VII.
When our good lord abbat Edward had been dead well nigh a year, to wit,in the summer season of eleven hundred and forty-two, King Stephen, fromgreat fatigue of body and uneasiness of mind, fell sore sick, and layfor a long while like one that was dying. While this lasted the baronsof his party did many evil deeds, there being no authority strong enoughto check their lawlessness; and, at the same troublous season, thepartisans of Matilda and the foreign mercenaries in her pay did ravageall the western parts; and more robbers came over from Anjou, Normandie,and Picardie, asking no pay, but only free quarters, and the right ofplundering the poor English. It was a Benedictine from Rome that hadstudied medicine in the school of Salerno, that brought a healing potionto the king, and snatched him back to life from the jaws of the grave.
So soon as Stephen could mount his war-horse he marched with a greatforce unto Oxenford, where the countess had fixed her court; and heinvested that unhappy city with a firm resolution never to move thenceuntil he had gotten his troublesome rival into his hands. After somefighting, in which many lives were lost by both parties, Stephen burstinto the town, and having set fire to a large part thereof, he laidsiege unto the castle into which Matilda and her people had retired. Nowthe castle of Oxenford, standing in the midst of waters, was verystrong. From St. Michael's mass well nigh unto Christ's mass, _a festoMichaeelis usque ad natali Domini_, did King Stephen persevere in thesiege, telling all men that complained of the hard service that he musthave the castle, and in it the countess, and that then there would bepeace in England.
In the mid siege, our new lord abbat, who had had much correspondencewith the lord abbat of Abingdon, with the prior and monks at Hurley, andwith other Benedictine houses, for the good purpose of saving theremnant of the Christian people in those parts, and putting an end tothe cruelties and many deadly sins which were daily committed, receivedfrom the Abingdon cell at Cumnor, nigh unto Oxenford, a missive from theabbat of that community, who entreated him, now that the country wasclear of Matilda's people, to repair unto Cumnor that they might takecouncil together, and together confer with King Stephen, who seemed atthat moment to be in a heavenly disposition, and to have an exceedinggreat desire to tranquillize the land, and to consult with the loyalabbat of Reading. Now albeit Stephen had, by means of Sir Alain deBohun, expressed his great contentment at the expulsion of FatherAnselm, and at all that had been done by our community since the greatmeeting of the synod at Westminster, the election of the prior to be ourlord abbat had not yet been formally confirmed by the king; andtherefore Dominus Reginaldus did make haste to accept the invitation ofthe abbat of Abingdon, and to get him unto Cumnor. Not for any merit ofmine own, but through the kind favour he was ever pleased to show me, Iwas chosen to be of the travelling party. Philip the lay-brother wentlikewise; but Philip was a brave and ready man, quick-witted, andwell-trained aforetime in the use of arms, and in the riding of thegreat horse. Although the nerve of the Angevin faction was shut up inOxenford Castle, my Lord Reginald was too wise a man to put himself onthe road with a weak escort; for he well knew that there were manybarons and knights, calling themselves King Stephen's friends and thefriends of mother church, that would not scruple to plunder an abbat, orto keep him in their donjons for the sake of a great ransom; and wellnigh every castle between Reading and Oxenford, and between Oxenford andBristowe, was a den of thieves, and worse; and Lord Reginald had notlost his bellicose humour by being promoted to the highest dignity. "Bythe head of Saint John the Baptist," said he, as we were about to takeour departure, "not a robber of them all shall lay me in his crucethouse without having a hard fight for it! Before I bear the weight oftheir sachenteges, I will make them taste the sharpness of my lance, andthe weight of my mace." And so was it that we went forth from Readingforty and one strong, and every man of us armed cap-a-pie, and most ofus well mounted. The lord abbat wore a steel cap under his hood, and acoat of mail and steel hose under his robes; and he had a two-edgedsword at his side and a heavy mace at the pommel of his saddle, and agood lance resting on stirrup-iron; yea, and I, Felix the novice, woreringed armour and a steel casque, and had my sword and lance: Englehardde Cicomaco, that famed and well-judging knight, who was one of theretainers of our abbey, doing military service for the abbey lands heheld near Hurley Common, did say that I looked a very properman-at-arms, and did bestride my steed like a knight--but these arevanities, and I by my vows did renounce all vanity. Yet can I but markthat when we came to Cumnor a great baron asked who was that gallantwell-favored young soldier that rode in the van, near to the lord abbatof Reading.
On our way we tarried for a night at Berecourt by Pangbourne, where wehad a goodly house among the hills which had wont to be a summerresidence of our abbats. But this goodly house had been robbed andspoiled, and our vassals and serfs had not yet been enabled to restoreit. We were therefore roughly lodged and not over well fed; but thatwhich affected me more grievously than this was the sad condition of thepoor people of Pangbourne, who had been so prosperous and happy beforethese accursed wars began. Sad were the tales they told, and not theleast sad of them all was this: my quondam friend and brother novice,Urswick the Whiteheaded, had been in the spring season of this year atPangbourne with a great band of English and foreign robbers, ransackingthe place of his birth and maltreating the friends among whom he hadbeen born and bred; and his aged father had to his face pronounced acurse upon him; and in a quarrel with some savage men from Anjoutouching the division of spoil, Urswick had been slain on the bank ofThamesis, before he could recross the river or get out of sight of hisnative village: and, since that black morning, or so our serfs did say,his well-known voice had been heard at midnight, and he had been seen bythe light of the moon, now habited as a monk, and wringing his hands bythe river side where he fell, looking piteously towards the abbey ofReading, from which he had fled, and now equipped as a man-at-arms, andgalloping on a great black horse, across the country and up the steephills and down the precipices--fire flashing from the eyes and nostrilsof the infernal steed, and from the burning heart of the lost novice.
On our march from Pangbourne we shunned the townships and castles asmuch as we could, and took especial heed not to get near untoWallingford; for the strong castle there was held by Brian Fitzcount,the most terrible of all Matilda's partisans, and the greatest robber ofthem all; and the castle at this very time was known to be full ofunfortunate prisoners whom he kept and daily tortured in order to makethem disclose their supposed hidden treasures, or to pay a heavierransom than any they had the means of paying. Christian burghers andfranklins, noble knights who had warred against the heathen inPalestine, nay churchmen, the highest in the hierarchy, were known to bein his foul prison, pent up with Jewish traffickers and money-dealers;the noblest and the purest with the vilest and foulest of the earth: andthe gaolers and torturers of Brian Fitzcount treated the Christians nowhit better than the Israelites that were chained at their sides,contaminating them with their touch and poisoning the air they breathed.Night after night, such of the poor townfolk as had contrived to live inthe midst of these horrors without deserting Wallingford, were startledin their sleep by the cries and shrieks which came from the grim castle;and when in the morning they adventured to ask what had been toward inthe night watches, the Count's people would tell them jestingly from thebattlements that it was nothing, or that Brian Fitzcount had only beencoining a little more money, or that a Jew had had his teeth drawn, orthat a traitor to the empress-queen had been questioned about histreason and treasure.
The great prison in this castle of Wallingford was called Brian's Hell,and it was deserving of the name. But the fiends were abroad, as well aswithin those abominable walls--the spirit of the arch-fiend waseverywhere. The village churches and the chapels and hospitia insolitary places had been destroyed or turned into fortalices; deeptrenches were cut in the churchyards among the consecrated abodes of thedead; the sweet sounding church bells had been thrown down, and enginesof war had been set up on the church towers
. Yea! the resting placeswhich the church and the piety of the faithful had built and stocked forthe poor and hungry wayfarers in the desert had been plundered anddestroyed--the last holy resting-places had been profaned! The temple ofpeace and mercy had been turned into a place of arms!
As we came near to Hanney mead and the river Ock--that pleasant littleriver that wells from the ground near Uffington and drops into Thamesisby Abingdon, and that has the most savoury pike that be fished in theseparts--we came suddenly upon a castellum which we could by no meansavoid; for it had been lately built, and we knew not of it, and it layso low among marshes that we saw it not until we were close upon it. Itlay close to the only road that led to the ford across the river. To atrumpet which sounded a challenge from the walls our party replied withsound of trumpet, and then at the abbat's commandment proceededdeliberately onward. As we came nearer, the warder of the castle shouted"For whom be ye?"
"What if I say for King Stephen?" quoth our lord abbat, rising in hisstirrups and waving his lance over his head.
"Long live King Stephen! an thou wilt," said the warder, "but thou mustpay toll ere thou mayest pass the river."
"The lord abbat of Reading pays not even bridge toll, and here there isno bridge," said our lord abbat, "and fords be ever free. Go read ourcharter: _In terris et aquis, in transitibus pontium_, by land and bywater, and in the passing of bridges, we be free from all tolls orconsuetudinary payments. If thou wilt have toll from me, i'faith, thoumust come forth and take it."
"Thou art but a traitor," cried the warder. "Long live theempress-queen!" shouted divers armed men who ran to the battlement, andas they did shout did also bend their cross-bows. But by this time wehad all put spurs to our horses, and we dashed past the ugly castellumand across the ford without receiving any hurt, albeit a quarrel did hitthe lord abbat's steed near unto the tail and make him caper. Had ourparty been less numerous and warlike, doubtless we had been lodged thatnight among Brian Fitzcount's prisoners.
The town and abbey of Abingdon we did also avoid, keeping a little tothe westward thereof; for another tyrant and man destroyer had builthimself a great castle in that vicinage, and there had been many feudsand factions and changing of sides among the monks of Abingdon, whilethe best and most trusty of that community were known to be at the houseat Cumnor with their abbat. The roads were deep and miry, the way waslong, the days were short, and the weather of the saddest; but on thethird evening after our departure from Reading we arrived at the Cell ofCumnor, where our lord abbat was hospitably received by the abbat ofAbingdon, and where we of less note found good lodging andentertainment, to wit, a blazing wood fire whereat to dry our clothes,clean straw to sleep upon, and salted meats and manchets to eat, andgood Oxenford ale to drink.
On the morrow, when it wanted but two days of the feast of St. Thomasthe Apostle, King Stephen with a few lords and knights rode from thebeleaguer of Oxenford Castle to Cumnor, and did there confer with thetwo abbats and other ecclesiastics. What passed in the council chamber Icannot tell; but it was seen by all of us that the king wore a cheerfulaspect, and it was told unto us all that the castle was reduced toextremity, and that, there being no escape thence, the countess mustsoon surrender or die of starvation. When the conference was over, andwhen the king had been entertained as royally as the abbat of Abingdoncould do it in that place and at that time--and when Stephen had laidhis offering upon the altar in the church, he rode back to the siege,and our lord abbat of Reading, and all of us who had come with him,attended the king to Oxenford, intending there to tarry until thesurrender of Matilda.
"With the saints to my aid," said our abbat, "I may prevail upon thisperverse daughter of the Beauclerc to deliver herself quietly up, andupon King Stephen to be merciful unto her in her captivity. If theAngevin countess should still persevere in the wickedness of her ways,and attempt to escape again on a bier instead of putting an end to thewoes of the land by a surrender, forty good swords the more may doservice for the king. My children, my friends, ye will all be vigilantin this matter, and do duty like good soldiers, if it should be requiredof ye!" And as the good lord Reginald went into Oxenford town and sawthe palace which the Beauclerc king had there builded, and saw theengines of war, and heard the horrid noise of war all about, he heaved asigh and said, "_Eheu! quantum mutatur!_ How be all things changed! Herein the days of Henricus Primus, that peace-loving king, _Rex pacis_,have I seen nothing but quiet scholars and learned men, and the court ofa king that was an academe and a sanctuary of letters. Wot ye, my boyFelix, why it was that Henricus did build him a palace here?" And Ihaving confessed my ignorance as became me, our abbat went on to say,"Felix, my son, the Beauclerc had collected in his most royal park atWoodstock many wild beasts from foreign parts, such as lions and bears,leopards and lynxes, and porcupines, and of these he had a wonderfulgreat liking, and here at Oxenford learned men were collecting everyyear in greater numbers, and in the company of these scholars his gracedid take marvellous delight: in truth it were not easy to say whether heliked the beasts better than the bookish men, or the bookish men betterthan the beasts; but, to have the enjoyment of both, he ofttimes fixedhis residence between them; and therefore was it, my son, that HenricusPrimus raised this royal dwelling, and preferred it above his otherhouses." That very night, albeit I knew it not then, there came to KingStephen the very unfavourable news that the countess's half-brother, thegreat Earl of Gloucester, who for some months had been absent, hadreturned into England with a great body of Angevin and Norman troops,and had brought with him Henry Fitz-empress, Matilda's young son andheir, had stormed and taken the castle of Wareham, had been joined bymany traitorous barons who had but lately given fresh oaths of fidelityto Stephen, and was marching through the land to relieve his sister inOxenford Castle and fall upon her besiegers. Maugre the pains that weretaken to conceal this intelligence, it got abroad, and was by somedouble-dealer conveyed to Matilda within the castle.
That night there fell a great fall of snow, and after the snow a sharpand most sudden frost did set in, which in less than twenty-four hoursdid cover the river Isis and the moat of the castle and the circumjacentmarshes with thick ice. The beleaguerers made themselves great fires,and seemed not to remit in their watchfulness. I, Felix, with Philip thelay-brother, and Sir Englehard de Cicomaco, did mount guard and standwakeful all that bitter night, opposite to a postern gate of the castle.From time to time some great officer of King Stephen went from watch towatch, and all round the lines to see that the people did their duty andslept not. Joy came to my heart, and the deadening cold seemed to quitmy body, when I saw Sir Alain de Bohun come to the place where I stood.
"Watch well to-night, oh Felix," said that brave and always courteouslord; "watch well to-night, and to-morrow will we have our enemy in ourhands--and dear friends, too. Felix! I have had assurance that my sonand thy little friend is within those walls! To-morrow Matilda mustyield; so watch well that postern."
I kissed Sir Alain's hand, and vowed that not so much as a famished cator rat should come forth of that gate, nor did there while my watchlasted.
On the next day, the vigil of St. Thomas, as soon as it was light, awhite flag was raised in the camp in token of peace or truce, and ourlord abbat, with a goodly train of ecclesiastics, bearing church bannersand elevated crucifixes, came down to the very edge of the castle moat,and demanded speech of the countess; and Matilda ascended to thebattlements, but rather to rebuke them than to hear them. I, Felix,being relieved from my night watch, did see that stern woman of manyadventures and indomitable pride stand on the castle top in that cold,grey, leaden air. Thin was she, and gaunt and pale, like one that hadsuffered long fasting and sickness; but she had the same flashing eyeand resolute look as at the time when she dictated her will to our houseat Reading; and if her voice was more hollow, it was not less imperiousand awe-commanding now than it was then. The lord abbat entreated her togive up the castle, promising, in the name of King Stephen, that no harmshould be done to her or to any that were with her
; that she should behonorably escorted to the coast, and there embarked for Anjou; thatlands and money should be given to her and her adherents with a liberalhand; and that the king would take all her partisans into his peace, ifthey would but be true to treaty, and give up a war which had alreadylasted so many years to the reproach of Christendom, and to the utterundoing of the people of England. The abbat told her that her famishingstate was known, and that hope of escape there was none.
"And who told thee, oh meddling monk, that I ever thought of escape?Dost not know that the Earl of Gloucester is at hand, to do the thingwhich he did aforetime at Lincoln? We have meat and meal yet, and willabide the earl's coming. I will not throw open these gates, or quitthese walls, until I see the false recreant Stephen in chains at myfeet, praying again for that life which I ought to have rid him of longsince."
As the proud woman said these words, I could see that many of ourbystanders looked at one another with perplexity and alarm, and thatdivers even of the churchmen put on very thoughtful countenances, anddid nothing and said nothing to aid our lord abbat, or to rebuke thecountess, who in a great passion of wrath threatened to have him hangedfor a felon under the archway of his own abbey.
Some there were that would have counselled an immediate assault upon thefortress; for albeit no breach had been made in those formidable walls,the moat was so frozen that it would bear any weight, and scalingladders and other needful materials were not wanting. But the morecautious sort said that the famishing garrison were very numerous andvery desperate; that it would be better to wait a day or two, and havethe castle upon composition; that the Earl of Gloucester had yet sundrydays of march to perform; and that if he came with ever so great a host,he would find it no easy work to break through our barricades anddefences, and get into the town. Some of the churchmen, moreover, didsay that no enterprise of war would prosper during the festivals of thechurch; and, certes, the major part of King Stephen's soldiers did seemfully determined to keep this the vigil, and to-morrow the festival ofSt. Thomas the Apostle, according to the rubric, whether the king wouldhave it so or not. Hence there was a very visible relaxation ofvigilance. Refreshed by a short sleep in the day, I did watch again thatnight with the beleaguerers; but my post was not where it had been thenight before, and in the morning, before I could be relieved, I learnedthat the countess had escaped through the postern which I had watched sowell. Marvellous, truly, was the skill and fortune of the Beauclerc'sdaughter! She had escaped from Devizes by putting on the semblance andtrappings of the dead, and now she had escaped from Oxenford like asheeted ghost! A little after the midnight hour she had dressed herselfall in white, and had thrown white sheets over Sir Ingelric ofHuntercombe, and three others of her knights; and she and these foursheeted warriors had stolen out of the castle by the postern gate, andhad crossed the moat on the ice and traversed the ice-bound Isis, andcreeping on their hands and knees over the deep white snow, they hadescaped detection, and got safely through our lines and all ouroutposts. On foot, in the deep snow, Matilda with her attendant spectrestravelled to Abingdon; but there they found friends and horses, for thenews of the coming of the Earl of Gloucester had reached the place, andhad been very fatal to men's loyalty unto Stephen. From Abingdon,without resting there, the countess rode through that cold night toWallingford Castle, where Brian Fitzcount received her very joyfully.But these things came to my knowledge afterwards; and when it was firstheard that the countess was gone, none could tell how she was gone, orwhither she had betaken herself. The notice was not given until morethan seven hours after her departure, when, as the day began to dawn, astarving man-at-arms cried out from the battlements that the garnisonwere ready to throw open the gates unto King Stephen, and so savethemselves from death by hunger, as the queen had fled thence, and wasno longer in any danger. At first the news was not credited by any ofthe king's people; but soon the governor of the castle sounded trumpetsfor a parley, and held out a flag of truce, and offered to deliver upthe castle upon condition that his life and the lives of his peopleshould be spared. King Stephen himself came rushing to the post oppositethe castle gate to learn the truth, and settle the conditions ofsurrender; and with him came Sir Alain de Bohun, mortified yet rejoiced,a much perplexed yet a happy man; for though it should be found that thescourge of England had escaped, he had a confident hope that she couldnot have carried away his son with her.
King Stephen spoke aloud to the castellan, and said, "This is but afabulous rumour! The countess of Anjou is where she hath been these lastthree months! Unsay what hath been said! Tell me that she is withinthose walls, and, starving as thou art, I will give thee more than theconditions thou askest--I will give thee wealth and honours! Only saythat she hath not escaped."
"Earl of Moriton and Boulogne!" shouted the proud castellan, "if theempress queen were within these walls I would starve and die, but neveropen these gates unto thee! Let mine offer to surrender be a proof thatshe is gone hence. I swear, by the holy rood, that she hath been goneever since midnight."
"Whither hath she gone?" cried Stephen.
"I know not, and would not tell thee if I did know; but 'tis likely shewill soon tell thee where she is."
While the castellan was talking in this guise on the outer walls, manyof our lords and knights, with their men-at-arms, got them to horse,and, dividing into different parties, went scouring over the country inall directions, some along the road that leads to Woodstock, some on theAbingdon road, some down the river towards Newnham, some towards ForestHill, and some across the hills towards Islip and Weston-on-Green.
Many slips and falls had they on the frozen ice and slippery roads; yetwas it all but a bootless chace. The party that went along the Abingdonroad, and that came back even faster than they went, as Sir BrianFitzcount had advanced a body of horse to the township of Abingdon, hadmet on their advance an aged shepherd who had been out in the night insearch of some sheep that had been lost in the snow drifts; and thisaged man had told them that about the midnight hour he had seen glidingalong the road between Oxenford and Abingdon five ghosts or revenantsall in white, which he took to be the uneasy spirits of some who hadperished in our diurnal slaughters; and this was all that was learned byour too late pursuing companies.
In the first heat of his wrath and bitterness of his disappointment theking refused to admit the garnison to capitulation, and threatened tohang them all, together with many of his own watch; but our lord abbatmoderated his wrath. Sir Alain de Bohun, eager for sight of his boy, andalways averse to bloodshed, did recommend mercy and moderation; and so,about mid-day, terms were granted, and the castle was given up toStephen. I was among the first that entered with our good Lord ofCaversham. Sir Alain found many friends among those who had been kept asprisoners by the Countess; but for some time he could not find his son,or hear anything concerning him, save that the boy had been seen in thecastle a few days agone. Fearful thoughts agitated the loving father,and made him turn ghastly pale. Had the Countess in her rough nocturnalflight carried the boy with her? No, there was a knight who opened thepostern-gate for her, and who swore upon his cross that none had goneforth but the empress-queen, Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, and the threeother knights. Had the desperate woman in her fury against one of themost constant of her enemies taken the life of the dear boy? None wouldconfess to the atrocious deed, yet none seemed to know what had befallenSir Alain's son. In truth they were all ravenous and stupified withtheir excess of hunger, and were only eager to get out into the town,and at the meat and drink which had been mercifully promised them; andfor many a day few of them had taken any note of what was doing withinthe castle or in the lodging of Matilda. But the Lord of Caversham andthe best of his own people, and I, Felix, and Philip, the lay-brother,did rush into the apartment of the Countess and ransack it well; andwhile we were in an inner room in the tower that looks upon Isis, weheard a feeble voice as of one lamenting, and pulling aside somehangings on the wall, we discovered a small low door under an arch, andthereupon Sir Alain, all of a
tremble, cried out in a voice that wentunto the hearts of all of us, "Who lieth within? Is it thou, mine onlyson?" and the faint voice said "My father," and said no more. Theiron-bound door was locked, and the key was gone; but spite of itsthickness and strength, we soon burst the door open with a mighty crash.I did enter that foul hole in the wall with Sir Alain, and did see andhear that which passed when he raised his boy from the dirty straw uponwhich he had fainted; but I have not the power to narrate that which Isaw and heard. Nay, to speak more soothly, I did see but faintly, forthe light that came into the cell through a narrow loophole was butscant, and my gushing tears did almost blind me. But we soon carried theboy out into wholesome air, and put wine to his lips; and he recoveredand knew his father. And when he had eaten and gained strength, he toldhis sire, who had never before been seen so wrathful, that he had nottasted meat or drink for two whole days and nights. Verily it did seemthat the Countess had destined him to die of starvation, and that shehad herself secreted him in that hideous hole in the castle-wall, fornone of her attendants would confess any knowledge of the thing. But SirAlain would not give credit to these protestations of ignorance, sayingthat some of the Countess's people must have known what was done in herown apartment, and sorely did he beat with the flat of his sword an oldforeign hag that had been the Countess's chamber-woman, and two Angevinsthat had been in constant attendance upon her; and he swore more oathsthan had ever come from his lips, that were it not for the love of theking his master, and for the king's honour, and for his own religiousrespect for compacts and treaties and capitulations of war, he wouldhang them all three on the top of that accursed tower.
So soon as I saw that the hope of the house of Caversham was restored tosome of his strength (and he gave me a proof thereof by saluting me andtaking me by the hand as an old friend), I went forth to try if I couldgain some intelligence of the little Alice, who was not born to liveseparated from Arthur, and likewise of my whilom friend and companionJohn-a-Blount from Maple-Durham, who had fled from our house at Readingwith the novice Urswick, of unhappy memory. I soon learned from someretainers of Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe that the little maiden, beforethe coming of King Stephen to Oxenford, had been bestowed with herstep-mother in the strong castle at Old Speen, which Sir Ingelric hadrebuilded; but the fellows knew not, or pretended not to know, anythingtouching our fugitive novice John-a-Blount. Therefore did I put my souland body in peril by going into the very midst of the Countess Matilda'sblack-eyed damsels; for I thought in the nature of things that heshould be among those young Jezebels who had first led him astray.Albeit the merciful terms of capitulation were faithfully observed, andknights of good repute were stationed in the castle to see that no harmwas done to those that had surrendered; the interior of the fortress wasstill a scene of unspeakable confusion and alarm. Fierce knights thathad not prayed for many a day, and rough outlandish soldiers who knewnot how to say a credo or an ave, were muttering orisons and tellingtheir beads, or holding their crucifixes in their hands, crying ever andanon to the more truculent visaged of the king's people, "We have allrendered upon paction--We be all in the king's mercy and honour--Touchnot our lives or limbs, or eyes, but give us to eat, or we perish!"
The women of the countess, whose eyes were much less bright anddangerous than when I last saw them in their pride and insolency at ourabbey, lay all huddled and crouching together in a corner of thecastle-yard, where divers clerks of Oxenford, with the marshal of KingStephen's camp, were making lists of the names and qualities of theprisoners. Many men, as well English as foreign, were standing nearthese affrighted and more than half-famished women; and a few youngknights and esquires seemed to be speaking words of comfort to divers ofthem; but among these men I could not see John-a-Blount, fromMaple-Durham, nor any young man that resembled him; and when I asked ofmany, they all told me that they knew nothing of the said John: whichwas grievous unto my soul, for I had hoped to find him there, and toreclaim him, and thereby save him from the fate of the unhappy Urswick.As I was about to turn from that company of women, I was brought to apause by a pair of eyes, swimming in tears, that did bind me to thespot, like one spell-bound. They were the large black eyes of thatdamsel in the short green kirtle, and of the incomparably small feet andankles that had come salting and dancing up to me in the garden of ourhouse at Reading; but alack, she danced not now, and seemed scarcelyable to stand, and instead of the laughingest she had the saddest face;and she was all thin and haggard as the poorest of the wanderinghouseless beggars we had met on our march from Reading to Oxenford. Ihad the remnant of a manchet in the sleeve of my monastic gown, andthough many eyes were upon me, and others might be as hungry as she was,I took forth the blessed piece of bread, and thrust it into her skinnyhands, and then hurried away to Sir Alain de Bohun, who did forthwithorder some meat and drink to be given to those poor outlandishstarvelings.
On the day next after the surrender of the castle, the foreignwomen--praise and thanks to the Lord for that same!--were all sent awayunder a strong and reliable escort for the city of London, there to bekept by Stephen's good queen Maud until they should be ransomed orexchanged for other prisoners. And in the current of that same day wedid hear but too surely what the escaped countess was a-doing. She hadgone forth from Wallingford Castle with Brian Fitzcount and a great hostof foreign mercenaries, and was marching to the westward to meet theEarl of Gloucester, who was not so near to Oxenford as had beenreported, and she was again marking her evil path with blood andflames. King Stephen resolved to follow her and bring the great earl tobattle; but the countess and her half-brother having met in Wiltshire,retreated rapidly to the west, where lay their great strength inpartisans and castles, and they threw themselves into the castle ofBristowe, which was their strongest hold all through the war. The kingwould have turned back to lay siege to Wallingford Castle, in theabsence of its terrible lord the merciless Brian Fitzcount; but a plotbroke out in the vicinage of London, and sundry barons raised the bannerof Matilda in Essex, thereby obliging Stephen to march with all speed tothe eastward. So Wallingford Castle remained in the hands of therobbers, to be a curse to the country and a den of torture: but we, themonks of Reading, with little aid but what the saints sent us, and withno loss of life to our party, did prevail over another band of thievesand destroy their den, to the inestimable relief and comfort of thatcountry side.
A Legend of Reading Abbey Page 7