lords, layand ecclesiastic, severally: and when they had all drunk wine, he brokeup the conference and dismissed them in a very unhappy state both ofmind and of stomach, for the storm had increased, and the wine was sourand bad. The royal Dane hauled in his anchors and set sail to get outof the Wash and from among the dangerous sandbanks. As soon as theSaxon lords got ashore at Lynn, and free from their exceeding greatsickness, Thurstan said that he greatly feared a woeful error had beencommitted in inviting the Danes back again, and that a short time wouldshow that the Lord of Brunn had been quite right in recommending theSaxons to trust to their own arms and efforts for their independence;but those lords who had voted for the invitation said that it was clearthe Danes would have come back whether they had been invited or not,and that it was equally clear that England could not be saved withoutthe aid of some foreign nation. These lords also thought that a crownedking like Svend Estrithson would not break his royal word, and that theprince his son would not act like Osbiorn, albeit he might, in theancient manner of the Danes, be too eager to scour the seas and riversand capture whatever he might find, whether it belonged to friend orfoe, to Saxon or to Norman. Yet, truth to say, these lords were farfrom feeling assured, and save one or two, that were afterwards provedto be false traitors in their hearts, they all returned to Ely saddermen than they were when they left it to go to meet Knut.

  That which the white-headed sea-rover had said, and a great deal morethan he uttered, speedily came to pass: north and south the Englishcoast was plundered; and, ascending the many rivers in their lightervessels and in their boats, the Danes went far into the interior of thecountry, pillaging, burning, and destroying, even as their forefathershad done in the heathenish times. Up the broad Humber they went untilthey got into the Yorkshire Ouse, and they would have gone on to thecity of York, but that it was strongly garrisoned by Normans, and thewhole country a desert--a desert which Osbiorn and his evil company hadmade in the preceding year. On the river Yare they went as high as thegood city of Norwich, but they ventured not to attack the Normans inthat place.[195] The Waveney, too, and the Ald they visited, nor leftthe poor Saxons there so much as a fishing-boat. Up the river Deeben asfar as the wood bridge, where a pleasant town hath since risen; andbetween the pleasant, green-wooded banks of the Orwell, they sailedmany a league. After ravaging the banks of the Stour, Knut collectedall his ships together and then spread his sails on the smooth Medwayand the broad Thamesis, going up the Thamesis almost to London; andthen mooring his ships, and making a great show as though he intendedto land an army and lay siege to the Tower of London, which the Normanswere then busily enlarging and strengthening.

  Not all the doings of the Danes, and the robberies and cruelties theycommitted upon poor defenceless Saxons, could be known in the Camp ofRefuge; yet enough was known by the report of the country people togrieve every English heart in the camp, and to confirm the worstsuspicions which Abbat Thurstan had conceived. On the other hand, itwas made apparent that the Normans were greatly distracted by this newinvasion, and that, while their vicomtes and knights and men-at-armswere marching in almost every other direction, none of them came nearto the last asylum of Saxon liberty. In truth, the posts which hadpreviously been drawn round the fen country were so far weakened thatthe Lord Hereward, who had again taken a direct and entire command inthe Camp of Refuge, made several good sallies from the fens and broughtback not a few Norman prisoners, together with good store of provision.

  Matters were in this good train in the camp when intelligence wasbrought that Knut, with the whole of his mighty fleet, had returned tothe Wash. The Danish faction, or all those Saxon lords who counted moreupon Danish assistance than upon their own valour and the valour oftheir countrymen, were greatly rejoiced at these tidings, and would notallow any man to doubt that Knut, having made good seizings and spoils,was now come to co-operate with the English warriors and their greatcaptain the Lord of Brunn; and these unwise lords, being partly guidedor misguided by traitors, outvoted the Lord Abbat, and sent down adeputation to Lynn to salute and welcome the royal Dane, and to invitehim and escort him to Ely. And this time Knut was nothing loth to come:and he came up the river with a part of his fleet of ships and withmany of his jarls and most famed warriors. Crowned kings had visitedthe great house of Ely before now, and kings of the Danish as well asof the Saxon line, but to none of them had there been given a moresplendid feast than was now given to Knut, who as yet was but a jarland a king's son. The Saxon dames of high name and beauty came in fromthe Camp of Refuge, or from houses in the township of Ely, or incircumjacent hamlets, to welcome the princely stranger and adorn thefestival; and fairest among these fair was Alftrude, the young wife ofthe Lord of Brunn. The Lord Hereward himself was there, but much l
esscheerful and festive than was his wont; for on his last sally from thefens he had heard more than he knew before of the evil doings of theDane; and, moreover, he had ever suspected their good faith.

  When the feasting was over, the cunning old Dane, that had come up toEly before as envoy from the prince, began to relate what greatmischief Knut had done to Duke William, and what great service he hadrendered to the House of Ely and the Camp of Refuge, and the whole fencountry, by the diversion he had made with his ships; and before any ofthe Saxon lords could reply or make any observation upon these hiswords, the astute Dane asked whether the festivals of Saint Sexburgaand Saint Withburga had been well attended by pilgrims, and whether theshrine-boxes had had a good replenishing? The chamberlain, who oughtnot to have spoken before his superior the Lord Abbat, said that thefestivals had been thronged, and that, considering the troublesometimes, the donations of the pilgrims had been liberal.

  "That is well," said the old fox, "for our ships have had much wear andtear, and stand in need of repairs; and the prince wants some gold andsilver to pay his seamen and his fighting men, who are growing wearyand dissatisfied for want of pay."

  Here the Lord Abbat looked rather grim, and said, "Of a truth I thoughtthat thy people had made great booty! By Saint Etheldreda, the founderof this house--the house was never so poor as it now is, or had suchurgent need of money as it now hath! By my soul it is but a smallmatter that is in our shrine-boxes, and all of it, and more than all,is due unto the Jews!"

  "It is sinful and heathenish to pay unto Jews the gold and silver whichChristian pilgrims have deposited on the shrines of their saints," saidone of the Danish jarls.

  And hereat the Lord Abbat Thurstan blushed and held down his head, muchgrieving that, though against his vote and will, the house had beendriven to traffic with Israelites and money-changers; yet stillremembering that this evil thing had been begun in order to get moneyto send to the insatiate Danes. All this while Prince Knut kept hisstate, and said not a word. But the cunning old man went on to say,that hitherto the profits of the expedition had not been half enough topay King Svend Estrithson the price of half the ships he had lost lastyear; and that, although the amount of gold and silver in theshrine-boxes might be but small, there was a rumour that there wasother good treasure in the house.[196]

  Here it was that the Lord of Brunn grew red, for he was the first tounderstand that the greedy Dane meant to speak of the chalices andpateras, the crown of gold, the gold and silver tables, and the otherthings of great price that he had brought away with him fromPeterborough in order that they might be saved from Torauld of Fescamp.Again speaking, when he ought not to have spoken--before Abbat Thurstancould speak or collect his thoughts--the chamberlain said, "Verily, ohDane! I have under my charge some strong boxes which the Lord of Brunnsent hither from Peterborough; and, albeit, I know not with precisionwhat these strong boxes contain..."

  Here Abbat Thurstan stopped the talkative chamberlain and said, "Letthe strong boxes contain what they will, the contents are none of ours!They be here as a sacred deposit, to be returned to the _good_ monks ofPeterborough when they can get back to their house and their church,and live without dread of Saxon traitors and Norman plunderers!"

  But many of the Danes, believing the Peterborough treasure to be fargreater than it was, said that it would be no such sin to employ it forsecular purposes, or to give it for the support of friends and allieswho had quitted their homes and their countries, and had crossed thestormy ocean to aid the English; for that, when the Danes and theEnglish between them should have driven the Normans out of the land,there would be no lack of gold and silver wherewith to replace thesacred vessels, and to give back to Peterborough Abbey far more thanhad been taken from it. Some of them declared, and severally promisedand swore by their own saints, that if Knut, their leader, and the sonof their king, was but gratified in this particular, he would land allhis best warriors and join Hereward the Saxon, and so go in search ofDuke William and bring the Normans to battle: and if Knut did not swearby his saints, or say much by word of mouth, he nodded his head andseemed to consent--the christened infidel, and unprince-like princethat he was.

  It may be judged whether Lord Hereward was not eager for such anincrease of strength as might enable him to carry the war into theheart of England or under the walls of the city of London! It may bejudged whether he did not burn for the opportunity of fighting a greatand decisive battle: but Hereward had a reverence for the property ofthe church, and a great misgiving of the Danes; and he whispered to hisbest friend, the Lord Abbat, "If we put this guilt upon our souls, andgive these insatiate Danes all that they ask, they will do not for usthat which they promise, but will sail away in their ships with theplunder they have made as soon as the storms of winter approach."

  This too was the doubt if not the entire belief of Thurstan. But thechamberlain and the prior called out aloud for a chapter; and those whowere of a party with the prior and chamberlain laboured might and mainto convince the whole brotherhood that the Danes ought to be gratified,and that they could be gratified without sin. Nay, some of themwhispered to the more timid part of the community, that if thePeterborough treasure, as well as the shrine-money, were not quietlygiven to Knut, he would take it by force, as the house and the avenuesto it were filled with his armed men, and as his barks were lying closeunder the abbey walls. The call for a chapter now became so loud andgeneral that the Lord Abbat could not resist it; and so, leaving hisguests in the hall, Thurstan went to the chapter-house, and, beingfollowed by all who were competent to vote, the doors were closed, andthe brotherhood deliberated. That deliberation was long, and would havebeen longer but for the impatience of the Danes, who vociferated in thehall, and even went the length of running to the door of thechapter-house and striking upon it, with loud and most unmannerlyshoutings. At last it was resolved by the majority, and sorely againstthe will of the Lord Abbat, that the Danes should have theshrine-money, with other Ely treasure, and all the Peterboroughtreasure,[197] with the exception of the relics, for which it wasthought they would care but little, inasmuch as they were not relics ofDanish saints.

  Thurstan was so grieved at this resolution that he would not report itin the hall; but the prior gladly charged himself with the office, andthen he and the chamberlain and the sacrist conveyed the cunning oldDane, and the prince, his master, into the treasury of the house, andthere counted and delivered over to them all the gold and silver, andall the gilded crosses and silver vessels, and all the silks andhangings, with everything else which had been brought fromPeterborough, except the relics. But even these last were taken out ofthe reliquaries which held them, as the said reliquaries were made ofgold and of silver, or of crystal and amber curiously wrought, and soKnut would carry them away with him.

  Let Peterborough weep for its own, and Ely weep for that which was itsown![198] King Canute, who had so loved to keep the festival of thePurification in great solemnity at Ely Abbey, had once brought his wifeunto the abbey, and Emma, the queen, had given many rich gifts to thechurch. A piece of purple cloth, wrought with gold and set with jewels,such as there was none like it in the kingdom, she offered to St.Etheldreda; and to the other saints there, she offered to each of thema covering of silk, embroidered and set with jewels, but of less valuethan the former. Also did Emma, the queen of King Canute, give, as acovering for the high altar, a large pall of a green colour, adornedwith plates of gold, to be used on the grand festivals; and to beplaced over this she gave a great piece of fine linen of a deep redcolour; and this linen covered the whole of the altar, and reached fromthe corners quite down to the ground, and it had a gold fringe morethan a foot in breadth, and making a rich and glorious show. PrinceKnut knew of these precious gifts of Queen Emma, for the fame of themhad gone into foreign lands, and therefore his cunning old man askedfor them and got them, to the great displeasure of the saints.

  As the Danes were carrying all this treasure down to their ships, thecunning old man renewed his assurances that
the prince, being thusgratified, would soon do great things for the Saxon cause. Herewardasked the old man in his plain direct way, _when_ Knut would land hiswarriors? The cunning man replied, that it was not for him to fix theday and hour, but that his lordship would soon hear news of the fleet.The Lord of Brunn then turned aside and said to the Lord Abbat--"BySaint Ovin and his cross, I believe the first news will be that thefleet has started back to Danemarck! Let us yet stop this treasure andsend them away empty-handed, at least from Ely! I care nought for theirserried ranks, and ponderous battle-axes. We have a good force, my LordAbbat, in the township, and, were that not more than enough, a fewblasts of the Saxon horn would bring us warriors from the Camp!"

  "My son," said Thurstan, "I fear their battle-axes no more than thoudost; but I cannot dare act in violation of the decisions of thechapter. Alas! there are jealousies and animosities enough already. Assure as the sun shines in the heavens, that dark browed, envious prioris in a plot against me! Could he find the opportunity, he woulddeprive me of my authority by a vote of the house in chapter. I darenot resist the will of the majority: the gold and the treasure musteven go, since traitors and fools, but more fools than traitors, haveso willed it."

  "Then," quoth the Lord of Brunn, "Let us only hope and pray that thisKnut may have more good faith and honour than we give him credit for."

  "I will speak to him again, ere he depart," said the Abbat.

  And Thurstan spoke earnestly to Knut, and Knut nodded his head, anduttered many Ahs! and Ohs! but said nothing farther. It was thought bysome that this taciturnity did not proceed from choice but fromnecessity, as the son of the Danish King had swallowed a prodigiousquantity of wine, and could hardly stand on his legs without support.And in the drinking of wine and strong drinks, if other nationsmarvelled at the Saxons, the Saxons themselves marvelled at the Danes.So great was the quantity consumed on this day that the wine-cellars atEly, which had not been replenished since Lord Hereward's first returnfrom foreign parts, were left almost dry. And thus, having drunk nearlyall the wine and taken off all the treasure of the house, the Danes andtheir prince got back to their ships. Knut stood up on the deck of theroyal galley, just under the royal standard of Danemarck, and made somegestures, as though he would make a speech. Such of the monks of Ely,and such of the Saxon lay lords as had given him their attendance tothe water-side, stood a-tip-toe on the river-bank, and strained theireyes to see, and opened wide their ears to hear; but nothing came fromKnut but an Ah! and an Oh! and a loud hickup; and the galley beingunmoored and the rowers on their banks, Knut waved his hand, and thevessel glided down the river towards Lynn.

  That very night the town of Lynn, which had received the Danish fleetin all friendship and with much hospitality, was plundered and set fireto; and before the next night the whole fleet had quitted the Wash andthe English coast, and was in full sail for Danemarck, loaded with theplunder of England and with the money which had been again paid by theNormans as the price of Danish treachery.

  Even while he was lying in the river Thamesis[199] with his greatfleet, and was seeming to threaten the Tower of London, Knut receivedon board envoys and rich presents from Duke William, and was easilymade to sign a treaty of amity and alliance with the Normans, even ashis uncle Osbiorn had done the year before. And did the traitorousDanes enjoy the spoil they had gotten? Not so. When they got into themiddle of the sea there arose a violent storm and dispersed the shipswherein were lodged the spoils made at Ely[200] and at other places,and some of these ships went to Norway, some to Ireland, and some tothe bottom of the sea; and all of the spoils of Ely and Peterboroughthat reached Danemarck consisted of a table and a few reliquaries andcrucifixes; and these things, being deposited in the church of a townbelonging to King Svend, were consumed by fire, for the careless anddrunken shipmen set fire to the town and church by night,[201] and socaused the loss of much more treasure than that which the shipmen hadbrought with them from England. The amount of the total treasure paidto Knut by Duke William was never known with any certainty in England,out of the very vitals of which it was torn; but it is known in anotherplace, where all these acts of treachery are recorded, and heavily willit press upon the soul of Knut, and upon the selfish soul of hisfather, Svend Estrithson, who ratified the foul bargain he had made.And, even in this world, hath not the avenging hand of Heaven smittenthem twain? Hath not the excommunication of the holy church fallentwice upon Svend? Hath not unnatural warfare raged long between thesons of Svend, and hath not Knut been murdered in his prime--aye,murdered, in a church, to which he fled for sanctuary? He had offendedthe saints by his broken faith, and by plundering the shrines inEngland; and therefore no shrine or altar could save him from thetreachery and malice of his own subjects.

  All the evils done to England by Knut and his Danes are not yet told,but they will plainly appear hereafter.