CHAPTER XXIII.
A CHAPTER AND A GREAT TREASON.
No sooner had the Lord of Brunn quitted the Camp of Refuge, the daybefore that on which the Salernitan was slain, than the prior and thechamberlain and their faction called upon the Lord Abbat to summon achapter of the house, in order to deliberate upon the perilous state ofaffairs; and notably upon the emptiness of the granaries andwine-cellars of the convent, there being, they said, barely red wineenough in the house to suffice for the service of the mass throughanother week. Now, good Thurstan, nothing daunted by the malice andplots of the prior (of which he knew but a part), readily convoked thechapter, and gave to every official and every cloister-monk fullliberty to speak and vote according to his conscience and the best ofhis knowledge. But much was the Lord Abbat grieved when he saw that agood many of the monks did not rise and greet him as they ought to do,and turned their faces from him as he entered the chapter-house andgave them his _benedicite_, and _pax vobiscum_. And the abbat was stillmore grieved and astonished when he heard the prior taking up the foulaccusation of Girolamo which had been disposed of the day before, andtalking about witchcraft and necromancy, instead of propounding somescheme for the defence of the house and the Camp of Refuge against theNorman invaders. Much did the good Thurstan suffer in patient silence;but when the atrabilious[232] prior went on to repeat his accusationsagainst Elfric, the whilom novice of Spalding, and against himself, theLord Abbat of Ely, as defensors, fautors, and abettors of thenecromancer, and said that it was now known unto the holy Father of thechurch at Rome, and throughout all Christendom, that last year anattempt had been made to compass the life of _King_ William bywitchcraft (the Norman duke having only had a taste of our fen-fever,as aforesaid!), Thurstan could remain silent no longer, and strikingthe table with his honest Saxon hand until his abbatial ring was brokenon his finger (a sad omen of what was coming!), he raised his voice andmade the hanging roof of the chapter-house re-echo, and the cowardlyhearts of the wicked monks quiver and shake within them.
"There is a malice," cried Thurstan, "worse than maleficium! There is acrime worse than witchcraft, and that is--_ingratitude_! Prior, when Iwas but a young cloister-monk, I found thee a sickly beggar in thefens, and brought thee into this house! It was I that raised thee tothy present eminence and illustration, and now thou wouldst sting me tothe heart! Prior, I say, there is worse guilt even than ingratitude,and that is treason to one's country! Prior, I have long suspected theeof a traitorous correspondence with the Normans, or at least of atraitorous wish to benefit thine own worldly fortune by serving them bythe damnable acts of betraying thy country and this house. I have beenbut a fool, a compassionating, weak-hearted fool not to have laid theefast in a dungeon long ago. Remember! it is more than a year since Ithreatened thee within these walls. But I relied upon the Saxon honestyand the conscience and the solemn oaths of this brotherhood, and sothought that thou couldst do no mischief, and mightest soon repent ofthy wickedness. And tell me, oh prior, and look me in the face, andthrow back thy cowl that all may see _thy_ face; tell me, have I not ahundred times taken pains to show thee what, even in this world and inmere temporalities, hath been the hard fate of the Saxon monks andclergy that betrayed their flocks and submitted to the Normans? Speak,prior; I wait for thine answer."
But the prior could not or would not then speak.
"Hola!" cried the abbat. "Is mine authority gone from me? Is the powerI hold from Heaven, and from the sainted Confessor,[233] _Rexvenerandus_, and by the one-voiced vote of this house, already usurped?Is my call to be disobeyed? Shall this false monk insult me before thebrotherhood by refusing to answer me? I appeal to all the monks inchapter assembled."
Several of the monks said that the prior was bound to answer thequestion which the abbat had put to him; but the chamberlain stoodforward and said with an insolent tone, that in a chapter like thepresent every monk might speak or be silent as he thought best; thatthe question was irrelevant; and that, moreover, Brother Thurstan (markye, he called him _frater_, and not dominus or abbat!) had put the saidquestion in a loud, angry, and unmannerly voice; and was, as he was buttoo apt to be, in a very fierce and ungodly passion of rage.
"Oh chamberlain!" cried the abbat, "thou art in the complot against meand thy country and the patrimony of Saint Etheldreda, and I have longthought it, and...." "And _I_," said the chamberlain, audaciouslyinterrupting the Lord Abbat while he was speaking, "And I have longthought that thou hast been leading this house into perdition, and thatthou art not fit to be the head of it."
A few of the cloister-monks started to their feet at these daringwords, and recited the rules of the Order of Saint Benedict, and calledupon the chamberlain and upon all present to remember their vows ofobedience, and the respect due to every lord abbat that had beencanonically elected and appointed; but alas! the number of theseremonstrants was very small--much smaller than it would have been onlythe day before, for the faction had travailed hard during the night,and had powerfully worked upon the fears of the monks, more especiallyby telling them that neither bread nor wine could anywhere be had, andthat a new legate was coming into England from the pope toexcommunicate every Saxon priest and monk that did not submit to theConqueror. Now when Thurstan saw how few there were in chapter thatseemed to be steady to their duty, and true to their vows and to therules of the order (promulgated by Saint Benedict and confirmed by somany pontiffs of Rome, and so many heads of the Benedictine Order,dwelling in the house on Mons Casinium, by the river Liris, where SaintBenedict himself dwelt, and fasted and prayed, when he was in theflesh), his heart, bold and stout as it was, sank within him, and hefell back in his carved seat and muttered to himself, "My pastoralcrook is broken! My flock are turned into wolves!"
But, among the true-hearted Saxon monks, there was one that had thecourage to defy the prior and his faction, and to stand forward and tospeak roundly in defence of the oppressed Lord Abbat; and when he hadspoken others found heart to do the same; and thereupon the weak andunsteady part of the chapter, who had no malice against Thurstan, andwho had only taken counsel of their fears and craving stomachs, beganto fall away from the line where the factious would have kept them, andeven to reprove the chamberlain and the prior. This change of windrefreshed both the body and the soul of Thurstan, who knew as little offear as any man that lived; and who had been borne down for a moment bythe weight and agony of the thought that all his friends were eitherarrayed against him, or were too cowardly to defend him. Speaking againas one having authority and the power to enforce it, he commanded theprior and chamberlain to sit silent in their seats. And the two rebelmonks sate silent while Thurstan, in a very long and earnest discourse,but more free from the passion of wrath than it had been, went oncemore over the history of his life and doings, from the day of hiselection down to the present troublous day; and spoke hopefully of thereturn of King Harold, and confidently of the ability of the Saxons todefend the Fen-country if they only remained true to themselves and tothe Lord Hereward, without plots or machinations or cowardly andtreacherous compacts with the enemy. The Lord Abbat's discourse lastedso long that it was now near the hour of dinner; and, as much speakingbringeth on hunger and thirst, he was led to think about food anddrink, and these thoughts made him say, "My children, ye all know thatthe Lord of Brunn hath gone forth of the Camp, at the point of day, toprocure for us corn and wine. He hath sworn to me to bring us both--andwhen did the Lord of Brunn break his oath or fail in an enterprise? Itell ye one and all that he hath vowed to bring us wine and bread ordie!"
The door of the chapter-house was closed and made fast, in order thatnone should go out or come in so long as the chapter lasted; but whileThurstan was saying his last words, the sub-sacrist, who was sittingnear a window which looked into the quadrangle or open square of theabbey, very secretly and adroitly made a sign to some that werestanding below in the quadrangle; and scarcely had the Lord Abbatpronounced the word "_die_" when a loud wailing and shou
ting was heardfrom without, and then the words "He is dead! He is dead! The LordHereward is killed!"
At these sounds Thurstan turned as pale as a white-washed wall, andothers turned as pale as Thurstan; and the traitor-monks smote theirbreasts and made a show of being as much grieved and astounded as anyof them.
"Ah woe!" said the abbat, "but this is fatal news! What fresh sorrow isthis upon me! Hereward lost! He dead, whose arm and counsels formed ourstrength! Oh! that I had died yesterday, or an hour ago! But who bringsthe dire news? What and where is the intelligencer? Suspend thismiserable chapter, and throw open the door that we may see and hear."
The sub-sacrist was the first that rushed to the door, and threw itwide open and called upon a crowd of men without to come in and speakto the Lord Abbat.
The crowd rushed in. It was made up of hinds and serfs from thetownship of Ely, and of the gaping novices and lay brothers and servingmen of the abbey; but in the head of it was an old fenner, who dwelt onthe Stoke river between Hilgay and Downham-market, and who was wellknown for his skill in fowling and decoying birds, and for no othergood deed: his name was Roger Lighthand, and he was afterwards hangedfor stealing. He had his tale by rote, and he told it well. He wasgoing that morning to look after some snares near Stoke-ferry, when, tohis amazement, he saw a great band of Normans marching across the fensunder the guidance of some of the fenners. He concealed himself and theNormans concealed themselves: and soon afterwards there came a band ofSaxons headed by the Lord of Brunn, and these Saxons fell into theambush which the Normans had laid for them; and the Lord of Brunn,after a desperate fight, was slain, and his head was cut off by theNormans and stuck upon a spear; and then the Normans marched away inthe direction of Brandon, carrying with them as prisoners all theSaxons of Lord Hereward that they had not slain--all except _one_ man,who had escaped out of the ambush and was here to speak for himself.And now another fenner opened his mouth to give forth the lies whichhad been put into it; and this man said that, early in the morning, theLord of Brunn, with a very thin attendance, had come across the fenswhere he dwelt, with a great blowing of horns, and with sundry gleemen,who sang songs about the victories of Hereward the Saxon, and who drewall the fenners of those parts, and himself among the rest, to join theLord of Brunn, in order to march with him to the upland country and getcorn and wine for the good monks of Ely. "When the Lord Hereward fell,"said this false loon, "I was close to him, and I afterwards saw hishead upon the Norman lance." "And I too," quoth Roger Lighthand, "frommy hiding-place among the rushes, saw the bleeding head of the Lord ofBrunn as plainly as I now see the face of the Lord Abbat!"
The traitorous monks made a loud lamentation and outcry, but Thurstancould neither cry nor speak, and he sate with his face buried in hishands; while the prior ordered the crowd to withdraw, and then barredthe door after them. As he returned from the door to his seat, theprior said, "Brethren, our last hope is gone!" And every monk thenpresent, save only three, repeated the words, "Our last hope is gone!"
"The great captain hath perished," said the chamberlain: "he will bringus no corn and wine! There is no help for us except only in tenderingour submission to _King_ William, and in showing him how to get throughthe fens and fall upon the _rebel_ people in the Camp of Refuge, whohave consumed our substance and brought us to these straits!"
Many voices said in a breath that there was no other chance of escapingfamine or slaughter.
This roused the Saxon-hearted Lord Abbat, who had almost begun to weepin tenderness for brave Hereward's death; and, striking the table untilthe hall rang again, he up and said, "Let me rather die the death ofthe wicked than have part in, or permit, so much base treachery! Let medie ten times over rather than be false to my country! Let me die ahundred deaths, or let me live in torture, rather than betray thenoblest of the nobles of England that be in the Camp of Refuge; and thevenerable archbishop and bishops, abbats and priors that have so longfound a refuge in this house--a house ever famed for its hospitality.Let me, I say...."
Here the prior, with great boldness and insolence, interrupted the LordAbbat, and said with a sneer, "The few servants of the church that nowbe in this house shall be looked to in our compact with the Normans;but for the fighting-lords that be in the Camp of Refuge, let them lookto themselves! They have arms and may use them, or by laying down theirarms they may hope to be admitted to quarter and to the _King's_ peace;or ... or they may save their lives by timeous flight ... they may getthem back into Scotland or to their own countries from which they came,for our great sorrow, to devour our substance and bring downdestruction upon our house. We, the monks of Ely, owe them nothing!"
"Liar that thou art," said Thurstan, "we owe them years of liberty andthe happy hope of being for ever free of Norman bondage and oppression.If ye bring the spoilers among us, ye will soon find what we have owedto these valorous lords and knights! We owe to them and to theirfathers much of the treasure which is gone and much of the land whichremains to this monastery: we owe to them the love and good faith whichall true Englishmen owe to one another; and in liberal minds this debtof affection only grows the stronger in adverse seasons. We are pledgedto these lords and knights by every pledge that can have weight andvalue between man and man!"
"All this," quoth the chamberlain, "may or may not be true; but wecannot bargain for the lives and properties of those that are in theCamp of Refuge: and we are fully resolved to save our own lives, withsuch property as yet remains to this, by thee misgoverned, monastery.Nevertheless we will entreat the King to be merciful unto the rebels."
"What rebels! what king!" roared the Lord Abbat again, smiting thetable; "oh chamberlain! oh prior! oh ye back-sliding monks that sitthere with your chins in your hands, not opening your lips for thedefence of your superior, to whom ye have all vowed a constantobedience, it is ye that are the rebels and traitors! _Deo regnante etRege expectante_, by the great God that reigns, and by King Harold thatis expected, this Norman bastard is no king of ours! There is no kingof England save only King Harold, who will yet come back to claim hisown, and to give us our old free laws!"
"We tell thee again, oh Thurstan! that Harold lies buried in WalthamAbbey, and that there be those who have seen..."
"Brother," quoth the prior to the chamberlain, "brother, we but loseour time in this idle and angry talk with a man who was ever too proneto wrath, and too headstrong. The moments of time are precious! Let usput the question."
"Do it thyself, oh prior," said the chamberlain, who then sat down,looking very pale.
"It is a painful duty," said the prior, "but I will do it."
And having so said, the prior stood up, right before the Lord Abbat,though not without fear and trembling, and, after stammering for sometime, he spoke in this strain, looking rather at the abbat's feet thanin his face:--"Thurstan, it is better that one man should suffer atemporary evil than that many men should perish! It is better that thoushouldest cease to rule over this house than that the house, and all ofus in it, should be destroyed! I, the prior, and next in authority untothee, and with the consent and advice of all the chief obedientiarii ofthe convent, do invite and intreat thee voluntarily to suspend thyselffrom all the duties of thine office!"
"Chick of the fens, art so bold as this?" cried Thurstan, "hast thrownthy respect for the canons of the church and the rules of this order ofSt. Benedict into the same hell-pit where thou hast thrown the rest ofthy conscience? Children! brothers! ye, the ancient members of theconvent, what say ye this?"
Three monks who had grown grey in the house, without ever acquiring, orwishing to acquire, any of the posts of eminence, to wit, FatherKynric, Father Elsin, and Father Celred, raised their voices and said,that such things had not been heard of before; that the prior,unmindful of his vows, and of the deep debt of gratitude he owed untothe Lord Abbat, was seeking to thrust him from his seat, that he mightsit upon it himself; and that if such things were allowed there wouldbe an end to the glory of the house of Ely, an end to all subordinationand obedience, a
n end to the rule under which the house had flourishedever since the days of King Edgar, _Rex piissimus_.
Thus spoke the three ancient men; but no other monks supported them,albeit a few of the younger members of the convent whispered in eachother's ears that the prior was dealing too harsh a measure to thebountiful Lord Thurstan.
The prior, glad to address anybody rather than the Lord Abbat, turnedround and spoke to Kynric, Elsin, and Celred: "Brothers," said he, "yeare mistaken as to my meaning. I, the humblest born of this goodcommunity, wish not for higher promotion, and feel that I am allunworthy of that which I hold. I propose not a forcible deprivation,nor so much as a forcible suspension. I, in mine own name, and in thenames of the sub-prior, the cellarer, the sacrist, the sub-sacrist, thechamberlain, the sub-chamberlain, the refectorarius, the precentor, andothers the obedientiarii, or officials of this goodly and godly houseof Ely, do only propound that Thurstan, our Lord Abbat, do, for aseason and until these troubles be past, quietly and of his own freewill, cease to exercise the functions of his office. Now, such a thingas this hath been heard of aforetime. Have we not a recent instance andprecedent of it in our own house, in the case and conduct of AbbatWilfric, the immediate predecessor of my Lord Thurstan? But let me tellthat short tale, and let him whom it most concerneth take it for awarning and example.--The Lord Abbat Wilfric was a high-born man, ashigh-born as my Lord Thurstan himself, for there was royal Danish andSaxon blood in his veins. Many were the hides of land, and many thegifts he gave to this community and church: my Lord Thurstan hath notgiven more! Many were the years that he lived in credit and reputation,and governed the abbey with an unblemished character. Our refectory wasnever better supplied than in the days of Abbat Wilfric; and, albeitthere were wars and troubles, and rumours of many wars in his days, ourcellars were never empty, nor was the house ever obliged to eat roastand baked meats without any wheaten bread. It was a happy time for himand for us! But, in an evil hour, Guthmund, the brother of my LordAbbat Wilfric, came unto this house with a greedy hand and a woefulstory about mundane loves and betrothals--a story unmeet for monasticears to hear. Guthmund, had paid his court to the daughter of one ofthe greatest noblemen of East Anglia, and had gained her love. NowGuthmund, though of so noble a family, and related to princes, was notentitled to the privileges of prime nobility, neither took he rank withthem, forasmuch as that he had not in actual possession a sufficientestate, to wit, forty hides of land. This being the case, the father ofthe maiden forbade the troth-plight, and bade Guthmund fly his hawks inanother direction, and come no more to the house. So Guthmund came withhis piteous tale to his brother the Abbat Wilfric, who, thinking oftemporalities when he ought to have been thinking of spiritualities,and preferring the good of a brother to the good of this house, did,without consulting with any of the convent, but in the utmost privacy,convey unto the said Guthmund sundry estates and parcels of landappurtenant to this monastery, to wit, Acholt, part of Mereham,[234]Livermere, Nachentune, Bedenestede, and Gerboldesham, to the end that,being possessed of them, Guthmund might hold rank with the primenobility and renew his love-suit with a certainty of success.[235] Wotye well this pernicious brother of the abbat went away not with the sadface he had brought to the abbey, but with a very joyous countenance,for he took with him from our cartularies, the title-deeds of thosebroad lands which had been given to the abbey by sundry pious lords.Yes! Guthmund went his way, and was soon happy with his bride and themiserable pleasures of the flesh, and the pomps and vanities of theworld. But the abbat, his brother, was never happy again, for hisconscience reproached him, and the secret of the foul thing which hehad done was soon discovered. The brotherhood assembled in chapter,even as it is now assembled, denounced the robbery, the spoliation, andsacrilege, and asked whether it were fit that such an abbat shouldcontinue to hold rule over the house? Wilfric, not hardened in sin, butfull of remorse, felt that he could no longer be, or act as Lord Abbat,and therefore went he away voluntarily from the abbey, renouncing allauthority. Yea, he went his way unto Acholt, where, from much sorrowand perturbation of mind, he soon fell sick and died: and, as he diedvery penitent, we brought back his body for sepulture in the abbeychurch; and then proposed that our brother Thurstan should be our Abbatand ruler."
"Saint Etheldreda give me patience!" said Thurstan, "Oh prior, whathave I to do with this tale? Why revive the memory of the sins of abrother, and once superior and father, who died of grief for that whichhe had done, and which an excess of brotherly love had urged him to do?How doth this tale apply to me? what have I had to do in it or with it,save only to recover for this house the lands which my unhappypredecessor conveyed away? I have brought ye hides of land, but havegiven none to any of my kindred. That which hath been spent since theblack day of Hastings, hath been spent for the defence of the patrimonyof Saint Etheldreda, and for the service of the country. Have I notbrought Guthmund to compound with me, and to agree to hold from, andunder the abbey, and during his lifetime only, and with payment of duesand services to the abbey, all the lands which his brother, the AbbatWilfric,--may his soul find pardon and rest!--alienated by that wickedconveyance? and hath not the same Guthmund given us the dues andservices; and will not the lands of Acholt, Mereham, Livermere,Nachentune, Bedenestede, and Gerboldesham revert to the house so soonas he dies? Oh prior, that hast the venom of the serpent without theserpent's cunning, if ye bring in the son of the harlot of Falaise, andif some pauper of a Norman knight get hold of these lands, the abbeywill never get them back again!" [And as Thurstan said, so it happened.The demesnes were given to one Hugo de Montfort, and the church wasnever able to recover possession of them.][236]
"Brethren," said the prior, "I put it to ye, whether we be not now ingreater tribulation and want than ever we were before? Abbat Wilfricgave away five manors and a part of a sixth; but the convent was stillleft rich."
"Aye! and the cellars full, and the granaries full," said the cellarius.
"And nothing was taken from our treasury or from the shrines of oursaints," said the sub-sacrist.
"Nor was there any dealing and pledging with the accursed Israelites,"said the chamberlain.
"Nor did we then bring upon ourselves the black guilt of robbing otherreligious houses to give the spoils to the half-converted, drunkenDanes," said the sub-chamberlain.
"Slanderers and traitors all," shouted Thurstan, "ye all know how thesethings were brought about! There is not one of ye but had more to do inthat of which ye now complain than I had! Ye forced me into thosedealings with Jews and Danes."
"Thou wast abbat and ruler of the house, and as such thou art stillanswerable for all;" said the prior with a very insolent and diabolicalsneer.
Thurstan could no longer control his mighty wrath, and springing uponthe prior and seizing him by the neck he shouted, "Dog, I will answerupon thy throat! Nay, viper, that stingest thy benefactor, I will crushthee under my heel!"
And before the cellarer and chamberlain or any of that faction couldcome to the rescue, the puny prior, with a blackened face, was cast onhis back upon the floor of the chapter-house, and the Lord Abbat hadhis foot upon him.
The prior moaned and then screamed and yelled like a whipped cur: thefaction rose from their seats and came to his aid, but as they all knewand dreaded the stalwart strength that was in Thurstan's right arm,each of them wished some other monk to go foremost, and so the cellarerpushed forward the chamberlain, and the chamberlain pushed forward thesub-chamberlain, the sacrist, the sub-sacrist, and so with the rest;and maugre all this pushing, not one of them would venture to lay hishand upon the sleeve of the abbat's gown, or to get within reach ofThurstan's strong right arm.
But the Lord Abbat cooling in his wrath, and feeling scorn and contemptinstead of anger, took his foot from the hollow breast of the recreantprior, and bade him rise and cease his yelling: and the prior rose, andthe abbat returned to his seat.
Now those of the faction who had not felt the tight grip of Thurstan'sright hand, nor the weight of his foot, were grea
tly rejoiced at whathad happened, as they thought it would give them a handle whereby tomove a vote of the chapter for the forcible suspension of the LordAbbat; and to this end they raised a loud clamour that Thurstan hadacted uncanonically, tyrannically, and indecently, in beating a monkwho was next in dignity to himself, and that by this one act he hadmerited suspension.
"Babblers and fools," cried Thurstan, growing wroth again; "Fools thatye are, though with more malice than folly, and with more treacherythan ignorance, it is not unto me that ye can expound the canons of thechurch, or the rules of the order of Saint Benedict! Was I not bred upin this house from mine infancy? Was I not reputed sufficiently learnedboth in English and in Latin, many years before I became your abbat?Have I not read and gotten by heart the laws and institutes? Ye have arule if ye would read it! and is it not this--that it is your duty toobey your Lord Abbat in all things, and that your abbat may impose uponeach and all of ye such penance as he thinks fit, _secundum delictum_,even to the chastising of ye with his own hand? Chamberlain! I haveseen Abbat Wilfric cudgel thee with his fen-pole until thy back was asblack as thy heart now is. Sacrist! thou art old now, but thou wiltremember how Abbat Wilfric's predecessor knocked thee down in therefectory on the eve of Saint John, for being drunk beforeevening-song, and thine offence was small compared to that which thisfalse prior hath given me before the whole house!"
The prior, who had now recovered his breath and removed himself to thefarthest end of the hall, spoke and said--"But what say the canons ofAElfric?--'Let not a priest wear weapons nor work strife, nor let himswear oaths, but with gentleness and simplicity ever speak truly as alearned servant of God:'--and what sayeth AElfric in his pastoralepistle?--'No priest shall be too proud nor too boastful. He shall notbe violent and quarrelsome, nor stir up strife, but he shall pacifyquarrels always if he can; and he may not who is God's soldier lawfullywear weapons, nor go into any battle:'--and what say the canons enactedunder King Edgar, the great benefactor of this our house?--'Let each ofGod's servants be to other a support and a help both before God andbefore men: and we enjoin that each respect the other.'"
"Say on," cried the abbat; "thou sayest not all the canons of good KingEdgar, for it ordains that all junior priests or monks shall respectand obey their elders and superiors. But I will not lose more time andtemper in talking with thee and such as thou art; and since the majorpart of the convent have fallen off from their duty and the respect andobedience they owe me, I, Thurstan, by the grace of God Lord Abbat ofEly, entering my solemn protest against the wrong which hath been doneme, and making my appeal to God against this injustice and rebellion,do here, for this time being, take off my mitre and dalmatic, and laydown my crosier, and take my departure for the Camp of Refuge, to takemy chance with those whom ye are betraying."
And so saying, Thurstan laid mitre, dalmatic, and crosier upon thetable, and then strode down the hall towards the door.
"Oh Thurstan," cried the chamberlain with a voice of great joy, "thouhast done wisely! but it would not be wisely done in us to let thee goforth of this house for this present! Sub-prior, cellarer, friends, allthat would save the abbey and your own lives, look to the door! Prior,put it to the vote that the house in chapter assembled do accept thevoluntary resignation of Thurstan, and that he, our whilom abbat, beclosely confined within his own innermost chamber, until anotherchapter ordain otherwise, or until this exceeding great danger be past."
The door was more than secured; and save only the feeble voices ofthose three old and good monks, Fathers Kynric, Elsin, and Celred, nota voice was heard to speak against these wicked proposals, or in favourof the bountiful Lord Abbat, whose heart died within him at the sightof so much ingratitude, and who stood, as if rooted to the ground, atthe end of the hall near the door, muttering to himself, "Hereward, myson, if thou hadst lived it ne'er had come to this! Oh noble lords andknights and warriors true in the Camp,--no longer a Camp of Refuge, but_Castra Doloris_, a Camp of Woe,--ye will be betrayed and butchered,and in ye will be betrayed and butchered the liberties of England andthe last rights of the English church, before warning can be given ye!Oh Stigand, my spiritual lord, and all ye Saxon bishops and abbats thatcame hither as to a sanctuary, ye have but thrown yourselves into thelion's den! Hereward, dear, brave Hereward, thou art happy, thou arthappy in this, that thou hast at least died like a soldier! The rest ofus will die like sheep in the shambles!"
While Thurstan, a sadder man than ever was Marius among the ruins ofCarthage, was thus standing motionless, and communing with his own sadheart, the prior put to the vote the resolution which the chamberlainhad moved; and the large majority of the house, some being deep in theplot, but more being carried by the dread of the Normans and the dreadof famine, or being thrown into despair by the reported death of theLord of Brunn, voted as the prior and chamberlain wished they wouldvote. The prior would fain have cast Thurstan into that subterraneandungeon into which Thurstan had once threatened,[237] but unluckilyonly threatened, to cast him; and he took much pains to show that itwas needful to keep the deposed abbat in a place of great strength andsecurity, to keep his imprisonment a secret, and to prevent allpossibility of access to him or correspondence with him; but when hecame to name the dark damp cold cells in the foundations of the abbey,wherein the rebellious son of an old East Anglian king had beenimmured, after having been deprived of his eyes, the monks testifiedcompunction and disgust, and even sundry monks that had long been themost desperate of his faction spoke against the barbarity, andtherefore the astute prior had not put it to the vote, and Thurstan wasmerely conveyed to the inner chamber of his own apartment; and thisbeing done, and a strong guard being left in the abbat's apartment, themonks all went to their long delayed dinner, and as soon as the dinnerwas over, the prior, the cellarer, the chamberlain, the sacrist, and alarge attendance of monks and lay brothers went forth to complete theirtreason, leaving behind them rigorous orders that all the gates of theabbey should be kept closed, and that none should be admitted thereinuntil they returned from Cam-Bridge.[238] The way which the traitorstook across the fens and broad waters of Ely was indirect and long, forthey feared to be seen of any Saxon, and so shunned the good folk ofthe township of Ely, the faithful vassals and loaf-eaters of the abbey.Nevertheless they got to the causey which the Normans had made beforecompline, or second vespers, and finding fleet horses there waiting forthem, they got to the castle at Cam-Bridge, and into the presence ofDuke William and his fiercer half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, twogood hours before the beginning of lauds.[239] The false Saxons kneeledat the feet of the Normans, kissed their hands--mailed hands both, forthe bishop, heedless of the canons of the church, wore armour andcarried arms as frequently as his brother the duke, and, like the duke,intended to take the field against the last of the Saxons, and was onlywaiting for the summons and the sign which the monks of Ely were togive. The compact had been propounded many nights before this; but nowthe duke, speaking as lawful sovereign of England, and the Bishop ofBayeux, speaking as one that had authority from the primate Lanfrancand from the Pope of Rome himself, laid their hands upon the relics ofsome Saxon saints which the traitor monks had brought with them, andsolemnly promised and vowed that, in consideration of the said monksshowing them a safe byway to the Camp of Refuge, and in considerationof their other services, they would do no harm, nor suffer any to bedone either to Ely Abbey, or to any monk, novice, lay brother, or otherservant soever of that house. Aye, they promised and vowed that thewhole patrimony of Saint Etheldreda should remain and be confirmed tothe Saxon brotherhood, and that not a hide of land should be taken fromthem, nor a single Norman knight, soldier, abbat, or monk be forcedupon them, or enriched by their spoils. Aye, and they promised andvowed to enrich the shrines of the saints, and to restore to the abbeyits pristine splendour and all its ancient possessions, not exceptingthose for which Guthmund, the brother of Abbat Wilfric, had compounded;and they opened unto the delighted eyes of the prior the sure andbrilliant prospect of the mitre and crosier. And up
on this the falsemonks of Ely swore upon the same relics to do all and more than theyhad promised to do; and so kneeled again and kissed the mailed hands,and took their departure from that ill-omened castle on the hill thatstood and stands near to Cam-Bridge; and riding along the causey asfast as the best English horses could carry them, and then stealingover the waters, across the fens, and through the woods of willows,like night thieves that blow no horn, because they will not that theirgoing and coming be known to honest men, they got back to the abbey,and went to their several cells about the same hour of prime on whichElfric the sword-bearer, and Girolamo the Salernitan, got down as faras to Brandon with corn and wine for the house.
The order was again given that all the gates of the abbey should bekept closed; and during the whole of that day, or from the rising ofthe sun to the setting thereof, no living soul was allowed either toenter the house or to issue therefrom. So much did the traitors fearlest their treasons and the wrongs they had done unto the good LordAbbat should become known to the good folk of Ely town, and throughthem to the warriors in the Camp of Refuge. Some of the Saxon prelateshad gone forth for the Camp several days before, and had not yetreturned; but such as remained in the house (only a few sick and agedmen) were told that the Lord Abbat was sick, and could not be spokenwith, and that the doors and gates were kept closed in order that hemight not be disturbed. Nor was this all false. Thurstan's wrath, andthen his grief and perturbations, had brought on a fever and ague andhe was lying on his bed in a very helpless and very hopeless state,with none to help him or hear him, for the sub-prior had made fast thedoor of the inner chamber, and the door of the chamber which led intoit; and the guard was stationed at a distance in the corridor.
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