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

by Charles MacFarlane

  CHAPTER VII.

  HEREWARD'S RETURN.

  There may be between Thamesis and the Tyne worse seas and more perilousrocks; but when the north-east wind blows right into that gulf, and thewaves of the German Ocean are driven on by the storms of winter, thepractised mariner will tell ye that the navigation of the Wash, theBoston Deeps, and the Lynn Deeps, is a fearful thing to those who knowthe shoals and coasts, and a leap into the jaws of death to those thatknow them not. Besides the shallows near shore, there be sandbanks andtreacherous shoals in the middle of the bay, and these were ofttimesshifting their places or changing their shapes. Moreover, so manyrivers and broad streams and inundations, that looked like regularrivers in the wet seasons of the year, poured their waters into theWash, that it required all the skill of the mariner and pilot to find away into the proper bed of any one particular river, as the Ouse, theNene, or the Welland.[109] Here are many quick-sands, fatal to barks,when concealed under the water; and even in summer-tide, when thewaters are dried, the shepherds and their flocks,[110] are often taughtby a woeful experience that these quick-sands have a wonderful force insucking in and holding fast whatsoever cometh upon them. In this sortthe perils of shipmen are not over even when they reach the shore, andare advancing to tread upon what seemeth like _terra firma_. The Washand its sand-banks and the quick-sands had made more East-Anglianwidows and orphans than were made by any other calamity besides, savealways the fierce Norman conquest.

  It was under one of the fiercest and loudest tempests that ever blewfrom the sky of winter, and upon one of the roughest seas that everrolled into the Wash, that five barks, which seemed all to be deeplyladen and crowded with men, drove past the shoal called theDreadful,[111] and made for that other shoal called the Inner Dousing.The sun, which had not been visible the whole day, now showed itselflike a ball of fire as it sank in the west behind the flats and fens ofLincolnshire; and when the sun was down the fury of the tempest seemedto increase. When they had neared the Inner Dousing, four of the barkstook in all their sail and lay-to as best they could in the trough ofthe sea; but the fifth bark stood gallantly in for the Wash, withnearly all her sails up. Swift as it bounded over the waves, it wasdark night before the foremost bark reached the little cape wherestands the chapel of our Ladie.[112] Here the bark showed three lightsat her mast-head, and then three lights over her prow, and then threeover her stern. Quickly as might be, these lights from on board thefifth and foremost bark were answered by three times three of lights onthe belfry of Our Ladie's chapel; and had it not been for the roaringof the winds and the loud dashing of the sea on the resounding shore,those on land by Our Ladie's chapel might have heard a three timesthree of hearty cheers from those on shipboard, and those on the shipmight have heard every cheer given back with interest and increase bythe crowd of true Saxons that stood by the chapel. The bark next showedat her masthead a broad blue light, such as had never been seen beforein these parts; and presently from the lee side of the Inner Dousingfour other bright blue lights gleamed across the black sky; and havingin this wise answered signal, the four barks followed in the track ofthe fifth and came up with it off Our Ladie's chapel. Still keeping alittle in advance, like the pilot and admiral of the little fleet, thebark that had first reached the coast glided into Lynn Deeps; and as itadvanced towards the mouth of the Ouse, signal-lights or pilotinglights rose at every homestead and hamlet, from Kitcham[113] toStone's-end, from Stone's-end to Castle Rising, and from Castle Risingto the good town of Lynn. And besides these stationary lights, therewere other torches running along the shore close above the line of seafoam. And much was all this friendly care needed, the deeps beingnarrow and winding and the shoals and sand-banks showing themselves onevery side, and the wind still blowing a hurricane, and the masts ofthe barks bending and cracking even under the little sail that they nowcarried. On this eastern side of the Wash few could have slept, or havetarried in their homes this night; for when--near upon midnight, and asthe monks of Lynn were preparing to say matins in the chapel of SaintNicholas--the five barks swirled safely into the deep and easy bed ofthe Ouse, and came up to the prior's wharf, and let go their anchors,and threw their stoutest cordage ashore, to the end that the marinersthere might make them fast, and so give a double security against windand tide, the wharf and all the river bank was covered with men, women,and children, and the houses in the town behind the river bank werenearly all lighted up, as if it had been Midsummer's eve, instead ofbeing the penultimate night[114] of the Novena of Christmas. It was notdifficult to make out that the foremost of the barks and one otherbelonged to Lynn, inasmuch as the Lynn folk leaped on board of them assoon as they were made fast at the wharf, calling upon their townfellows, their brothers or sons, and hugging them _more Saxonico_[115]when they found them out on the crowded decks. The other barks were offoreign structure, and the mariners seemed to be all foreigners; butthe many passengers in each of them were all Englishmen, and _landsmen_besides; for they had all been very sea-sick, and were now veryimpatient to get their feet upon dry land.

  The first that landed from the foremost bark was a tall, robust, andhandsome man, dressed as Saxon noblemen and warriors were wont to dressbefore the incoming of the ill fashions of Normandie.

  He carried in his right hand a long straight and broad sword, the bladeof which was curiously sheathed, and the hilt of which formed a cross.When he had crossed the plankings of the wharf, and reached the solidground, he knelt on one knee and kissed the cross of his sword; andthen throwing himself prone upon the earth, and casting wide his armsas though he would embrace it and hug it, he kissed the insensate soil,and thanked his God and every saint in the Saxon calendar for that hehad been restored to the land which gave him birth, and which held thedust and bones of his fathers. Some who had seen him in former days onthe Spalding side of the Wash, and some who had been apprised of hiscoming, began instantly to shout, "It is he!--it is Lord Hereward ofBrunn! It is Hereward the Saxon! It is the Lord of Brunn, come to getback his own and to help us to drive out the Normans." The shouts weretaken up on every side, mariners and landsmen, foreigners and home-bornfensmen, and women and children, crying, "It is Hereward the Saxon!Long live the young Lord of Brunn, who will never shut his hall-door inthe face of a poor Englishman, nor turn his back on a Frenchman!" Somehemmed him in, and kissed his hands, and the sheath of his longstraight sword, and the skirts of his mantle, and the very sandals onhis feet; while others held their glaring torches close over his head,that they might see him and show him to their mates. It was one Nan ofLynn, and a well-famed and well-spoken woman, that said, as she lookedupon the Lord Hereward, "We Englishwomen of the fens will beat themen-at-arms from Normandie, an we be but led by such a captain as this;with that steel cap on his head, and that scarlet cloak over hisshoulders, he looks every inch as stalwart and as handsome a warrior asthe archangel Michael, whose portraiture we see in our church!"

  The person nearest in attendance on Lord Hereward was that lucky wightElfric, who had been to seek him in foreign parts; but it was Elfric nolonger attired either as a tattered menestrel or as a shaveling novice,but as something betwixt a blithesome page and an armed retainer. Hetoo had more than one tear of joy in his eye as he trod upon the shore;but this tender emotion soon gave way to a hearty if not boisterousmirth, and so he kept shouting, "Make way for Hereward the Lord ofBrunn!" and kept squeezing the hands of all the men and women andchildren he knew in Lynn, as they walked towards the convent whereHereward was to rest until daylight. Next to Elfric, the man thatseemed most entirely devoted to the service and to the person ofHereward was a slight, slim man of middle stature and very darkcomplexion; his hair was long, and would have been blacker than theplumage of the raven save that time had touched it here and there withgrey; his nose was arched like the beak of a goshawk; and his eye, thatlooked out from under a very black and bushy but very lofty eyebrow,was blacker and keener than the eye of any hawk or other fowl of prey.Some who had
seen now and then a wandering Israelite, thought that thisstranger looked marvellously like a Jew; but this was a marvellousmistake. None could think him either young or handsome; yet was theresomething about his person and in his face that none could help lookingat, and then remembering for aye. Among the stout Saxons were some thatcould have taken the dark, slim stranger between their finger andthumb, and have squeezed the life out of him with as much ease as boyscrack nuts; but there was a quickness and sharpness in the stranger'seye that seemed to say he could outwit them all if he chose. On the wayto the convent Hereward several times addressed him in some foreigntongue, and seemed by his looks to be taking advice of him.

  As the convent was but a dependency of my Lord Abbat Thurstan, and asuccursal cell to Ely, ye may judge whether the Lord of Brunn and thosewho came with him met with hospitality! Saxons and strangers (and alllanded from the barks as soon as might be, and hastened to the convent)found suppers and beds, or suppers and clean sweet rushes to lie upon,either with the sub-prior or in the guest-house. In the morning, assoon as it was light, Hereward, Elfric, and the dark stranger, and ascore of armed men, re-embarked in the good ship that had brought themto Lynn, and proceeded up the river Ouse, leaving the other four barksat their moorings under the prior's wharf. These four craft were tokeep a good look-out, and in case of any armed ships coming into theWash they were to run, through the most intricate passage, forSpalding; but if no enemy should appear (and of this there was scarcelya chance, as the weather continued stormy, and the Normans were badseamen, and very badly provided with shipping), they were all to waitat Lynn until Lord Hereward should come back from Ely to lead them toSpalding, and, farther still, to his own house at Brunn.

  Broad and free was the river Ouse, and up as high as the junction ofthe Stoke[116] Lord Hereward's bark was favoured by the tide as well asby the wind. Above the Stoke the tide failed; but the wind blewsteadily on, and many boats, with lusty rowers in them, came down fromEly and Chettisham and Littleport, and took the bark in tow, for thesignal-lights and fires which had guided the fleet into Lynn had beencarried across the fens and to the Abbey of Ely, and had told my LordAbbat that the Lord Hereward was come. No bark had ever made suchvoyage before, nor have many made it since; but a good while before thesun went down our Lynn mariners made their craft fast to my LordAbbat's pier, and Hereward and his bold and trusty followers landed inthe midst of a throng ten times greater and ten times more jubilantthan that which had welcomed them at Lynn. Before quitting the shipElfric put on his monastic habit. This he did not do without a sigh;and he carried with him under his novice's gown the gay dress he hadworn while in foreign parts and on shipboard. Maybe he expected thatservices might be required from him in which such an attire would beuseful; or perhaps he hoped that his superior of Spalding and the Abbatof Crowland would, in considering the services he had rendered already,determine in their wisdom that the dress and calling of a monk were notthose which suited him best. Although not bound by any irrevocable vow,Elfric was bound by the ties of gratitude to Father Adhelm, who hadtaken him into the succursal cell at Spalding when a very young andhelpless orphan; and Elfric would never have been the man he provedhimself if he had been forgetful of duties and obligations.

  At the outer gate of the convent Lord Hereward was met and embraced andwelcomed by the high-hearted abbat of the house, by the ArchbishopStigand, the Abbat of Crowland, and by all the prelates and highchurchmen; and next by all the cloistered monks of Ely; and next by thelay lords and the Saxon warriors of all parts: and all this rightreverend and right noble company shouted, "Welcome to our chief and ourdeliverer! Honour and welcome to the young Lord of Brunn!"

  As Thurstan led the Saxon hero by the hand towards his own Aula Magna,he said, "But for the solemn season, which brooks not much noise," (thetown folk, and the hinds that had come in from the fens, and thenovices and lay-brothers, were continuing to shout and make noiseenough to wake the dead that were sleeping in the cloisters), "we wouldhave received you, my lord, with a great clattering of bells and showof flags and banners! Nevertheless thou comest at a most suitablemoment and on the very verge of the most joyous of all seasons; 'tisthe vigil of the Nativity. On this Christmas eve, like allwell-regulated religious houses and all good Christians, we fast upon abanquet of eels and fish. At midnight we have the midnight mass,chanted in our best manner; and to-morrow we feast indeed, and give upall our souls to joy. To-morrow, then, our bells shall be struck uponso that the Norman knights and men-at-arms shall hear them inCam-Bridge Castle, and shall tremble while they hear! And our Saxonflags, and the banners of our saints, yea, the great banner of SaintEtheldreda itself, shall be hung out on our walls! And when the otherduties of the day are over, we will sing a _Te Deum laudamus_ for thycoming. My Lord Hereward, I have not known such joy, or half so muchhope, since the day on which our good Edward (_Rex venerandus_) putthis ring upon my finger and confirmed my election as abbat of thishouse! My hope then was that I should be enabled to be a good ruler ofthis ancient brotherhood, and good lord to all the Saxon folk thatdwell on the land of Saint Etheldreda. Now my higher hope is that thouwilt be enabled, oh Hereward, to free all England from this cruelbondage!"

  The young Saxon noble, being wholly a man of action, and gifted withmuch modesty, made but a very short reply to this and to other verylong speeches; he simply said that he had come back to get back hisown, and to help his good countrymen to get back their own; that theNorman yoke was all too grievous to be borne; that it was very strangeand very sorrowful that brave King Harold came not back to his faithfulpeople of East-Anglia; and that, until King Harold should come,[117]he, Hereward, would do his best for his friends and for himself.

  Though all were eager to be informed of the strength which the Lord ofBrunn brought with him, and of the plans he proposed to pursue,Thurstan thought it churlish to question any man fasting. Hereward,however, declared that he had fared well on board the bark, and couldwell wait till supper-time. And so, having closed the doors of theabbat's great hall, the lords and prelates proceeded to deliberate withthe dispossessed Lord of Brunn. The sum of Hereward's replies to manyquestions and cross-questions (he having no genius for narration) wassimply this:--Elfric had found him out in Flanders, and had deliveredto him letters, and messages, and tokens which had determined him toquit his adoptive country and return to England. Many English exileswho had been living in the Netherlands had made up their minds to comeover with him. Such money as they could command among them all, orborrow at interest from the traders of Flanders, who seriously felt theloss of their trade with England, had been applied to the purchase ofwarlike harness, and to the hiring and equipping of three foreignbarks. The master of a bark from Lynn that chanced to be in those partshad offered his bark and the services of himself and crew for nothing,or for what his liege lord the Abbat of Ely might at any time choose togive him. The gold and silver which my Lord Abbat had sent with Elfrichad been properly and profitably employed; and, besides spear-heads,and swords, and bows, and jackets of mail, the Lynn bark now lying atmy Lord Abbat's pier, and the other Lynn bark left behind at that town,had brought such a quantity of Rhenish and Mosel wine as would sufficefor the consumption of the whole house until next Christmas. Countingthe men that had come in all the barks, there were more than onehundred and ten true-hearted Saxons, well armed and equipped, and wellpractised in the use of arms, as well in the Saxon fashion as in thefashions used abroad; and every one of these men was proper to become acenturion, or the trainer and leader of a hundred of our fen-men. Itwas Lord Hereward's notion that our great house at Ely and the Camp ofRefuge would be best relieved or screened from any chance of attack, bythe Saxons making at once a quick and sharp attack all along the Normanlines or posts to the north and north-west of the Isle of Ely, or fromSpalding to Brunn, and Crowland, and Peterborough. Some thought thathis lordship preferred beginning in this direction because his ownestates and the lady of his love were there: we will not say that theseconsiderations had no weight with him, but we
opine that his plan was agood one, and that no great commander, such as Hereward was, would havebegun the war upon the invaders in any other manner, time or place.Twenty of the armed men he had brought with him from their wearisomeexile--or more than twenty if my Lord Abbat thought fit--he would leaveat Ely; with the rest, who had been left with the ships at Lynn, hewould go to the Welland river, and make a beginning.

  "But thou canst not go yet awhile," said Abbat Thurstan, thinking ofthe Christmas festivals and of the Rhenish wines; "thou canst not quitus, my son, until after the feast of the Epiphany! 'Tis but twelve daysfrom to-morrow, and the Normans are not likely to be a-stirring duringthose twelve days."

  "True, my Lord Abbat," said Hereward, "the Normans will be feasting andrejoicing; but it is on that very account that I must go forthwith inorder to take them unprepared and attack their bands separately, whilethey are feasting. An ye, holy brothers, give me your prayers, and thesaints grant me the success I expect, I shall have recovered for ye thehouse at Spalding and the abbey of Crowland, and for myself mine humblehouse at Brunn, before these twelve days be over."

  "Then," said the abbat, "thou mayest be back and keep the feast of theEpiphany with us."

  Hereward thought of keeping the feast in another place and with adifferent company, but the eager hospitality of Thurstan was not to beresisted, and so he promised that he would return, if he could do sowithout detriment to the business he had on hand. But when he spoke ofsetting forth on the morrow after high mass, not only the Lord Abbat,but every one that heard him, raised his voice against him, andHereward yielded to the argument that it would be wicked to begin waron Christmas Day, or to do any manner of thing on that day exceptpraying and feasting. Something did Hereward say in praise of Elfric,and of the ability, and courage, and quickness of invention he haddisplayed while on his mission in foreign parts, and on shipboard.

  "Albeit," said he, "I would not rob my good friends the Abbat ofCrowland and the Prior of Spalding of so promising a novice, I needsmust think that he would make a much better soldier than monk; nor canI help saying that I would rather have Elfric for my messenger and aidin the field than any Saxon youth I know, whether of low degree orhigh."

  "My good brother of Crowland and I have been thinking of these things,"said Abbat Thurstan; "and these are surely days when the saints ofEngland require the services of men with steel caps on their heads asmuch as they require the services of men with shaven crowns. Not butthat some of us that wear cowls have not wielded arms and done goodbattle in our day for the defence of our shrines and houses."

  At this moment the eels and fish of the Christmas-eve supper were allready, and the best cask of Rhenish which the bark had brought up to myLord Abbat's pier was broached.