III.
Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe and the other knights whose houses had beendestroyed by the so sudden onset of their enemies, regained possessionof their lands; and, in other parts of the kingdom, Stephen, by force ofarms, or by treaty, recovered nearly all the castles which had beentaken from him. Merciful was the soul of King Stephen, even as that ofour lord abbat; for, although he lopped off the hands of some few of themean sort, he took not the life of one lord or knight, but, uponsubmission made, did pardon them all their late rebellion. The empress'sillegitimate half-brother, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, fled beyond sea;and when he was safe in Anjou, he sent his defiance to Stephen, whereinhe renounced his homage, and called the king usurper. But before he fledout of England, Earl Robert had made a great league with many of ourbarons, and had induced the Scottish king to engage to invade our landwith all the forces he could collect. King Stephen was again triumphantover his many foes; he took castle after castle from the English barons,and rarely began a siege which did not end prosperously. When the Scots,and Gallowegians, and Highlanders, and men of the Isles, burst intoNorthumberland and advanced into Yorkshire, Stephen was not there; butthe army that was collected for him by Thurstan, my lord archbishop ofYork, and that was commanded for him in the field by Ranulph, my lordbishop of Durham, and by William Peveril and Walter Espee ofNottinghamshire, and Gilbert de Lacy and his brother Walter de Lacy ofYorkshire, gained a glorious and most complete victory over the Scottishbarbarians at Northallerton in the great battle of the Standard, slayingtwelve thousand of them. The country, and the poor people of it,suffered much during these sieges, and intestine wars, and foreigninvasions; but they came not near to Reading Abbey, and King Stephen waseverywhere successful, until, in an evil hour for him and for all of us,he did violence to the church in order to satisfy the rapacity of hisungodly men of war. For ye must know that King Stephen, in order to gainthe affections of the lay baronage, had given away so many lands and somuch money, that he had now nought left to give, and still those baronscried "Give! give! or we will declare for the empress." "I see a flaw inyour title, therefore give me two more castles," said one great lord. "Isee two flaws, therefore give me four more castles that I may supportyour right," said another great lord. "I fought for thee atNorthallerton, and therefore must have some domain for my guerdon," saidanother. But castles, domains, all had been given away already; thereremained not of the crown lands enough to keep the king and hishousehold, and as for the treasury, it had long been empty. Seeing thatStephen was like a spunge that had been squeezed, and that nothing wasto be gotten except by war and change of government, sundry of thesegreat lords withdrew to the strongest of their castles, and renewedtheir correspondence with the Earl of Gloucester. In these greatstraits, and while Stephen was holding his court in Oxenford, threatenedby foreign invasion, and not knowing how to distinguish his friends fromhis foes, he was advised by the worst of his enemies to lay his handsupon the property of churchmen. The most potent and wealthy churchman ofthat day was old Roger, bishop of Sarum, who had been justiciary andtreasurer to Henry Beauclerc, and who had for a season filled the sameoffices under Stephen; and next to the Bishop of Winchester, Stephen'sown brother, no man had done more than this Bishop Roger to bar theclaim of the empress, and secure the crown for the king. Moreover, thisgreat Bishop of Sarum had two episcopal nephews almost as great ashimself; the first of them being Alexander, bishop of Lincoln; thesecond, Nigel, bishop of Ely. All three had been great builders ofcastles, and men of a bold and martial humour. I find not in the canonsor in the fathers that bishops ought to make their houses places ofarms; but it is to be remembered King Stephen, to please the baronage,had, at the commencement of his reign, given every baron permission tofortify his old castle or castles, and to build new ones; nor is it tobe forgotten that in the midst of so many places of arms, the simpleunfortified manor-house of a bishop could never have been a safe abidingplace, or have afforded any protection to the serfs who cultivated thesoil, and the rest of my lord bishop's people. If Bishop Roger and hisnephews did build some castles for the defence of their manors and thepeople upon them, and did expend much money in temporalities, they didalso raise splendid edifices to the glory of God. Witness the greatchurch at Sarum, which Bishop Roger rebuilt after it had been injured byfire and by tempest--witness the beautiful works done at Lincoln byBishop Alexander, who nearly rebuilt the whole of that cathedral; and atEly, by Bishop Nigel. And these three great prelates did make noble useof their wealth, in bringing over from foreign parts good builders andartisans, and men of letters and doctrine, to improve and teach in theirseveral ways the people of this island; and if Bishop Nigel was somewhatovermuch given to hunting and hawking, and spent much time, as well asmuch money, upon his falcons and falconers, doubtlessly it was becausethe climate of Ely is cold and damp, and requireth much exercise of thebody for the conservation of health, and because the circumjacent fencountry doth incredibly and most temptingly abound with wild-fowl properfor the hawk to fly at. But to the propositus. King Stephen, beingminded to plunder these three great prelates, did summon them all threeto his court at Oxenford, where many ravenous lay lords and some foreignlords had previously assembled. The two nephews, apprehending nomischief, and being young men and active, went willingly enough; but itwas otherwise with the uncle, who was now a very old man. Bishop Rogerhad lost his relish for courts, and seemingly had some presentiment;for, as he started on his journey, he was heard to say, "By my Ladie St.Mary, I know not wherefore, but my heart is heavy; but this I do knowfor a surety, that I shall be of much the same service at court as afool in battle." At Oxenford the three bishops were received with agreat show of courtesy, as men who had done notable service to the king,and as men whom the king delighted to honour; but they had not been longin the town when a fierce quarrel arose about quarters and purveyancebetween the retainers of Bishop Roger and the followers of thatoutlandish man the Earl of Brittany. The aged prelate would have stilledthis tumult, but the Bretons, who had been purposely set on by thoseabout the king, would not desist, and swords being drawn on both sides,the affray did not end until many men of the commoner sort were wounded,and one knight was slain. And hereupon it was wickedly given out thatthe bishops' people had begun the affray, and that the three bishops hadset them on to break the king's peace, and murther his guests within theprecincts of his royal court. Bishop Roger, the uncle, was seized in theking's own hall, and Alexander, the bishop of Lincoln, at his lodgingsin the town; but Bishop Nigel, who had taken up his quarters in a houseoutside the town, getting to horse, galloped across the country, andthrew himself into the castle of Devizes, the strongest of all hisuncle's strongholds. And it was thought that the Bishop of Ely would nothave been able to do this, and to distance his pursuers by leaping hedgeand ditch, if he had not providentially practised hunting and hawking inhis easy days. Bishop Roger, and his less fortunate nephew Alexander,bishop of Lincoln, were confined in separate dungeons at Oxenford. Theywere severally told that the king held them as traitors, and that theprice of their liberation would be surrender unto Stephen of all theircastles and manors, with whatsoever treasure they contained; and thosewho delivered the message chuckled at it, seeing that they hoped to havea share in the great spoil. At first Bishop Roger and Bishop Alexanderdid manfully refuse to give up anything, but bishops in dungeons and inchains are weak, and kings be sometimes very strong; and after they hadbeen menaced with torture and death, the two prelates put their namesand seals to an act of surrender and renunciation, and the castles whichRoger had built at Malmsbury and Sherborne, and that which he hadenlarged and strengthened at Sarum, and the magnificent castle whichBishop Alexander had built at Newark, together with other places ofstrength, were taken possession of by the king's people, in virtue ofthe orders of the two bishops to their own people. But the alert,hard-riding, and warlike Bishop of Ely would not give up the castle ofDevizes, into which he had thrown himself on his escape from Oxenford;and, counting on the strength of his uncle's best fortr
ess, and on theaffection the garrison and the people of the neighbouring country boreto his family, Nigel did defy the power of King Stephen. Our unhappyill-advised king, whom I have so often seen, and with whom I have sooften spoken in this our house at Reading, had not the head to conceive,nor the heart to execute, the foul trick which followed. No! it was allthe contriving and the doing of some of his ill-advisers, of the Earl ofBrittany, or Sir Alberic de Vere, or some other or others of thosechildren of perdition. Fasting is commendable at some seasons, butstarvation is horrible at all. If a man starve himself, he is guilty ofthe worst and most unnatural species of suicide; and if a man starveanother, certes he is guilty of the cruellest of murthers. That whichimpresses on my mind the belief that the aforesaid Sir Alberic de Verewas deep in this guilt, are the facts of which I have had assurance; towit, that Sir Alberic never afterwards gave a feast in his own castle,without seeing the apparitions of two ghastly, pale, starving bishopstake their stand opposite to him, and knit their brows, and wave theirright hands, as if they were pronouncing a curse each time his plate waslaid before him or his wine-cup filled; and that the said Sir Albericdid die at the last of angina, which closed up his throat and allowed nofood to pass. Bethink ye whether the knight did not then think of BishopRoger and his episcopal nephew! But the procedure to force the Bishop ofEly to give up the strong castle of Devizes was this:--Bishop Roger andhis nephew, the Bishop of Lincoln, were loaded in their dungeons withmore chains, and orders were given that they should be kept without fooduntil the castle was delivered up to King Stephen. When Bishop Nigel wastold of this intent he could not believe it, nor was it easy, even inthose wicked days, for any man to conceive the world wicked enough tostarve two prelates. "I will keep mine uncle's castle for him," saidBishop Nigel, "for they dare not do the thing they speak of." But,alack! his lordship was soon convinced to the contrary; for Bishop Rogerhimself, already pale and emaciated, was carried to Devizes, and made tostate his own case in front of his own castle. And the old man imploredhis nephew to surrender, and so save the life of his uncle and that ofhis brother: and then Bishop Nigel gave up that great fortress, andthereupon Bishop Roger and Bishop Alexander were allowed to have food,after they had been three days and three nights in a fearful fast.Before long all three of the bishops were set at liberty, but they hadbeen plundered of nearly all they possessed. The evil advisers of KingStephen got most of the spoil. The robbery did not even a momentary goodto the king, and terrible was the penalty he was made to pay for it. Thewhole body of the dignified clergy turned against him; and even his ownbrother, Henry, bishop of Winchester, who was now the Pope's legatus forall England, did join the other bishops in charging Stephen withsacrilege. It was his own brother, the legatus, who summoned the king toappear before a synod of bishops at Winchester; and what is brotherlylove when weighed in the balance with the duty of every churchman to thechurch? King Stephen would not attend _personaliter_, but he sent untoWinchester that Sir Alberic de Vere of whom I have spoken; and SirAlberic went into the hall of synod with a great company of armedknights, and did there much misuse the prelates of the land, and didrefuse, in Stephen's name, to make restitution to Bishop Roger and histwo nephews of that of which they had been despoiled; and when he haddone these things, Sir Alberic made appeal to the pope and dissolved thecouncil, the wicked knights with him drawing their swords to enforceobedience. The bishops separated for that present, but every one of themsaw that madness and much wickedness had prepared the downfall of KingStephen. Bishop Roger died of old age, and grief and indignation, and ofthe fatal effects of that dread fast; and while he was dying, the plateand money which he had saved from the king's rapacity, which he haddevoted to the completion of his glorious church at Sarum, and which hehad layed for safety upon the high altar, were seized and carried off bysome who cared not for the guilt of sacrilege, and who were so blindthat they could not see in what such crimes must end. Forty thousandmarks, by our Ladie, was the value of that which was stolen from theshadow of the Holy of Holies!
Now some of the baronage and clergy did send messengers into Anjou toinvite the Empress Matilda into England, and to give her assurance goodthat they would place her upon the throne of her late father. And theex-empress, being a woman of a high spirit, did presently come over withher half-brother the Earl of Gloucester, and one hundred and fortyknights; and the two nephews of the late Bishop Roger and many of theoptimates did renounce their allegiance to King Stephen and join herstandard. Bishop Nigel, who would have continued to hold the castle ofDevizes if it had not been for that fearful fast, went into the Isle ofEly, his own diocese, and there amidst the bogs and fens, and on thevery spot where Hereward the Lord of Brunn had withstood William theConqueror, he raised a great rampart and collected a great force againstStephen. In other parts our bishops were seen mounted on war-horses,clad in armour, and directing in the battle or the siege: and many andbloody were the battles which were fought during two years, and untilKing Stephen was surprised and defeated in the great battle of Lincoln,and taken prisoner by the Earl of Gloucester, the half-brother of theempress. Stephen was now thrown into a dungeon in Bristowe Castle, andhis brother the Bishop of Winchester and legatus acknowledged the rightand title of the empress, and led her in triumph to his cathedral churchat Winchester, and there blessed all who should be obedient to her, andcursed all who should refuse to submit to her authority. And this beingdone, Stephen's brother, the bishop and legate aforesaid, did convene anassembly of churchmen to ratify her accession. At this synod the saidlegate bore testimony against his brother, and said that God hadpronounced judgment against him; and the great churchmen, to whom itchiefly belongs to elect kings and ordain them, did elect Matilda tofill the place which Stephen's demerits had vacated. Yet some of theclergy there were who did not think that they could be so easilydischarged of the oaths they had taken unto Stephen, or move so far inthis matter without a direct command from our lord the pope, and manylords there were, as well of the laity as of the clergy, who did notlike Matilda the better for knowing more of her. But not one felt moreunhappy at these changes than our good lord abbat, who came back fromthe last meeting of the clergy at Winchester well nigh broken-hearted;for, albeit he lamented his errors, he had much affection for KingStephen and great reverence to the obligations of an oath, and veryearnestly desired peace and happiness to the country.
Also was he and all of us of the house at Reading and all devout andconsiderate men in the land, much consternated by great signs in theheavens: for on the twenty-first of the kalends of March in the year ofour redemption eleven hundred and forty, while we were sitting atdinner, there was so great an eclipse of the sun that we could not seeto eat our meat, and were forced to light candles, and when lights werebrought in our appetites were gone because of our great fear; and whenwe went out to gaze at the obscured sun and blackened heavens we didplainly see divers stars twinkling near the sun. And these sad sightswere seen all over the land, making men believe, while they lasted, thatchaos was come again, and that this day was to be the day of judgment.Abbat Edward did interpret these things as omens of our future woe.
"I do foresee," said he, "that infinite woe will arise out of these ourdistractions, and I can plainly see with only half of an eye that toomany of our magnates be looking to nothing but their own worldlyadvantage. With this classis of men 'twill be down with Stephen and upwith Matilda to-day, and down with Matilda and up with Stephento-morrow; just as they hope to gain by the change. They will all findin the end that they have miscalculated, but that will not heal thewounds that will have been inflicted on the country through theirselfish unsteadiness, and lack of principle, and oath-breaking. Theex-empress hath brought a pestilent set of hungry foreigners over withher; and every one of them is looking for some great estate or bishopricor abbey; others will follow, and they will have no bowels of compassionfor the people of this land. 'Tis true King Stephen hath done much amissor hath allowed evil things to be done in his name, but Matilda will doworse, and will have less power
than he to prevent the rapacity andbloodthirstiness of others! Steel-clad barons and knights will not yieldobedience to the distaff. Even the church will be divided. St. John andSt. James to our aid! but my heart trembles for this house, and for thepoor townfolk of Reading, and the freemen and the serfs who have so longlived in peace upon our manors; I am an old man--this journey toWinchester hath added the weight of ten more years--I shall not live tosee an end to these troubles which have already lasted four years. Deathwill relieve me from witnessing the worst; but when I am gone hence, ohmy brethren and children, put your faith in heaven, and remember thatthe honestest policy is aye the best, and meditate night and day, andlabour hard, in order to lessen the sufferings of our poor vassals anddependants."
Grieves me to say that some of our house who made many solemnprotestations now, did not in after-time do that which they ought tohave done.
Affairs were in this state, and the flames of civil war were raging allround us, and the health of our good lord abbat was daily breaking moreand more, when the Empress Matilda passed through Reading withoutstopping at our abbey to say an orison at her father's grave, being onher way to Westminster, there to be crowned and anointed by those whohad crowned King Stephen only six years ago. But the citizens of London,who were very bold and powerful, loved Stephen more than Matilda, andbefore the coronation dresses could be got ready they rose upon her anddrove her from the city, flying on horseback and at first almost alone,as she did. This time the daughter of the Beauclerc found it opportuneto come to our abbey, for she wanted food, lodging, and raiment, andknew not where else to procure them. A messenger on a foundered horseannounced that she was coming, and by the time the man had put his beastinto our lord abbat's stable, a great cloud of dust was seen rolling onthe road beyond the Kennet from the eastward. "_Medea fert tristessuccos_--she is coming, and will bring poisons with her! She cometh in awhirlwind," said our good lord abbat, "and albeit she is her father'sdaughter--the lawfully begotten daughter of the founder of this house,(though some men do say the contrary,) it grieves me that she cometh atall. Last year, and at this same season of the year, we did lodge andentertain King Stephen, and prayed God to bless him; and now must Ifeast this wandering woman and cry God save Queen Matilda? Theunlettered and rustical people be slow of comprehension, yet will theynot have their hearts turned from us by seeing these rapid shiftings andchangings? And so soon as the commoner sort lose their faith or beliefin the principles of their betters, crime and havoc will have it alltheir own way. This people--this already mixed people of Saxons andNormans--will go backwards into blood, and there will be war betweencottage and cottage as well as between castle and castle!"
The empress-queen arrived at our gates, and with a numerous attendance;for some had followed by getting stealthily out of London, and some hadjoined her on the road. Sooth to say she was an imperious, anddespotical, and loud-voiced, manlike woman, and of a very imposingpresence. Maugre her hasty flight she had a coronet of gold on her head,and a jewel like a star on her breast, and her garments were of purpleand gold. A foreign lord, with a truculent countenance, bore a nakedsword before her, and another knight, with a visage no less stern,carried a jewelled sceptre.
"'Tis mine own father's house," said she as she came within our gates,"'tis the gift and doing of mine own father, of blessed memory, andmuch, oh monks! did you wrong him and me by entertaining within thesewalls the foul usurper Stephen. The usurper is rotting in the nethermostdungeon of Bristowe Castle, and there let him die; but, oh abbat, leadme to my dear father's tomb, that I may say a prayer for the good of hissoul; and see in the coining place what money thou hast in hand, formuch do I lack money and must for the nonce be a borrower! Bid thypeople make ready a banquet in the hall, for we be all fasting and righthungry; and send into the township and call forth each man that hath ahorse and a sword, in order that he may follow us to Oxenford, and helpto be our guard upon the way. Do these few things, oh abbat, and I willyet hold thee in good esteem. The land rings with thy great wealth andpower. By Notre Dame of Anjou! 'tis a goodly house, and the walls bestrong, and the ditch round about broad and deep,--by the holy visage ofSt. Luke! I will not hence to-night though all the rebel citizens ofLondon, that do swarm like bees from their hives, should follow me sofar."
Our good lord abbat could do little more than bow and cross himself, andour prior of the bellicose humour, who partook in our abbat's affectionfor King Stephen, reddened in the face and turned aside his face andgrinded his teeth, and muttered down his own throat, "Beshrew thedistaff! The Beauclerc, her sire, was more courteous unto clerks!"
Our sub-prior, being of a more supple nature, and being, moreover, notwithout his hopes of being nominated to the abbatial dignity so soon asour lord abbat should be laid under the chancel of the abbey church,kneeled before the empress-queen, and then formed some of the monks _inprocessionale_, and began lead the way to the sepulchre of HenricusPrimus. But this roused the abbat and threw the thoughts of our priorinto another channel, and the lord abbat said in a grim and loud whisperunto the sub-prior, "I am chief here, and none must move without mybidding;" and the prior said without any essay at a whisper, "Oh, sub,seek not to climb above _me_!"
The proud woman reddened and said, "If ye would honour me, oh monks, asyour queen, make haste to do it! An ye will not, I can get me in withoutyour ceremonies. No time have I to lose, and money and aid must beforthcoming!"
Then up spake the lord abbat Edward, and said in a loud voice, "Oh dreadladie, when that king of peace and lion of justice, _Rex pacis et leojustitiae_, did found this house, he did give us his royal charter,wherein it is said, 'Let no person, great or small, whether by violenceor as a due custom, exact anything or take anything from the persons,lands, or possessions whatsoever belonging unto the monastery ofReading; nor levy any money, nor ask any tax for the building of bridgesor castles, for carriages or for horses for carrying; nor lay any customor subsidy, whether for ship-money or tribute-money or for presents;nor....'"
"Oh abbat of the close fist," said Matilda, "I only want to borrow."
"But we may not lend without full consent of all our chapter monks inchapter assembled," quoth the prior.
"And the foundation charter of Henricus Primus," said our abbat,"recommends all the successors of the said royal founder to observe thecharter as they wish for the divine favour and preservation, andpronounces a malediction upon any one that shall infringe or diminishhis donations. Dread ladie, thou art the Beauclerc's daughter: the curseof a father is hard to bear!"
There was some whispering and sign-making among her followers; but theimperious woman said not a word: she only stretched out her right handand pointed forward, into the interior of our abbey.
We now formed in more proper order and went through the church to theBeauclerc's grave, on the broad slab of which there burned unceasinglamps, and sweet incense renewed every hour, and at the edge of whichthere was ever some brother of the house telling his beads and prayingfor the defunct king, the founder of the house. Dim was the spot, fordeath is darkness, and too much light suits ill with the decaying fleshand bones of mortal man, be he king or plough-hind; yet, as theempress-queen entered, our acolytes touched the tips of three hundredand sixty-five tapers--sweet smelling tapers made of the wax broughtfrom Gascony and Spain and Italie--and in an instant that dim sepulchralplace was flooded with light, the converging rays meeting and shiningbrightest upon the black slab and the graven epitaph which began withthe proud titles of the Beauclerc king, and which ended with thatpassage from holy writ which saith that all is vanity here below.
Matilda knelt and put her lips to that black slab (which she safelymight do, for it was kept clear of all dirt and dust, it being the soleoccupation of one of the lay brothers of our house to rub it every dayand keep it clean), and she said an orison, of the shortest, and madesome show of shedding tears; but then she quickly rose, and would havegone forth from the vault or cappella. But the lord abbat was not mindedthat the first visit paid by his daughte
r to the tomb of her fathershould pass off with so little ceremony and devotion; and, he himselftaking the lead with his deep solemn voice, the Officium de Functorum,or Service for the Dead, was recited and chanted. The empress-queen wassomewhat awed and moved, and there seemed to be penitential tears in hereyes as we chaunted "Beati Mortui qui in Domino moriuntur;" but at thelast requiem "Aeternam" she flung away from the place and began to talkwith a loud shrill voice of worldly affairs and of battles andsieges--for the royal-born woman had the heart of a man and warrior, andher grandfather the great Conqueror was not more ambitious or avid ofdominion than she.
When we had well feasted Matilda and those who followed her in theabbat's apartment, we hoped she would be gone, for it was a long andfine day of June, well nigh upon the feast of St. John, and she wellmight have ridden half way to Oxenford before nightfall; but she soongave the abbat to understand that she had no intention of going so soon.Without blushing she did ask how and where we monks could lodge her andher women for the night, telling us that she could not think ofsleeping in the town, seeing that it was but poorly defended by wallsand bulwarks. The abbat looked at the prior, and all the fathers lookedat one another with astonishment, but the ungodly waiting-women, whocame all from Anjou and other foreign parts, only smiled and simpered asthey gazed at one another and observed our exceeding great confusion.
"In truth, royal dame," said our lord abbat, "it is against the rule ofour order to lodge females within our walls."
"But I am your queen, oh abbat," said Matilda, "and this is a royalabbey, and my sire founded it and endowed it! Have I not, as my father'sdaughter and lawful sovereign of this realm, the right to an exemptionfrom the severity of your ordinances?"
"Ladie," quoth the abbat, "I wit not that you have such right, or thatthe rule of St. Benedict is in any case to be set aside."
"But it hath been set aside," said Matilda, "and queens and theirhonourable damsels have slept in royal abbeys before now."
"That," quoth the abbat, "was before the Norman conquest, when, throughthe indolence, carelessness, and gluttony of the Saxon monks, thestatutes of our order were generally ill-observed."
"But I tell thee, oh stubborn monk, that I, the empress-queen, that I,thy liege ladie Matilda, have slept and sojourned in half the abbeys andpriories of England!"
"'Tis because of these civil wars which have so long raged to thedestruction of all discipline and order, and to the utter undoing ofthis poor people of England! I, by the grace of God, abbat of Reading,would not shape my conduct after the pattern of some abbats and priorsthat be in this land, or willingly allow that which they perchance mayhave permitted without protest, and to the spiritual dishonour of theirhouses."
Here the eyes of the empress-queen flashed fire, and wrathful andscornful was the voice with which she said unto our good lord abbat, inpresence of most of the community, "Shaveling, I am here, and will heretarry so long as it suits my occasions! I believe thy traitorousaffection for my false cousin Stephen hath more to do with thineobstinacy than any reverence thou bearest to the rules of thine order.But, monk, 'tis too late! thou shouldest have kept thy gates closed! Iand my maidens are within thy house, and these my faithful knights willsee thee and thy brethren slain between the horns of the altar ratherthan see the Queen of England thrust out like a vagrant beggar from theabbey her own father founded!"
As the empress-queen said these words the knights knit their brows andmade a rattling with their swords. This did much terrify the major partof our community, and I, Felix, being then of a timorous nature, and agreat lover of peace, as became my profession, did creep towards thedoor of the hall. But our prior spoke out with a right manful voiceagainst the insults put upon our good abbat, telling the empress-queento her face that respect and reverence were due to the church even fromthe greatest of princes; that her father, of renowned and happy memory,would not so have treated the humblest servant of the church; and thatif this unseemly business should be put to the issue of arms--if swordsshould be drawn over her royal father's grave--it might peradventurehappen that the armed retainers of the abbey would prove as good men asthese outlandish knights, and that the fathers and brothers of the housewould fight for their lives, as other servants of the church hadofttimes been constrained to do in these turbulent, lawless, ungodlydays.
At this discourse of our bellicose prior the empress-queen turned paleand her lip quivered, though more through wrath than fear, as it seemedto me; but her knights left off noising with their swords; and one ofthem, a native knight, spoke words of gentleness and accommodation, andput it as an entreaty rather than as a command, that the queen should beallowed to infringe our rules for only one night.
"My conscience doth forbid it," said our lord abbat, "for it may be madea precedent, to the great injury and decay of our discipline. Thereforedo I solemnly enter my protest against it. But as I would not see thisholy house defiled by strife and blood, nor attempt a forcibleexpulsion, I will quit mine apartments." And so saying, the lord abbatwithdrew, and was followed by all of us. The queen slept in the abbat'sbed; her maidens on the rushes, which were carried into that chamberfrom the abbat's hall; and the knights and men-at-arms slept in the AulaMagna. And, as our good abbat had foreseen, this evil practice was takenas a precedent, in such sort that empresses and queens, and other greatprincesses, have in these later times been often lodged in Benedictineand in other houses; yet, wherever the abbats and monks entertain aproper sense of their duty, they lodge these visitors in the lordabbat's house, apart from the religious community.
But before sleeping, the empress-queen did many things, for it stillwanted some hours of the Ave Maria, and many were the stormy thoughtsthat were working in her brain. Two of her knights we allowed to go outof the house by the postern-gate, but farther ingress we granted tonone; and not only did our armed retainers keep watch for us, but ourmonks, under the vigilant eye of the prior, did also keep watch and wardall through that evening and night, for we feared some extreme mischief;and it would not have failed to happen if Matilda had been enabled toget her partisans in greater force within the house. In truth, not manyof our community knew that night what sleep was. The materials for anabundant supper were furnished to the empress-queen and her people; andsome of these last were singing ungodly songs in the abbat's great hallwhen our church-bell told the midnight hour; yea, there was a noise ofsinging, and a running to and fro, and a squealing of womanly voiceslong after that, to the great sorrow and shame of the fathers of ourhouse. I, Felix, albeit only a novice, was of those who slept not. And Isaw a great sight. Watching in the eastern turret, I did see a fierymeteor, hirsute like a comet, but not so big, shoot up from the marsheson the other side of the Kennet, not far from the back of our abbey; andthis meteor, as it passed over our house, did divide itself into threeseveral parts, and these did rush away to the westward as quick aslightning, and there drop and disappear. Before the night came again Iwas made to understand what these things meant.
A Legend of Reading Abbey Page 3