The Camp of Refuge: A Tale of the Conquest of the Isle of Ely
Page 24
CHAPTER XXII.
HEREWARD BRINGS CORN AND WINE TO ELY.
There was no cloister-monk of Ely that better knew the legends of thehouse than Elfric, for his father, Goodman Hugh, who had dwelt by saintOvin's cross, and his father's father who had dwelt in the same place,had been great fenners and fowlers and gossips, and had hawked with thebest of the abbats and monks, and had stored their memories with thehistory of the abbey and the saints of Ely, and had amused andsanctified the long winter-nights, when the fire of wood mixed withpeat burned brightly on their hearth, by relating to little Elfric allthe legends that they knew. Now there was one of these which had made aprofound impression upon Elfric's mind, which, by nature, lovedadventure and ingenious stratagem. It was a short tale, and simplewithal, and easy to tell.
Saint Withburga, the fourth in order of the four great female saintsthat were and are the ornaments and shining lights of the great house,did not live and die as her sister Saint Etheldreda had done, at Ely,and as Lady Abbess. In her infancy she was sent to nurse at a villagecalled Holkham, belonging to the king her father, Anna, king of theEast Angles. In this place she lived many years, whence the village ofHolkham was sometimes called Withburgstowe, and a church was builtthere in memory of her. On the death of the king her father, whichbefel in the year of grace six hundred and fifty-four, Withburgaremoved from Holkham to Dereham, another village in the country of EastAnglia; and here, affecting a retired and religious life, she founded amonastery of nuns, over which she presided for many years. Peaceful andholy was her life, and blessed was her end. When she died, they buriedher there, in the churchyard at Dereham.[221] And lo! after many moreyears had passed, and the other tenants of this churchyard and eventhose that had been buried long after had mouldered into dust, thegrave of Withburga being opened, her body was found entire and withoutthe slightest sign of corruption! Aye, there she lay in her shroud andcoffin, with her hands crossed upon her breast, and with her littlecrucifix of silver lying upon her breast, even as she had lain on thebier on the day of her death so many, many years before. The saintlyincorruptible body was forthwith removed into the church, where it waspreserved with great care and devotion by the good people of Dereham,and it continued there, not without manifold miracles, until the timeof that pious monarch King Edgar,[222] who restored the monastery atEly, which the Danes had burned, and gave the house that preciouscharter which hath been named before as not being given privately andin a corner, but in the most public manner and under the canopy ofHeaven. Now, in restoring the abbey of Ely to its pristine splendour,and in augmenting the number of the brotherhood, it behoved the king toincrease the lands and domains of the house; and, conformably, thepious Edgar (may all his sins be forgiven for the good he did thechurch!) conferred on the abbey of Ely the village of Dereham, with allits demesnes and appendages, and with the church wherein the body ofthe virgin Saint Withburga was preserved and venerated by the people ofDereham[223] and by all the good Saxon people round about. Now the LordAbbat on that day, having the grant of Dereham and all that appertainedto it, could not feel otherwise than very desirous of gettingpossession of the body of the saint in order to translate it to Ely andthere place it by the side of the body and shrine of the blessedEtheldreda. The saintly virgin sisters had been separated in theirlives and ought to be united in death; Ely Abbey could offer a morenoble shrine than the small dependent church at Dereham; it was propertoo, and likewise was it profitable, that the pilgrims and devotees totheir four female saints of East Anglia should always come to Elyinstead of going sundry times a-year to Dereham, as had been thecustom, and that all the four shrines should be under one roof, and thecontents of the shrine-boxes poured into one common treasury. All thishad been laid before the king, and the pious Edgar, who never meantthat others should keep what he had bestowed upon his beloved house ofEly, had given his royal licence for the translation of the body ofSaint Withburga to the abbey. But the Lord Abbat, being a prudent andcautelous man, and taking counsel of his brother the bishop ofWinchester and of other wise and peace loving men, came to this wiseconclusion:--That, inasmuch as it was not likely that the people ofDereham and that vicinage would part with so valuable a treasurewithout resistance, if the intended translation should be made publiclyknown to them, it would be expedient and commendable, and accordantwith the peaceable character of monks, to steal away the bodyprivately, and to admit none but a few of the most active and prudentof the cloister-monks of Ely into the secret beforehand. Accordingly nonotice was given to the hinds and in-dwellers at Dereham, nor was thereany mention made of the great matter outside of the Aula Magna of ElyAbbey; and on the day appointed the Lord Abbat and some of the mostactive and prudent of the monks, attended by the sturdiest loaf-eatersof the abbey all well armed, and after hearing mass in the abbeychurch, set out on their journey to steal the body of the saint; and ontheir arrival at Dereham they were received with great respect by theinhabitants, who thought that they had come simply to take possessionof the place in virtue of the king's charter and donation, and whosuspected no further design. The Lord Abbat, as lord and proprietor andchief, temporal as well as spiritual, held a court for theadministration of justice in the manner usual with bishops and abbats,and according to the wise and good laws of our Saxon kings. And afterthis public court of justice, wherein such as had stolen theirneighbours' goods were condemned to make bot, the bountiful Lord Abbatbade the good people of Dereham to a feast. And while the good folk ofDereham were eating and drinking, and making merry, and were thinkingof nought but the good meat and abundant drink before them, the sturdyloaf-eaters from Ely, unwatched and unnoticed, and working in greatstillness, were making those preparations for the translation whichthey had been ordered to make. And, at the time pre-concerted andfixed, my Lord Abbat and his active and prudent monks took occasion towithdraw from the carousing company in the hall, and immediatelyrepaired to the church under colour of performing their regulardevotions. But they left the service of Nones unsaid for that day,taking no heed of the canonical hours, but getting all things ready forthe happy and peaceful translation. After a time the abbat and hisprudent monks returned to the company and caused more drink to bebrought into the hall, still farther to celebrate the happy day of hislordship's taking possession. The whole day having been spent infeasting and drinking, and dark night coming on apace, the companyretired by degrees, every man to his own house or hut, his home orpresent resting place: and thereupon the monks went again to thechurch, opened the tomb (of which the fastenings had been forced),opened the coffin, and devoutly inspected the body of Saint Withburga,and having inspected and revered it they closed up the coffin again,and got everything in readiness for carrying it off. About the middleof the night, or between the third and fourth watch when the matutinaor lauds are begun to be sung, the coffin in which the body of thesaint was inclosed, was put upon the shoulders of the active andprudent monks, who forthwith conveyed it with great haste and withoutany noise-making to a wheeled car which had been provided for thatpurpose. The coffin was put into the car, the servants of the abbatwere placed as guards round about the car to defend it, the Lord Abbatand the monks followed the car in processional order, other well-armedloaf-eaters followed the abbat and the monks; and in this order theyset forward for Brandon. The journey was long and anxious, but whenthey came to the village of Brandon and to the bank of the river whichleads towards the house of Ely, they found ready and waiting for themthe boats which the abbat had commanded, and immediately embarking withtheir precious treasure they hoisted sail and made ply their oars atthe same time. In the meanwhile the men of Dereham, having recoveredfrom the deep sleep and the confusion of ideas which are brought on bymuch strong drink, had discovered that the monks of Ely had stolen thebody of Saint Withburga. Hullulu! never was such noise heard in sosmall a place before. Every man, woman, and child in Dereham wasroused, and ran shrieking to the empty tomb in the church, and at thesound of the horn, all the people from all the h
amlets and homesteadsnear unto the pleasant hill of Dereham came trooping in with bills andstaves, not knowing what had happened, but fancying that the fiery Danewas come again. But when they saw or were told about the empty tomb,the people all shouted "Who hath done this deed? Who hath stolen thebody of our saint?" Now no one could gainsay that the Abbat of Ely withhis monks had done it. A serf who had gone early a-field to cut grasswhile the dew was on it, had met the car and the procession on the roadbetween Dereham and Brandon; and what was of more significance, thepresbyter or mass-priest of the church of Dereham, coming to thecommunion-table found upon it a piece of parchment whereon was writtenthese words: "I, Abbat of Ely and Lord of Dereham, by and with theconsent and approval of Edgar the King, have translated the body ofSaint Withburga, to be hereafter kept in Ely Abbey with increased pomp,worship, and reverence; and this, oh presbyter of Dereham, is myreceipt for the blessed body aforesaid." Then, I wis, were heard wordsof much irreverence from the ignorant and rustical people of the place!Some of them stopped not in calling the right excellent abbat a thief,a midnight robber, a perturbator of the peace of saints, a violator ofthe tombs of the saints! Nor did they spare King Edgar more than theabbat, saying that although he might by his kingly power and withoutwrong grant to the house at Ely their lands and services, and eventheir church, he had no right to give away the body of their saint, andorder it to be removed out of their church, wherein it had reposed forthrice one hundred years; and they all presently agreed to pursue theabbat and the monks, and endeavour to recover the prey. And so, armingthemselves with whatsoever weapons they could most readily meet with,they all poured out of Dereham, and took the shortest way toBrandon.[224] They were brisk men these folk of the uplands, wellexercised in the game of bowls, and in pitching the bar, and in runningand leaping, and in wrestling on the church-green; they werelight-footed men these men of Dereham; but although they ran their bestit was all too late when they got to Brandon, for the monks had got along way down the river with the saint's body. Nevertheless the Derehamfolk continued the chase; they divided themselves into two bands orparties, and while one party ran down one bank of the river, the otherran down on the opposite side. They even came abreast of the LordAbbat's boats, and got near enough to see the pall which covered thecoffin that contained the body of their saint; but the river being herebroad and deep, and they being unprovided with boats (the prudent abbathad taken care for that), they could not get at the coffin or at themonks; and so, after spending some time on the banks shaking theirbill-hooks and staves, and uttering threats and reproaches till theywere tired, they gave up the pursuit as hopeless, and began to returnhome with sad and very angry hearts. The Lord Abbat and the monks ofEly continued their voyage without molestation.[225] They landed safelyon the same day, about a mile from Ely Abbey, at the place calledTidbrithseie, but which men do now call Turbutsey.[226] Here they werereceived with great joy and triumph by all sorts of people, who camedown to the waterside, with the monks and mass-priests, to meet them,for all the in-dwellers of Ely town, and all the people that dwelt nearit, were as glad to get the body of the saint as the people of Derehamwere grieved to lose it. And at eventide, or about compline or secondvespers, on this self-same day, the body and coffin of the saint, beingput upon another car, was conveyed by land from Turbutsey to Ely, andinto the abbey, with solemn procession and the singing of praises toGod, and was then, with all due reverence and a _Te Deum Laudamus_ inthe choir, deposited in the abbey-church next to Saint Etheldreda, andnear unto Saint Sexburga and Saint Ermenilda. Now this happytranslation of Saint Withburga's body took place on the eighth of themonth of July, in the year of our Lord nine hundred and seventy-four.And is not the day of this translation ever observed as a high festivalby the monks of Ely? Much did the Lord Abbat congratulate himself onhis success; and well he might, for translations of the like kind, aswell before his time and since, have often been attended with fightingand bloodshed, nay, with great battles between party and party, and thedeath of many baptized men! But through the good policy and greatwisdom of this our Lord Abbat there was not a man that had either givenor received so much as a blow from a staff or cudgel. Head-aches therehad been at Dereham on first waking in the morning, but these hadproceeded only from the over-free use of the abbat's strong drinks, andwere cured by the fresh morning air and the good exercise the men gotin running after their saint. _Decus et decor, divitiae et miraculaomnia_--credit, grace, and ornament, riches and many miracles, did thesaint bring to the house of Ely! And mark the goodness and bounty ofthe saint in making heavenly bot to the good folk of Dereham! There, inthe churchyard, and out of the grave wherein Withburga had been firstburied, sprang up a curing miraculous well to cure disorders of thespirit as well as of the flesh. And have its waters ever ceased toflow, and is it not called Saint Withburga's well?[227] albeit thevulgar do name it, now-a-days, the well of Saint Winifred.
Now it was in thinking upon this legend that Elfric, the sword-bearerof the Lord of Brunn, was brought to turn his thoughts upon the nowwell-peopled town and well-cultivated fields of the upland of Dereham;and thus thinking, and knowing the store of wine and corn that might behad in that vicinage, he had proposed to his lord to make a foray inthat direction, and to proceed, in part, after the manner in which theLord Abbat of the olden time had proceeded when he went to steal awaythe body of the saint. And Elfric had been thanked by the Lord Herewardfor his suggestion, and had been called into council as well asGirolamo, and had given many hints as to the best means of carrying outthe good plan of robbing the Saxons of Dereham (who had rather tamelysubmitted to the Normans), in order to feed the monks of Ely and theSaxons of the Camp of Refuge.
Because of the many waters and the streams that cut up the country intothe form and appearance of some great _echec_[228] board, Duke Williamhad not been able to make his line of beleaguerment quite so perfectand strong on this side of the Fen-country as he had done on the othersides; but he had posted a good number of archers and spearmen on theuplands beyond the fens, and between Swaffham and Dereham, and uponthese he relied for checking the incursions of the Saxons, and keepingthem out of countries abounding with supplies. Now Lord Hereward hadcaused to be collected a good number of skerries and other light andfast boats, even as the good abbat had done aforetime, and these boatshad been sent up the river by night to the vicinage of Brandon, where,with the brave fellows on board of them, they lay concealed among thetall rushes. And while the Lord of Brunn, crossing the rivers andmeres, collected a good force in front of Swaffham, which would notfail of drawing all the Norman troops towards that one point, hissword-bearer and the Salernitan were to make rapidly for Brandon withmore men, and from Brandon to make for Dereham; so timing theirmovements, in small parties and along different paths, that they shouldall meet in the churchyard and by Saint Withburga's well at midnight ofa moonless night, when the town would be buried in sleep.
On the day next after that on which the evil-minded prior of Ely hadformally accused Girolamo of witchcraft, and had spoken so daringlyagainst the Lord Abbat, Hereward marched from the Camp of Refuge withonly a few men, his intention being to increase his strength on hismarch; and well did he know that at the sounding of his horn, and atthe sight of his banner, the hardy fenners would follow himwhithersoever he might choose to lead. The gleemen and menestrels whosang the songs which had been made in honour of him were the best andsurest recruiters for the army of the Lord of Brunn. They were evergoing from township to township, with their voices and harps, or Saxonlyres. They were small townships these in the fenny countries, andrustical and wild. The fashion of house-building had little changedhere since the days of the ancient Britons: the houses or huts were ofa round shape, and not unlike the form of bee-hives; they had a door infront, and an opening at top to let out the smoke, but window to let inthe light was there none; the walls were made of wattle and dab, theroofs of rushes and willow branches cut in the fens; but the bettersort of the houses had stone foundations and rough stone pillars andtraves for the doo
r-way, the stone having been brought from the quarrybelonging to Peterborough Abbey, or from some other distant quarry. Yetthese poor houses were not so comfortless within as might have beenprejudged by those who only saw the outside; the hides of the cattle,the fleeces of the sheep, and the skins of the deer, and the aboundingfeathers of the fen-fowl were good materials for warm covering and warmclothing; neither turf nor wood for firing was ever lacking in thoseparts, and the brawny churls that came forth from the townships,blowing their blast-horns, or shouting for the Lord of Brunn, orbrandishing their fen poles over their heads, did not look as if theywere scant of meat, or fasted more frequently than mother churchprescribed. At the same time Elfric and Girolamo, with their party,began their devious, roundabout march for Brandon, being instructed tokeep as much out of sight even of the country people as was possible,and to shun any encounter with the Normans, even though tempted by everso favourable an opportunity. Hereward had said to them, "Our presentbusiness is to get corn and wine for the abbey, and not to fight. Becautious and true to time, and diverge not a hair's breadth from theplan which hath been laid down. Conjoint or combined operations failoftener through vanity and conceit than through any other cause. But yebe not men of that sort; ye will get your stores down to the boats atBrandon by daybreak to-morrow morning, or between lauds and prime, andI shall then have made my retreat, and be upon the bank of theriver[229] between Hockwold and Brandon, and ready to give ye the handif it should be needful. Elfric, mind keep thy swinging hanger in itssheath, and think only of bread and wine!" And unto these, the partingwords of their lord and captain, the sword-bearer and the Salernitanhad both said, "Upon our souls be it!" And well did they redeem theirsolemn pledge. The wise monks who went to steal away the body of thesaint were hardly so prudent and cautelous. Elfric even eschewed themarvellous temptation of falling upon a young Norman knight that wasriding along the high-road between Brandon and Dereham, attended byonly two men-at-arms and a horse-boy. By keeping under cover, and bycreeping in little parties of twos or threes across the country wherethere was no cover to conceal them, the forayers all got safely intothe churchyard and to St. Withburga's well at midnight. The Lord ofBrunn, who had not sought concealment, but had taken the most directand open road, and exposed his movement as much as he could do, had gotbehind Swaffham by the hour of sunset, and had made such a hubbub andkindled such a fire in the country between Swaffham and Castle Acrethat all the Normans had marched off in that direction, even as hadbeen anticipated. Even the young knight and his attendants, whom Elfrichad let pass on the road, had spurred away for Castle Acre, which, atone time, was reported to be on fire. In this sort there was not aNorman left in Dereham; and as for the Saxons of the town, afterwondering for a season what was toward, they came to the conclusionthat it was business which did not concern them, and so went quietly totheir beds--the burgher and the freeman to his sheets of strong brownlinen, and the hind and serf to his coverlet of sheep-skins or his bedof straw. The snoring from the little township was so loud that a goodear could hear it in the church-yard; the very dogs of the place seemedall asleep, and there was not a soul in Dereham awake and stirringexcept a grey-headed old Saxon, who came with horn lantern in one handand a big wooden mallet in the other to strike upon the church bellwhich hung in a little round tower apart, but not far from the church.As the old man came tottering among the graves and hillocks of earth,behind which the foraying party was all concealed, Elfric whispered toGirolamo, "For this night the midnight hour must remain untold bychurch-bell in Dereham. We must make capture of this good grey-beard,and question him as to where lie the most stores, and where the besthorses and asses."
And scarcely were the words said or whispered ere Girolamo had fasthold of the bell-knocker on the one side, and Elfric on the other. Thepatriarch of Dereham was sore affrighted, and would have screamed outif Elfric had not thrust his cap, feather and all, into his open mouth.Gaffer continued to think that he was clutched by goblins or by devils;as the dim and yellow light from the horn lantern fell upon the sharpdark face of the Salernitan, the old fellow, fortified in his belief,shook and trembled like leaves of the witch-elm, or more tremulousaspen, and nearly swooned outright. Elfric took the cap out of hismouth, and let go the right arm of the old man, who thereupon took tocrossing himself, and muttering some fragment of a Saxon prayer potentagainst evil spirits.
"Father," said Elfric, who was now holding the horn lantern, "Father,we be no evil spirits or goblins, but honest Saxons from the Camp ofRefuge come to seek corn and wine for the good monks of Ely; so tell uswhere we can best provide ourselves, and find cattle to carry our storedown to Brandon. Come, quick, good Gaffer, for the time presses!"
When the old man looked into the merry laughing face of theruddy-cheeked, fair-haired sword-bearer, his dread evanished, for therewas no believing such a face to belong to any body or thing that wasevil. Gaffer, moreover, bethought himself that he had never yet heardof spirit, ghost, or goblin asking for bread and wine. In brief, theold hind was very soon comforted altogether, and having no corn or wineof his own, and no great love for those that had, he soon gave all theinformation that was demanded of him; and this being got, Elfric gave alow whistle, and the armed Saxons started up from their hiding placesbehind the grave mounds, and Saint Withburga's well, and other partsand corners of the churchyard, and ranged themselves in battle-array,and marched into the one long single street of the town. The houses ofDereham, in this dry and rich upland country, were better than thehouses in the fens, but still most of them were small, and low, andpoor, and rudely covered with thatch. Some larger and better housesthere were, and of most of these the Norman chiefs and their soldiershad taken possession. The presbyter or mass-priest and the borhman[230]had, however, kept the good houses that were their own, and they hadgranaries with corn in them, and cellars holding both wine and ale, andbarns and yards behind their houses, and stables, that were not empty;but these it was resolved not to touch, except, perhaps, for thepurpose of borrowing a horse or two to carry the corn and the wine,that might be gotten elsewhere, down to the boats below Brandon. WhileGirolamo remained with one good party at the end of the street watchingthe road which leads into the town from Swaffham and Castle Acre,Elfric with another party of the merry men proceeded right merrily tolevy the contribution. He began with the Norman houses. Here the Saxonserfs, though somewhat alarmed when first roused from their deep sleep,not only threw open their doors with alacrity, but also led Elfric'speople to the cellars and store-houses. Nay, upon a little talk withthe fen-men, and after an agreement made between them that the doorsshould be broken as if violence had been used, and some resistanceattempted, they threw open all parts of the houses, stables, andouthouses, and assisted their countrymen in packing up their booty, inharnessing the horses and asses, as well as in other necessary offices.Not a murmur was heard until they came to visit some of the houses ofthe freed-men of Dereham. These men, who had some small stores of theirown, were more angered than comforted by being told that the corn wasto make bread for the monks of Ely; for, strange and wicked as it mayappear, it was nevertheless quite true, that in Dereham the translationof Saint Withburga's body had never been forgiven, but was still heldas a piece of cheating and thievery, notwithstanding the heavenly botor compensation of the miraculous well, and in spite of King Edgar'scharter, and the subsequent approval of our lord the Pope, and maugrethe fact obvious to all men that the saint was better lodged at Elythan ever she could have been in this little church. In truth, thosefreemen made an exceeding great clamour. "To the devil with the monksof Ely for us," said they. "In the bygone times they came to Derehamand treacherously stole away the body of our saint by night, and nowthey send armed men to break upon our sleep and carry off our grain!"
Elfric bade them remember and mind that the Lord Abbat of Ely was lordand proprietor of Dereham, and that they were or ought to be his liegemen; and as they continued to complain, and to say that they wished theNormans would soon get back from Swaffham and Castle Acre,
Elfric brokethe pates of two or three of them with one of their own staves. Butnowhere could these men do more than grumble; their numbers being butsmall, and the serfs being mostly on the other side: moreover, arms hadthey none, their friends the Normans having taken care of that. Havingfound cattle enough elsewhere, Elfric would not molest the mass-priest,who slept so soundly that he heard nothing of what was passing, andknew nothing of the matter until Elfric had gotten down to the littleOuse, or twenty good miles from Dereham.
It was midnight when the fen-men arrived at Dereham town, and beforeprime they were below Brandon, and loading their boats with the cornand wine which had previously loaded a score of good uplandpack-horses, and more than a score of dapple asses. "This," saidElfric, "is not a bad lift for one night's work! I should like to seethe face of the Normans when they return from Swaffham and Castle Acreinto Dereham!"
Even Girolamo seemed merry, and almost smiled, as he counted themeasures of corn and the measures of wine. But hark! a brazon trumpetis heard from the other side of Brandon; aye, the blast of a trumpet,and a Norman trumpet too; and before the Saxons had half finishedloading their boats, a great body of Norman cavalry came trotting downthe road which ran along the bank of the river, being followed at nogreat distance by a great company of Norman bowmen. It was not fromDereham that these foes came--oh no! the Normans who had quitted thattown on the preceding evening to look after Lord Hereward, had not yetreturned, and some of them never would return--but it had so chancedthat an armament on the march from Saint Edmundsbury and Thetford camethis morning to Brandon and caught sight of the boats on the river, andof the armed Saxons on the bank. Some of the midnight party thoughtthat it would be best to get into the boats and abandon the half of thebooty; but this was not to be thought of, inasmuch as not a drop of thewine which the monks of Ely so much wanted had been gotten into theboats. Girolamo and Elfric saw at a glance (and it was needful to havequick sight and instant decision, for the Normans were almost uponthem), that the ground they stood upon, being a narrow road, with adeep river on one side, and a ditch and a low, broad, and marshy meadowon the other, was good defensive ground, for the horse could onlycharge upon the narrow road, and it would take the archers afoot sometime to get across the ditch into the fields, if, indeed, the archersshould decide upon adventuring on that swampy ground.
"We can make them dance the dance we have given them before," said theSalernitan. "Tie me those pack-horses and asses tight together betweenthe Norman horse and us, pile up these barrels and bags; leap, twentygood bowmen, into those boats, and ascend the river a little, andstring to ear and take these horsemen in flank as they come down theroad, while we meet them in the teeth with pikes and javelins."
"And," quoth Elfric, looking at the sun, "if we but keep our ground,Lord Hereward will be on the opposite side of the river before ye cansay a dozen credos--so blow! Saxons, blow your horns to help thatblatant trumpet in telling the Lord of Brunn that fighting is toward,and keep ready a few of the boats to waft over Lord Hereward's force tothis side of the river!"
The Saxons blew their horns as loud as they could blow them, meaningthe blasts to be as much a note of defiance to the enemy as a signal totheir friends; and the Norman trumpeter kept blowing his brazon andfar-sounding trumpet, and the Norman cavaliers kept charging along theroad, shouting and cursing and calling the Saxons thieves andcowards--which they had no right to do. As the enemy came near, theSaxons set up a shout, and the scared horses and asses tied together onthe road, set up their heels with such a kicking and braying andneighing as were never seen and heard; and up started from the sedge bythe river bank the score of good Saxon archers that had gone a littleup the river in the boats, and whiz went their arrows into the bowelsof the horses the Normans were riding, and every arrow that did notkill, disabled some horse or man, the archers in the sedges being toonear their aim to throw away a single arrow. The knight in commandordered the trumpeter to sound a retreat, but before the man could putthe brass to his lips, a shaft went through his cheeks and spoiled histrumpeting for aye. But the Normans showed that they could run withoutsound of trumpet; and away galloped the valorous knight to bring up hisbowmen. These Norman archers had no great appetite for the business,and albeit they were told there was a great treasure to be gotten, theystood at a distance, looking now down the road, and now down the river,and now across the ditch and the plashy meadows beyond it; and thusthey stood at gaze until they heard a round of Saxon cheers, and thetoo well-known war-cry of "Hereward for England!" and until they saw awarlike band advancing towards Brandon by the opposite bank of theriver. A cockle shell to a mitre--but they tarried not long then! Awaywent the Normans, horse and foot, as fast as they could go throughBrandon town and back upon the high road by which they had marched fromThetford.
"Ha! ha!" cried the Lord of Brunn to his friends from across the river;"what new wasps' nest is this ye have been among?"
The sword-bearer replied that it was a Norman force which had beenmarching from the south-east.
"'Tis well," said Hereward; "and I see ye have made good booty, and soall is well on your side. On our side we have led the Normans fromDereham and thereabouts a very pretty dance. I drew a party of themafter me into the fens and cut them off or captured them to a man. Icount as my prisoners one rash young knight and fifteen men-at-arms."
"We have loaded and brought hither more than a score of asses and afull score of pack-horses. Shall we finish loading? All the wine ishere, and a good deal of the corn, and--"
"But shall we not pursue?" cried Girolamo. "Those Normans that came onso boldly are now running like sheep. By moving across this marsh, aslight fen-men move, we shall be sure to cut off a part of them."
"Since the corn and wine are now safe, be it as you please, Girolamo;but take Elfric with thee, and go not too far in pursuit."
A light skerry was drawn from the river and laid across the ditch inless than a credo; and then away went the Salernitan and thesword-bearer, and all the best archers and boldest men of their party,across the plashy fields; and soon they came up with the rear of theflying Normans, and engaged them in battle on the dry road betweenBrandon and Thetford, and slew many of them, and captured many more,together with all the baggage and stores of the armament. The short butfierce battle was over, and Elfric was counting the prisoners, when oneof them after surrendering his sword, and after begging for andreceiving quarter, sneaked out of the throng and endeavoured to escapeby running into a thicket near the roadside. The Salernitan, who wasresting himself after his exertion, and leaning on the cross of hiswell-used sword, now in its sheath, saw the intention of theman-at-arms, and rushed after him into the thicket. Now that caitiff,in giving up his sword, had not given up a concealed dagger, and whenGirolamo touched him on the shoulder, merely with the point of hisstill-sheathed sword, he drew that dastardly and unknightly weapon fromhis breast, and plunged it into the left side of the Salernitan.Girolamo fell to the ground with the murderer's knife in his side; butin the next instant, the murderer was shot through the brain by awell-directed arrow, and as he fell, several Saxons fell with theirswords upon him, and, in their fury at his treachery, they hacked hisbody to pieces. Yet these honest men, though they saw the blood waswelling from his side, had much ado to believe that the dark strangerwas really hurt with a mortal hurt, and could die like other men. Itwould be hard to say how long they might have stood looking upon him,stupidly, but not unkindly, if he had not said, "Saxons, raise my head,place me with my back to a tree, and go seek Elfric, and tell him I amhurt by one of his felon prisoners."
Elfric came running to the spot with rage, grief, and astonishment onhis countenance. The sword-bearer was breathless and could not speak;the Salernitan was already half-suffocated with the blood that flowedinwardly, but it was he that spoke first and said, "Elfric! aftertwenty-five years of war and mortal hate between me and them, theNormans have killed me at last! Elfric, let me not die unavenged. Slayme every Norman prisoner thou hast taken on this foul day."
Here the sword-bearer said he hoped the hurt was not so bad but thatsome skilful leech might cure it.
"Alas, no! not all the leeches between this and Salerno could do me anygood. Dear Salerno! shining bay, bright sky, blue hills, I shall neversee ye more! I lived but for the hope of that, and for vengeance uponthe Normans! My life hath been a life of woe, but I have done them someharm, thank God for that! But it is over.... I grow faint. Oh, thatsome godly confessor were at hand to shrieve me!"
"Shall I run into Brandon and seek a priest," said the sword-bearer;"or shall I send one of these our true men into the town?"
"No, Elfric, thou must not leave me in my last agony, and there is notime for sending and seeking. But, Elfric, undo my collar, and unbuttonthis hard mail-jacket, and bring out the silver crucifix, which Ireceived from my mother, and which hath never been from my neck--no,not for a second of time--during these last forty years. Elfric, I havekissed that silver crucifix openly, and in despite of the accursedravings of Jews and Saracens, upon the very spot where our Lord wascrucified! Elfric, that little cross was round my neck, held by thesame silver chain to which my mother hung it, when, sailing betweenCyprus and Palestine with turbaned infidels, the bark went down in deepwater, and every soul perished, save only I! Kind Saxon, it was myfaith in that cross that saved my health and life in Alexandria, whenpestilence raged throughout the land of Egypt, and depopulatedAlexandria, and all the cities of Egypt! Let my dying lips close uponthat cross:--and, good Elfric, as thou hopest thyself to die in peace,and to be admitted into the dominions of the saints, see that chain andcross buried with me,--round my neck and upon my breast, as they noware! And take and keep for thyself whatever else I possess, except thissword, which thou wilt give in my name to the Lord of Brunn. Dear boy!the Normans have not left me much to give thee ... but I had broad andrich lands once, and horses of high breed and price, and richfurniture, and sparkling jewels brought from the Orient by theAmalfitans!"[231]
While the dying Salernitan was thus speaking--his voice ever growingfainter and fainter--the sword-bearer gently and piously did all thathe had been required to do, undoing the collar, and unbuttoning thecoat of mail which the Salernitan wore under his loose mantle ofwoollen cloth, and bringing out from beneath the under-vest the silvercrucifix, and placing it in the feeble right hand of the Salernitan,who then kissed it and said, "Mother dear, I shall soon be with thee!Oh, heavenly Mother, let my soul pass easily from this hapless body!"
Here Elfric, who had been well indoctrinated in the days of his youthby the best of the monks of Spalding, crossed himself and said, that itwas God himself who had enjoined the forgiveness of our enemies, andthat holy men had ever declared that the moribund died easiest when heforgave all the wrongs that had been done him, and died in peace withall mankind.
Girolamo had to gasp for breath before he could speak; but at length hesaid, "Saxon, I die in peace with all mankind, or with all that professthe Christian faith--save only the Normans. I forgive all men as I hopeto be forgiven. _Fiat misericordia tua, Domine_; yea, I forgive all anddie in peace with all, save only the detestable ungodly Normans, whohave heaped upon me such wrong as cannot be forgiven, and who havebelied the promises made at their baptism, and who be Christians but inname. Elfric, remember! they slew my kindred and all the friends of myyouth, or they caused them to die in sickly dungeons or in exile andbeggary; they surprised and stole from me the young bride of my heartand gave her over to violence and infamy! Elfric, wouldst ever forgivethem if they should thus seize and treat thy Mildred?"
Elfric shook his head as though he would say he never could; but albeitElfric was not dying, he ought not to have done this. Girolamo's headwas now falling on his breast, and he several times essayed to speakand could not. At last he said to Elfric, who was kneeling by his side,"Tell the Lord Hereward that I die his constant friend, and call uponhim to avenge my death! Elfric, put thine ear closer to my mouth.... So... and Elfric, go tell the monks at Ely that I am not the Jew thatcannot die!"
Here the sword-bearer, who was supporting the Salernitan with his rightarm, felt a short and slight shivering, and raising his head so as tolook in his face, he saw that the eyelids were dropping over the darkeyes,--and, in another brief instant, Girolamo was dead.
The Saxons cut down branches of trees, and with the branches and theirfen poles, and some of the lances which had been taken from theNormans, they made a rude catafalk or bier, and placing the Salernitanupon it, with many a _De profundis_, and many expressions of wondermentthat he should have died, they carried him from the thicket and overthe Thetford road and across the plashy meadows. The bier was followedby the surviving Norman prisoners, all expecting to be offered up as anholocaust, and crying _Misericorde_ and _Notre Dame_. The pursuit andthe fight, the capture and the woe which had followed it, hadaltogether filled a very short space of time; and Hereward, who hadcrossed the river with all his forces, and having embarked in the boatsall that remained to be embarked, was congratulating Elfric on hisspeed, when he saw that the body stretched upon the bier was no less aman than Girolamo of Salerno. At first the Lord of Brunn thought orhoped that Girolamo was only wounded; but when his sword-bearer toldhim that he was dead, he started as one that hears a great andunexpected calamity, and he put his hand to his brow and said, "Then,by all the saints of Ely, we have bought the corn and wine for themonks at too dear a price!"
Some short season Hereward passed in silent and sad reflections. Thenapproaching the bier whereon the body of Girolamo lay with the faceturned to the skies, and the little silver cross lying on the breast,and the limbs decently composed, all through the pious care of Elfric,the Lord of Brunn muttered a _De profundis_ and a _Requiescat in pace_,and then said, "Elfric, I never loved that man! Perhaps, at times, Ialmost feared him, with the reach of his skill and the depth anddarkness of his passions. I never could hate the foul fiend himself somuch as Girolamo hated these Normans! But, be it said, his wrongs andsufferings have far exceeded mine. England and I stand deeply indebtedto him!"
"He bade me give thee this his sword, and to tell thee that he died thyfriend," said Elfric.
"There never yet was sword deeper in the gore of our foes," saidHereward; "I know he was my friend, and in many things my instructor,and I reproach my heart for that it never could love him, albeit it wasever grateful towards him! But, Elfric, we must down the river withoutdelay, for the monks of Ely will be clamorous for their wine, andtraitors may take advantage of mine absence from the camp. See to it,Elfric, for a heaviness is upon my heart such as I have never knownbefore. I had bad dreams in my last sleep, visions of surprisings andburnings by the Normans, and now the great loss and bad omen ofGirolamo's death bring those dreams back upon my mind with more forcethan they had before."
"I have had my dreams too of late," said the sword-bearer; "but dreams,good my lord, are to be read contrariwise. Let me give your lordship aslice of wheaten bread and a cup of wine."
Quoth the Lord of Brunn, "'Tis not badly thought, for I am fastingsince last sunset, and the monks of Ely must hold us excused if webroach one cask. Elfric, I say again, we have paid all too dearly forthis corn and wine."