CHAPTER XX.
THE NORMAN DUKE TRIES AGAIN.
William of Normandie sate in his gorgeous hall in the royal citadel ofWinchester: the proud crown of England was on his head, and thejewelled sceptre in his hand, and knights, lords, and prelates stood inhis presence to do his every bidding, and to tell him that he was thegreatest of conquerors and sovereign princes; yet a cloud was on hisbroad brow, and his face was sad and thoughtful.
"I am no king of England," said he, "so long as this Hereward the Saxonholds out against me or lives! This sceptre is a child's playthingunless I can drive the Saxons out of the Camp of Refuge!"
"The robbers and outlaws shall be driven out," said Hugo of Grantmesnil.
"Hugo," said the duke, "it is five years since thou first toldest methat, and the camp seems stronger now than ever it was."
"If it were not for the drowning waters, and the sinking bogs, and allthe abominations of those fens and forests, which are fit only forSaxon hogs to wallow in, the deed were easy to do," said Peter ofBlainville.
"Be it easy or be it hard," quoth Duke William, "the deed must be done,or we must all prepare to go back into Normandie, and give up all thatwe have gotten! It bots us little to have bought off the greedy Dane;for Philip of France, whom some do call my suzerain lord, is one thatwill prefer conquest to money; and Philip is not only threatening mydominions in Normandie, but is also leaguing with mine enemies in thisisland; he is corresponding with the King of the Scots, and with EdgarEtheling the Saxon, and guest and brother-in-law to the Scottish king;and if this rebellion in the Fen-country be not soon suppressed, we maysoon count upon seeing a French army on the coast, and a Scottish armymarching through the north; and then the wild men will rush from themountains of Wales and invade us in the west, as they have doneaforetime; and thereupon will ensue a universal rising of the Saxonpeople, who are nowhere half subdued. By the splendour! while thesethings last I am no king!"
One of the Norman prelates lifted up his voice and asked, whether theoffer of a free pardon, and the promise of a large sum of money, wouldnot make Hereward the Saxon abandon the Saxon cause, and desert fromthe Camp of Refuge?
"By Notre Dame of Bayeux!" said Bishop Odo, the warlike and alwaysfighting brother of Duke William, "by Notre Dame, and by my own swordand soul, this young man Hereward is not like other men! He hath beenoffered a free pardon, with possession of his lands, whether his bymarriage or by inheritance, and he hath been promised as much gold andsilver as would pay for a king's ransom; and yet he hath rejected allthis with scorn, and hath vowed, by his uncouth Saxon saints, that solong as a hundred men can be kept together in the Fen-country, he willnever submit, or cease his warfare against the Normans!"
"But that devil from beyond the Alps," said the Norman prelate who hadspoken before, "that rebel to the house of Guiscard, that necromancer,Girolamo of Salerno, is he not to be bought?"
"It hath been tried," said Bishop Odo, "but to no effect. That Italiandevil is more athirst for Norman blood than is the Saxon devil. Beforehe quitted his home and fled beyond seas to seek out new enemies to ourrace, he gained a name which still makes the bravest of our Normans inItalie say a _Libera nos_ when they utter it! We will burn him alivewhen we catch him, but until that hour comes there is nothing to hopeand much to fear from him, for he hath given up his life and soul tovengeance, and he hath more skill in the art of war, and is more versedin the diabolical arts of magic, than any other man upon earth."
"But what of the Saxon Abbat of Ely?" said the prelate who had beforespoken about the efficacy of bribes, "what of this Thurstan?"
"There is not a stubborner Saxon out of hell," replied Odo, Bishop ofBayeux; "he hath been tried long since. Thou mightest as well attemptto bribe the raging sea! Thou mightest grill him on a gridiron likeSaint Lawrence, or tear him into small pieces with iron pincers likeSaint Agatha, and he would only curse us and our conquest, and pray forthe usurper Harold, whom the fools firmly believe to be alive!"
"But," said the other prelate, "among the other clownish monks of Ely,may there not be found a----"
"Peace!" said Duke William, "that hath been thought of already, andperhaps something may come of it--that is, if ye be but silent anddiscreet. Ye are all too loud-tongued, and overmuch given to talking;and these walls, though raised by Norman hands, may yet have Saxonears! Retire we to the innermost council chamber."
And William rose and withdrew to the innermost room, and those who hadthe right followed, and the chamberlains closed the door and kept guardon the outside, and the heavy door-curtains were drawn within so thatnone might approach the door, and not even the chamberlains hear whatpassed inside. That secret council lasted till a late hour of theevening. The words which were said be not known, but the thingsdetermined upon were made known but too soon. It was the eve of SaintMark the Evangelist, and, before the feast of Saint Bede the Venerable,Duke William was again at Cam-Bridge, and with a far greater army andtrain than he had sent thither the preceding year; and at the same timea great fleet of ships and barks began to be prepared in the Londonriver. No more witches were sent for, but William called over many moreexperienced warriors from France, and ordered barks to be equipped inthe rivers and ports of Normandie. The traitorous Dane had told himthat he must leave his war horses in their stalls, and think of shipsand boats, if he would drive the amphibious Saxons out of theFen-country.
While the banner of William floated over the Julius Tower, or Keep, onthe tall mound by Cam-Bridge, country hinds and labourers of all sorts,and horses and draught oxen, and mules and asses too numerous to count,were collected within the fortified camp; and again timber and stonesand burned bricks were brought from all parts of the land, and ingreater abundance than before. For several weeks nothing was heard butthe sawing of wood and the hewing and chipping of stone, and a loud andincessant hammering. A stranger to the history and present woes ofEngland might have thought that the Normans were going to build a Towerof Babel, or that, penitent for the mischief they had done, they weregoing to rebuild the town at Cam-Bridge, in order to bring back theaffrighted muses, and the houseless professors of learning, and thepining English students, to sumptuous inns and halls. In truth, thereseemed work and stuff enough to furnish out a great city altogethernew. But, upon a near view, a knowing eye would have seen that all thistoil was for the making of engines of war, of towers to place along thecauseway, of bridges to throw across the streams, and of otherponderous machines to aid the Normans in crossing the fens, and incarrying the horrors of war into the last asylum of Saxon liberty.
And while they travailed thus on the south side of the Isle of Elyunder the watchful and severe eye of Duke William, other Normans andother Saxon serfs (poor slaves constrained to this unpalatable task)laboured in the north under the eyes of various chiefs who had beenpromised in fiefs all the lands which they should conquer. With such ofthe ships and barks of the fleet as were first ready, a host was sentup the Wash and up the fen waters as high as Wisbech; and these shipscarried with them good store of timber and other materials, and,besides the soldiers, many good builders, who began forthwith to builda causeway and a castle at Wisbech.[209] Thus threatened on both facesof the Fen-country, Lord Hereward had much to do: but he flew from sideto side as the occasion called for his presence; and, with the aid ofGirolamo, that cunning man, and the willing and ready labour of the fenpeople, he speedily built up another castle, partly of wood and partlyof earth and turves, to face the Norman's castle at Wisbech, and torender their causeway there of none avail: and is not the ruin of thiscastle seen even in our day? And is it not called Castle Hereward? Anddo not the now happy and peaceful fenners relate how many assaults, andbickerings, and battles took place on the spot?
When his own preparations were well advanced on the side of the riverCam, Duke William sent his half-brother Robert, whom he had made Earlof Moreton, to take more ships and men, and go from the river Thamesisto the Wash and the new castle at Wisbec
h, and there tarry quietlyuntil the day next after the Festival of Saint John the Baptist, whenhe was to attack Castle Hereward with all his force, and press into theIsle of Ely from the north, while he, the Duke, should be preparing toinvade the island from the south. But this Count Robert, being but agross and dull-witted man, did not comprehend all the meaning of hisorders, and because he reached Wisbech Castle sooner than had beenexpected, and got all ready to fight two days before Saint John's Day,he needs must fall on at once. Now the Lord of Brunn, with one eye uponCount Robert and one upon Duke William, gathered great force to a headat Castle Hereward, beat the dull-witted man, slew with the edge of thesword or drove into the fens more than half his knights andmen-at-arms, set the new castle at Wisbech in a blaze, and burned agood part of it, and was back at Ely and with the Saxon army in thegreat camp before Count Robert had recovered from his amaze, and longbefore Duke William could learn anything of the matter. And so itchanced that when, on the day next after Saint John's Day, Duke Williammoved with his mighty host and machines of war from the castle atCam-Bridge towards the Camp of Refuge, in the full belief that theattention of the Saxons would be all distracted, and that Hereward,their great leader, would be away on the shores of the Wash and hotlyengaged with Count Robert, the bold Lord of Brunn had his eye solelyupon him, and with men elate with victory was watching his approach,even as he had long been watching and preparing for it. The broken oldroad[210] was repaired, and the now diminished streams were madepassable by means of the wooden bridges which the Norman soldierscarried or caused to be carried with them, and by throwing down stones,and timber, and bricks, and dry earth in strong wooden frames, DukeWilliam, after three days of cruel labour and toils which killed manyof his people, got within sight of the deep waters of Ely, and caught adistant view of the Witchford, where his Norman witch had crossed over.But the ford was now guarded by a double castle, or double fort; theone on this side of the stream, and the other on that; and the fartherbank and the plain beyond it seemed, as the duke approached a littlenearer, to be covered with a Saxon army, and with trophies taken fromthe Normans. Onward, however, he went until he saw the banner of hishalf-brother Count Robert held out over the wooden walls of the Saxons;but then he understood full well what had befallen his people atWisbech; and so, like the persevering and prudent commander that hewas, he ordered an immediate retreat. But it passed his skill and hismight to conduct this retreat in a safe and orderly manner; the Normansgot confused, and Hereward, crossing at the ford, charged through thickand thin, through bog and dry ground, and along the temporary causewaywhich had been made: the bridges of wood broke down under excess ofweight; Duke William himself fell into deep water and was nearlydrowned, and many of his people were wholly drowned or smothered, whilemany more were slain by the sword or taken prisoners. And still thebold Saxons, as they followed, shouted "Hereward for England! Stop,thou Bastard William! Thou art running as fast as thy brother Robertran from Castle Hereward!"
After this misadventure Duke William judged more favourably of theconduct of his many commanders who had failed in the same enterprise;and seeing all the difficulties of the war, and the inexhaustibleresources of that cunning captain, the Lord of Brunn, he called acouncil in the castle at Cam-Bridge, and there determined to try nomore battles and assaults, but to rely solely upon a close blockade ofthe Isle of Ely. Forthwith orders were sent to all the commanders ofposts round the Fen-country (the dull-witted Count Robert was recalledfrom Wisbech, and an abler captain sent to that vicinage) to strengthenthemselves in their several positions by building towers and walls, anddigging trenches, and by increasing the numbers of their men-at-arms;but at the same time they were strictly commanded to make no movementbeyond the limits of their defensive works, however great thetemptation to attack the Saxons might be. The great fleet so longcollecting in the river Thamesis, and which was in good part composedof English vessels which the Danes had captured and then sold to DukeWilliam, was sent round the coast well filled with fighting men, andpiloted by some of those Danish mariners and sea rovers who knew sowell all the bays and rivers on this eastern coast; and by the end ofthe month of July, or a little before the Feast of Saint Ethelwold,every station on the coast, from the mouth of the Orwell to the broadermouth of the river Humber, was watched and guarded, and every estuary,river, or creek that gave egress from the Fen-country was blocked up byships and barks, in such sort that the Saxons in the Camp of Refugecould no longer have any communication with the sea, or with thecountries beyond the sea, from whence they had been wont to draw armsand munitions of war, and corn, wines, and oil, and other supplies. Bythe same means all aid and friendly intercourse were completely cutoff; the good Saxons dwelling in a sort of independence on the northernshores of England, and the good Englishmen that had fled into Scotland,could no longer send their barks up the Wash and the Ouse withprovisions and comfort for the house of Ely and the Camp; and thus thewhole Isle of Ely was cut off, by land and by water, from all the restof the world, and was girded by a mighty chain, the links of whichseemed every day to grow stronger.
Many were the bold essays which the Lord of Brunn made to break up thisblockade. Twice, descending the Ouse, or the Welland, with the barks hehad stationed at Ely, and near to Spalding, he defeated and drove awaythe enemy's ships, and burned some of them with that unquenchable firewhich the Salernitan knew how to make; but after these actions theNormans and their shipmen became more watchful and cautious, keepingoutside of the mouths of the rivers, and continuing to increase theirforce; for other ships and barques, both great and small, came overfrom Normandie, and others were hired for this service among thesea-dwelling Netherlanders, who seemed evermore disposed to servewhatever faction could pay them best. And alas! the Normans had nowtheir hands in the great and ever-filling treasury of broad England,and the true sons of England, whether at Ely or in the Camp, had nolonger any gold or silver! or any means of sending forth that which canbring back money or the money's worth. Horned cattle had they still insome abundance, nor was there, as yet, any scarcity in sheep, or inwool, or in hides; but of corn to make the bread, which is the staff oflife, and of wine, which maketh glad the heart of man, was there littleor none left in this part of the land; forasmuch as that theFen-country did not grow much corn at any season, and the last seasonhad been one of dearth, and only a few butts of wine had been broughtover since the departure of the Danes, owing to the lack of money abovementioned. Those sea-rovers, having drunk almost the last drop of wineas well as carried off the last treasures of the house, had greatlydisheartened and troubled many of the monks of Ely, and murmurs, andcensures, and base thoughts now began to rise among several of thecloister-monks who, down to this evil time, had been the steadiestfriends of the Lord Abbat, Thurstan. Truly, truly, their trial washard, and difficult for true Saxon stomachs to bear! The octaves ofSaint John had come and passed without anything that could be called afeast: on the day of Saint Joseph of Arimathea they had no wine todrink, and on the day of that high Saxon saint, Osevald, king andmartyr, they had no bread to eat with their roast meats. These were sadthings to a brotherhood that had been wont to fare so well, and whosefeasts, it hath been said by our old poet (a monk of the house), wereas superior to the feasts of all the other monasteries of England asday is superior to night:--
Praevisis aliis, Eliensia festa videre Est, quasi praevisa nocte, videre diem.
Yet the bountiful Abbat Thurstan, who had given the best feasts of allthat the house had ever known, and who loved as much as any man to seethe drinking-horn go round, kept up his good spirit without wine--itwas sustained by his generous love of country and liberty!--and hereasoned well with those he heard murmur, and yet held out to them theprospect of better times when corn should come in from the uplandcountry in abundance, and good wine from beyond-sea.
If want began to be felt among the monks of Ely, it is not to bebelieved but that it was felt still more sharply among the Saxonfighting men collected in the Camp of Refuge. But
the stomachs of thesewarriors were not so dainty as the stomachs of the monks, and thecommonalty of them, being accustomed to fare hard before now, made nocomplaint. Alas, no! It was not through the malecontent of these rudemen, nor through these lay stomachs, but through the malice andgluttony of cloister-monks, that the sanctuary was violated.
The Lord of Brunn having emptied his own granaries and cellars for thebehoof of the house at Ely, made sundry very desperate forays, breakingthrough the Norman chain of posts, and going far in the upland countryin search of supplies, and risking his noble life, more than once, fornought but a sack of wheat, or a cask of ale, or a firkin of mead.While the blockade was as yet young, a few devout pilgrims, who wouldnot be shut out from the shrines of the Saxon saints at Ely, nor failto offer up their little annual offerings, and a few sturdy friends whoknew the straits to which the monks were about to be reduced, eludedthe vigilance of the Normans, and found their way, through those mazesof waters and labyrinths of woods, to the abbey, and carried with themsome small supplies: but as time went on and the force of the Normansincreased as well by land as by water, these hazardous journeys werestopped, and divers of the poor Saxons were caught, and were thenpitilessly hanged as rebels and traitors; and then a law was bandedthat every man, woman, or child, that attempted to go through theFen-country, either to Ely Abbey or the Camp of Refuge, would be hangedor crucified. But, alack! real traitors to their country wereafterwards allowed to pass the Norman posts, and go on to Ely Abbey,and it was through their agency and the representations of some of theNormans that were taken prisoners in war and carried to the monastery,that the envious prior, and the chamberlain, and the cellarer, and therest of that foul faction were emboldened to raise their voice publiclyagainst the good Abbat, and to lay snares in the path of the Lord ofBrunn. Now the same troubles arose out of the same causes in CrowlandAbbey, where sundry of the cloister monks began to say that since theycould get no bread and wine it were best to make terms with the NormanAbbat of Peterborough (that Torauld of Fescamp who had been releasedupon ransom, and was again making himself terrible), give up the causeof Lord Hereward, who had restored them to their house, and had givenup wealth and honours abroad to come and serve his country, and submitlike peaceable subjects to _King_ William, whose power was too great tobe any longer disputed. But here, at Crowland, these things were for along time said in great secrecy, and whispered in the dormitories bynight. It was the same in the succursal cell at Spalding; and thecoming danger was the greater from the secrecy and mystery of thetraitorous part of these communities. Father Adhelm, the good prior ofSpalding, knew of no danger, and could believe in no treachery untilthe Philistines were upon him; and it was mainly owing to this hissecurity, and to his representations of the safety of that corner ofthe fens, that the Lord of Brunn sent his wife and infant son,[211]with maid Mildred and other women, to dwell in the strong manor-houseat Spalding, which belonged to the Ladie Lucia, wife of IvoTaille-Bois, and cousin to the Ladie Alftrude. The Camp of Refuge andthe town of Ely had not, for some time past, been fittingabiding-places for ladies and delicate children; but now the Normanswere closing in their line of blockade on that side, and, although theymeant it not, they seemed to be on the eve of making a desperateassault on the Camp, having, with incredible labour, laid down underthe eyes and with the direction of Duke William, another causeway,which was far broader and more solid than any of the others, and whichran across the fens towards the waters of Ely for the distance of twowell-measured miles. It was Elfric that commanded the party which gaveconvoy to the Ladie Alftrude; and well we wot he wished the journey hadbeen a longer one: yet when his duty was done, and the whole partysafely lodged in the battlemented and moated house at Spalding, hequitted maid Mildred, though with something of a heavy heart, andhastened back to join his toil-oppressed master. And careworn andtoil-oppressed indeed was now that joyous and frank-hearted Lord ofBrunn, for he had to think of everything, and to provide foreverything; and save in Girolamo the Salernitan, and Elfric hisarmour-bearer, he had but few ready-witted men to aid him in hisincreasing difficulties. Nevertheless, the defences at the Witchfordwere strengthened, numerous trenches and canals were dug to render theWitch plain impassable, even if the river should be crossed, and bandsof Saxons, armed with bows, bills, pole-axes, swords, and clubs, orlong fen-poles, were kept on the alert by night as well as by day, tomarch to any point which the Normans might attack.
Now, we have said it, William the Norman was a great and cunningcommander (ye might have searched through the world at that time, andhave found none greater!), and being thus skilled, and having afearless heart withal, and a sort of lion magnanimity, he was proper tojudge of the skill of other captains, and not incapable of admiring andlauding that skill even in an enemy. And as from his causeway (even asfrom a ship in the midst of the waters) he watched the defences whichHereward raised, and all the rapid and wise movements he made, heofttimes exclaimed, "By the splendour! this Saxon is a right cunningcaptain! It were worth half a realm could I win him over to my service.But, O Hereward, since thou wilt not submit, thou must perish in thypride through hunger, or in the meshes which I am spreading for thee."
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