THE DANES AND THEIR KING’S SON.
Svend Estrithson sat upon the throne of Danemarck, and was a powerful
king and a great warrior, having fought many battles by sea against his
neighbour the King of Norway. When his brother Osbiorn Jarl abandoned
the Saxons and returned from England into Danemarck, Svend Estrithson
was exceedingly wroth at him, and his anger was the greater because the
Jarl had not only lost the treasure which William the Norman had given
him as the price of his treasons to the English people, but had lost
likewise nearly the whole of the Danish fleet; for a great storm arose
at sea and swallowed up most of the two hundred and forty returning
ships.[187] Osbiorn Jarl escaped drowning; but when he presented
himself before the face of his brother the king, Svend loaded him with
reproaches, deprived him of his lands and honours, and drove him into a
disgraceful banishment.[188] Even thus was bad faith punished, and
vengeance taken upon the Danes for that they had both plundered and
betrayed the Saxon people, who were fighting for their liberties
against the Normans.
Svend Estrithson, being of the line of the great King Canute,[189]
raised some claim to the throne of England, and had ever considered his
right better and more legal than that of William of Normandie. Before
the arrival at his court of the earnest invitation of the monks of Ely
and the great Saxon lords in the Camp of Refuge, he had resolved in his
own mind to try his fortune once more on our side the sea, hoping that
if he should do no more he should at least be enabled to make up for
the loss of his great fleet, a loss which pressed heavily upon his
heart, and destroyed his peace by day and his rest by night. He had
summoned his jarls and chiefs, the descendants of the sea-kings or
great pirates of old, and had taken counsel of the old sea-rovers and
warriors who had been in England with the great Canute, or who had
served under Canute’s sons, King Harold Harefoot and King Hardicanute.
Now these jarls and chiefs, together with many of their followers, were
well acquainted with all the eastern side of England from the Scottish
border to the end of Cornwall; and they knew every bay, harbour, and
creek on the coast, and all the deep inlets of the sea and the rivers
which gave access to the interior of the country, for they had warred
or plundered in them all, aforetime. Being called upon by King Svend to
give their advice, these chiefs and nobles all said that another
expedition ought to be attempted without loss of time; and it was
agreed at a great meeting of the Viborgting, which corresponds with the
Witangemot of old England, that another great fleet should be got
ready, and that the king or his eldest son should take the command of
it. Some doubts, however, occurred as to the present strength of the
Normans and the present condition of the English; and, although they
meant to betray them or conquer them themselves, the Danes proposed to
begin merely as allies of the English,[190] and felt little good could
be done unless the English on the eastern coast were unsubdued by the
Normans, and ready to receive the Danes with open arms. At this
juncture a ship arrived from Lynn with the envoy from the Camp of
Refuge on board. As soon as the Englishman had presented the letters
and the gold and silver he brought to Svend Estrithson, the king called
together his great council. The envoy from the Camp of Refuge was
allowed to speak at great length before the council, and the shipmen of
Lynn were more privately examined touching the present situation of
affairs in the fen country. All doubts were removed, and the fleet was
forthwith ordered to get ready for the voyage to England. Already many
thousands of long and yellow-haired warriors had been collected for the
enterprise, and now many thousands more flocked towards the fleet from
all parts of Jutland, Zealand, and Holstein, and from Stralsund and the
Isle of Rugen, and the other isles that stand near the entrance of the
Baltic Sea; for whenever an expedition to the rich and fertile country
of the Anglo-Saxons was on foot, the hearts of the Danes rejoiced in
the prospect of good booty, even as the hearts of the coast-dwelling
people rejoice when they hear that a rich wreck or a large fat whale
hath been stranded near to their doors. King Svend Estrithson, of a
certainty, would have gone himself[191] into England with the fleet,
but his royal shield fell to the ground and broke as he was lifting it
down from the wall, and a hare crossed his path as he was walking in
his garden, and the priest his chaplain sneezed three times while he
was saying mass before him, and he was greatly enamoured of the
Princess Gyda,[192] and in consequence of all these evil omens the king
resolved to stay at home, and to send his eldest son Knut into
England.[193] Taking with him the royal standard of the black raven,
and many jarls of high renown into his own ship, Knut began his voyage
forthwith, being followed by two hundred and fifty keels, large and
small. The royal ship was rich and splendid; it had thirty benches of
rowers; its prow was adorned with a dragon’s head, the eyes of which
were of precious stones and the tongue of red gold; and the sides and
the stern of the ship glowed with burnished gold; the whole body of the
ship glittered in the sun like some great and marvellous fish or some
swimming dragon; and, in sooth, the whole ship was dragon-shaped. The
masts and the cordage and the sails were surpassing rich and gay; the
masts were covered with ivory and pearl, the cords seemed to be covered
with white silk, and the sails were of many and bright colours. There
were cloths of gold spread all about, and the flag that waved at the
mainmast-head was all of silk and gold; and the windlass and the rudder
were bepainted with blue and gold. And on board this right royal ship
every warrior wore bright steel-chain armour, and carried a shield and
battle-axe inlaid with gold and jewels, and each of value enough to
purchase a hide of land. A few other ships there were in this great
fleet only a little less splendid than that of Knut. The rest were of a
coarser make, and with no adornments about them except the figure-head
at the prow and the banner at the mast-head; and they varied in size
and burthen from the great ship which could carry two hundred fighting
men, down to the little bark which carried but ten. To speak the truth,
many of the fleet were little better than fishing barks. The summer
wind blew fresh and fair for England, the waves seethed before their
prows, and on the morning of that glad evening at Brunn when Lord
Hereward captured Torauld of Fescamp and put Ivo Taille-Bois to flight
and shame, nearly the whole of the great fleet came to anchor off the
Wash, and not far from the chapel of our Ladie. Knut, the king’s son,
being uncertain and suspicious, like one that had treacherous plans in
his own mind, despatched one of his smallest and poorest keels with a
crafty and keen-sighted chief up the Wash and up the Ouse, to confer
with Abbat Thurstan and the Saxon chiefs at Ely, to spy into the
condition of the Camp of Refuge, and to invite the Lord Abbat and some
of the great chiefs to come down to Lynn, in order to hold there a
solemn conference with his jarls and chiefs. The messenger-bark
proceeded on her voyage prosperously, and landed the cunning Dane at
Ely. Good Abbat Thurstan wondered and grieved that the prince had not
come himself; yet he bade his envoy welcome, and feasted him in his
hall. But still more did Thurstan wonder and grieve when he was told
that Knut meant not to come to Ely, but was calling for a congress at
Lynn.
“There may be danger,” said the Lord Abbat to the cunning old envoy,
“if I quit this house, and the great thanes leave the Camp of Refuge,
though only for a short season; but there can be no peril in thy
prince’s coming hither, and assuredly it is only here that we can
entertain him as the son of a great king ought to be entertained.”
The old Dane said that the prince his master had schemes of operation
which would not allow him to send his ships up the Ouse for this
present; that he would come hereafter, when good progress should have
been made in the war against the Normans; and that in the meanwhile it
were best for my Lord Abbat, and some other of the prelates, and some
of the great lay lords, to go down to Lynn and hold a conference, and
make a combined plan of operations with the prince and the jarls.
Much did the Saxon lords wish to make out what was the nature of the
plan the prince had already adopted; but the astutious old envoy would
tell them nothing, and protested that he knew nothing about it. The
Saxons plied him hard with wine; but the more he drank, the more close
the old Dane became. And although he would tell nothing himself, he
wanted to know everything from the English: as, what was the strength
of their army in the Camp of Refuge—what their means of
subsistence—what the names of all their chiefs—what their
correspondence and alliance with other Saxon chiefs in other parts of
England—what the strength of the Normans in various parts of England,
and which the provinces and the chiefs that had entirely submitted to
them, with many other particulars. It was too confiding, and indeed
very unwise so to do; but the Saxons, albeit often betrayed before now,
were not much given to suspicion, and so they satisfied him according
to the best of their knowledge on all these points, and conducted him
into their camp that he might see with his own eyes how matters stood
there, and afforded him all possible opportunities of judging for
himself as to the means they had in hand, and the chances they had of
successfully terminating a struggle which had already lasted for years.
The crafty old man thought the nakedness of the land much greater than
it really was, and he afterwards made a report conformably to Knut his
master and prince. Yet, on the morrow morning, when he was about to
take his departure from the ever hospitable house of Ely, he took the
Lord Abbat aside, and with bland looks and most gentle voice asked him
whether he had not in the abbey some small matter to send as a present
and welcoming gift to the royal Dane. Now good Thurstan, who was never
of those that had expected a vast and unmingled good from the coming of
the Danes, told him how he had broken open the shrine-boxes and
stripped the shrines, and contaminated the house with dealing with
usurers, in order to get what had been sent into Danemarck as a present
for the king.
“But,” said the greedy Dane, “have there been no pilgrims to thy shrine
since then?”
“Nay,” said the Lord Abbat, “some few there have been that have left
their little offerings; and, doubtless, many more will come ere many
days be past, for in this blessed month occur the festivals of our
saints, to wit, that of Saint Sexburga, queen and second abbess of this
house, and that of her kinswoman and successor, Saint Withburga, virgin
and abbess. On such seasons the donations of the faithful were wont to
be most liberal; but alas! few are the Saxons now that have anything
left to give to Saxon saints! And the matter we have in our coffers at
this present is too small for a gift to a prince, and is, moreover,
much needed by this impoverished brotherhood.”
To this the cunning, clutching old Dane said that a small matter was
better than no money at all; that it had been the custom in all times
to propitiate kings and princes with free gifts; that the Lord Abbat
had better send such gold and silver as he had; and that the great Knut
might come up to Ely after the festival of the two saints, when the
shrine-boxes would be fuller, and so give the monks of Ely occasion to
make a more suitable offering.
At these words Lord Thurstan grew red in the face, and stared at the
Dane with a half incredulous look; and then he said, “Wouldst thou skin
us alive? Wouldst take the last silver penny? Wouldst see the shrines
of four among the greatest of our saints left in dirt and darkness?
Dane, can it be that thou art herein doing the bidding of a royal and a
Christian prince? Hast thou thy master’s orders to ask that which thou
art asking?”
Not a whit discountenanced, the old Dane said that men who lived with
princes learned to know their wishes, and hastened to execute them,
without waiting for express commands; and that he must repeat that he
thought the best thing the Abbat of Ely could do would be to send
Prince Knut all the money he had in the house.
“By the rood,” quoth Thurstan, still more angered, “these Danes be as
rapacious as the Normans! By Saint Sexburga and Saint Witburga, and by
every other good saint in the calendarium, I will not consent to this!
I will not rob the shrines to get a mere beggar’s alms. I cannot do the
thing thou askest of mine own authority. Such matters must be discussed
in full chapter, and settled by the votes of the officials and
cloister-monks of the house. But I will not do even so much as to name
the matter!”
“Then,” said the phlegmatic old Dane, “I will speak to the prior, or to
the chamberlain, or to some other official; and as time presses, my
Lord Abbat, thou wilt hold me excused if I go and do it at once!”
And thus saying, he left good Thurstan, and went to some of the monks
who had been standing near enough to overhear every word that had been
said since the Lord Abbat waxed warm. The envious prior was there, and
being ever ready to give pain to his superior, he proposed that the
chapter should be summoned on the instant. This being agreed to by the
major part, the monks withdrew towards the chapter-house, the cunning
and cool old Dane saying to some of them as they went thither, that he
much feared that if any distaste or disappointment were given to Knut,
he would take his fleet back to Danemarck and do nothing for the
English. Short, therefore, was the chapter, and decisive the vote,
notwithstanding the opposition of Thurstan and a few others: the
shrine-boxes were again emptied, and the truly beggar-like amount of
silver and gold was put into a silken purse to be carried to Lynn. So
incensed was the bounteous Lord Abbat, who ever had a large heart and a
scorn for mean and covetous things, that he almost vowed not to go back
with the old Dane to salute his royal master, and be present at the
delivery of such a gift; but he bethought him that if he went not the
prior must go, and that if the prior went some evil might come of it.
And so the right noble Abbat of Ely went down to Lynn, together with
the exiled abbats of other houses and sundry lords from the Camp of
Refuge, much wishing that the Lord of Brunn were with him to aid him in
the conference.
As Thurstan landed at Lynn, where he expected to see the royal ship and
a good part of its attendant fleet, he was mortified to find that there
were no ships there except a few Lynn barques; and, upon going into the
town, he was yet more disappointed and distressed by hearing, from some
good Saxons who had come in from the hamlets on the coast, that the
Danish fleet had sailed away to the northward, leaving only a few of
the smaller barks at the anchorage near the Wash. Sharply did he
question the old Dane as to these movements. The Dane said that it was
possible the prince had run a little along the north coast to pick up
news, and that it was quite certain he would soon be back. More than
this he would not say, except that patience was a virtue. Some of our
Saxons went almost mad with impatience; but on the next day they
received intelligence that the fleet had returned to the anchorage off
the chapel of our Ladie, and on the day next after that, Knut, with six
of his largest ships, sailed up the Wash. In his run to the northward,
if he had not picked up much news, he had picked up every English ship
or barque that he found afloat, and he had plundered every defenceless
village or township that lay near to that coast. He now cast his anchor
a long way before he came to Lynn, and instead of proceeding to that
good town to meet the English prelates and nobles, he sent up a
messenger to summon them on board his own ship. At this the Abbat of
Ely was much vexed and startled; and he said to himself, “Who shall
tell me that this is not a plot, and that the Danes will not seize us
and carry us off, or even deliver us up to the Normans?” but nearly all
those who had accompanied him from Ely despaired of the salvation of
England without Danish assistance, and were eager to go on ship-board
and meet the prince in the way it pleased him to prescribe, and
Thurstan grew ashamed of his fears and suspicions. Other good men,
however, had their suspicions as well as the Lord Abbat; and when he
embarked in the small Danish craft which had been left waiting for the
envoy at Lynn, many trusty Saxons of the township and vicinage would
absolutely go with him, and every bark or boat that could swim was
crowded by the bold Lynn mariners, and rowed down to the Wash.
Knut, the son of the king of Danemarck, standing on his proud gilded
ship, received the English prelates and chiefs with great stateliness,
yet not without courtesy; and when the silken purse and the scrapings
of the shrine-treasures had been presented to him (Thurstan blushing
the while), he sat down with his jarls on one side of a long table, and
the Englishmen sat down on the opposite side; and then the conference
began. Unhapily for the English landsmen a summer storm began to blow
at the same time, causing the royal ship to roll, and thus making them
feel the terrible sickness of the sea. At this Thurstan almost wished
that he had let the prior come, instead of coming himself. Knut, the
prince, spoke first in a very few words, and then his jarls further
propounded and explained his plan of the war. The Danes indeed had
nearly all the talking to themselves, for not many of them understood
what the English said, or had patience to hear it interpreted; the
qualms and sickness of the English almost took away their power of
speech, and, moreover, they very soon discovered that nothing they
could say had any effect in altering the opinions and decisions of the
predetermined Danes. It was grievous, they said that the English, who
had been so rich, should now have so little money to share with their
friends and deliverers! They hoped that the good prelates and lords
would be able to hold out in the isle of Ely and throughout the fen
country; and as they had held out so long, no doubt they could hold out
longer. In the meanwhile they, their good allies the Danes, would
divide their fleet, and scour all the coast, and sail up all the great
rivers, for this would distract the attention of the Normans, would
alarm them at one and the same time in many different and distant
places, and infallibly compel them to recall their forces from
Cam-bridge and Stamford, and to give up all premeditated attacks on the
fen country.
“Aye,” said a sea-rover, whose yellow hair had grown as white as snow
with excess of age, and whose sunken eye glistened at the memory of
past adventures of that sort, “Aye, Saxons! we will sweep all this
eastern coast from north to south and from south to north, as with a
besom! We will sail or row our barks up every river that flows into the
sea on this side of your island, and that hath keels on its waters or
towns on its banks. Tweed, Tyne, and Humber, Trent, Orwell, Stour, and
Thamesis, with all the rivers that run between them or into them, shall
hear our war-cry as of yore!”
“But, alas!” said one of the Saxon lords, “who will suffer in this kind
of war but the Saxons? The Normans have very few ships. The ships on
the coast and on the rivers, and the townships and hamlets, are all
English still, and cannot be seized or destroyed without ruin to us and
the cause which the king of Danemarck hath engaged to support.”
The old sea-rover was silent, and the other Danes pretended not to
understand what the Saxon lord said. Abbat Thurstan told the prince
that of a surety the Saxons in the Camp of Refuge could continue to
defend themselves; but that they could do still better if the Danes
would spare them some arms and other warlike harness, and remain for a
while in the Wash and in the rivers which empty themselves into it, in
order to co-operate with the Saxons. Knut, who well knew that there was
nothing to be picked up in those waters, shook his head, and said that
his own plan was the best, and could not be altered; and that, touching
the matter of arms and harness, he had none to spare, but that he would
send over to the Netherlanders’ country and buy, _if_ the Saxons would
give him the money. Here the abbat and the Saxon lords were silent. But
when Knut spoke of the great losses which the Danes had suffered in the
foundering of their return fleet the year before,[194] Thurstan
reddened and said, “The Jarl Osbiorn acted a traitorous part, and hath
been treated as a traitor by his brother and king. That loss was the
direct judgment of Heaven! The fleet was loaded with the spoils of
England and with the money taken from the Norman for betraying the
English! Prince, and jarls all! if ye be come to do as Osbiorn did last
year, I say look to your fleet, and look to the health of your own
souls!”
Hereupon Knut and his great chiefs began to cross themselves, and to
make many promises and protestations; and then the prince called for
wine and pledged the Lord Abbat of Ely and the other English lords, lay
and ecclesiastic, severally: and when they had all drunk wine, he broke
up the conference and dismissed them in a very unhappy state both of
mind and of stomach, for the storm had increased, and the wine was sour
and bad. The royal Dane hauled in his anchors and set sail to get out
of the Wash and from among the dangerous sandbanks. As soon as the
Saxon lords got ashore at Lynn, and free from their exceeding great
sickness, Thurstan said that he greatly feared a woeful error had been
committed in inviting the Danes back again, and that a short time would
show that the Lord of Brunn had been quite right in recommending the
Saxons to trust to their own arms and efforts for their independence;
but those lords who had voted for the invitation said that it was clear
the Danes would have come back whether they had been invited or not,
and that it was equally clear that England could not be saved without
the aid of some foreign nation. These lords also thought that a crowned
king like Svend Estrithson would not break his royal word, and that the
prince his son would not act like Osbiorn, albeit he might, in the
ancient manner of the Danes, be too eager to scour the seas and rivers
and capture whatever he might find, whether it belonged to friend or
foe, to Saxon or to Norman. Yet, truth to say, these lords were far
from feeling assured, and save one or two, that were afterwards proved
to be false traitors in their hearts, they all returned to Ely sadder
men than they were when they left it to go to meet Knut.
That which the white-headed sea-rover had said, and a great deal more
than he uttered, speedily came to pass: north and south the English
coast was plundered; and, ascending the many rivers in their lighter
vessels and in their boats, the Danes went far into the interior of the
country, pillaging, burning, and destroying, even as their forefathers
had done in the heathenish times. Up the broad Humber they went until
they got into the Yorkshire Ouse, and they would have gone on to the
city of York, but that it was strongly garrisoned by Normans, and the
whole country a desert—a desert which Osbiorn and his evil company had
made in the preceding year. On the river Yare they went as high as the
good city of Norwich, but they ventured not to attack the Normans in
that place.[195] The Waveney, too, and the Ald they visited, nor left
the poor Saxons there so much as a fishing-boat. Up the river Deeben as
far as the wood bridge, where a pleasant town hath since risen; and
between the pleasant, green-wooded banks of the Orwell, they sailed
many a league. After ravaging the banks of the Stour, Knut collected
all his ships together and then spread his sails on the smooth Medway
and the broad Thamesis, going up the Thamesis almost to London; and
then mooring his ships, and making a great show as though he intended
to land an army and lay siege to the Tower of London, which the Normans
were then busily enlarging and strengthening.
Not all the doings of the Danes, and the robberies and cruelties they
committed upon poor defenceless Saxons, could be known in the Camp of
Refuge; yet enough was known by the report of the country people to
grieve every English heart in the camp, and to confirm the worst
suspicions which Abbat Thurstan had conceived. On the other hand, it
was made apparent that the Normans were greatly distracted by this new
invasion, and that, while their vicomtes and knights and men-at-arms
were marching in almost every other direction, none of them came near
to the last asylum of Saxon liberty. In truth, the posts which had
previously been drawn round the fen country were so far weakened that
the Lord Hereward, who had again taken a direct and entire command in
the Camp of Refuge, made several good sallies from the fens and brought
back not a few Norman prisoners, together with good store of provision.
Matters were in this good train in the camp when intelligence was
brought that Knut, with the whole of his mighty fleet, had returned to
the Wash. The Danish faction, or all those Saxon lords who counted more
upon Danish assistance than upon their own valour and the valour of
their countrymen, were greatly rejoiced at these tidings, and would not
allow any man to doubt that Knut, having made good seizings and spoils,
was now come to co-operate with the English warriors and their great
captain the Lord of Brunn; and these unwise lords, being partly guided
or misguided by traitors, outvoted the Lord Abbat, and sent down a
deputation to Lynn to salute and welcome the royal Dane, and to invite
him and escort him to Ely. And this time Knut was nothing loth to come:
and he came up the river with a part of his fleet of ships and with
many of his jarls and most famed warriors. Crowned kings had visited
the great house of Ely before now, and kings of the Danish as well as
of the Saxon line, but to none of them had there been given a more
splendid feast than was now given to Knut, who as yet was but a jarl
and a king’s son. The Saxon dames of high name and beauty came in from
the Camp of Refuge, or from houses in the township of Ely, or in
circumjacent hamlets, to welcome the princely stranger and adorn the
festival; and fairest among these fair was Alftrude, the young wife of
the Lord of Brunn. The Lord Hereward himself was there, but much less
cheerful and festive than was his wont; for on his last sally from the
fens he had heard more than he knew before of the evil doings of the
Dane; and, moreover, he had ever suspected their good faith.
When the feasting was over, the cunning old Dane, that had come up to
Ely before as envoy from the prince, began to relate what great
mischief Knut had done to Duke William, and what great service he had
rendered to the House of Ely and the Camp of Refuge, and the whole fen
country, by the diversion he had made with his ships; and before any of
the Saxon lords could reply or make any observation upon these his
words, the astute Dane asked whether the festivals of Saint Sexburga
and Saint Withburga had been well attended by pilgrims, and whether the
shrine-boxes had had a good replenishing? The chamberlain, who ought
not to have spoken before his superior the Lord Abbat, said that the
festivals had been thronged, and that, considering the troublesome
times, the donations of the pilgrims had been liberal.
“That is well,” said the old fox, “for our ships have had much wear and
tear, and stand in need of repairs; and the prince wants some gold and
silver to pay his seamen and his fighting men, who are growing weary
and dissatisfied for want of pay.”
Here the Lord Abbat looked rather grim, and said, “Of a truth I thought
that thy people had made great booty! By Saint Etheldreda, the founder
of this house—the house was never so poor as it now is, or had such
urgent need of money as it now hath! By my soul it is but a small
matter that is in our shrine-boxes, and all of it, and more than all,
is due unto the Jews!”
“It is sinful and heathenish to pay unto Jews the gold and silver which
Christian pilgrims have deposited on the shrines of their saints,” said
one of the Danish jarls.
And hereat the Lord Abbat Thurstan blushed and held down his head, much
grieving that, though against his vote and will, the house had been
driven to traffic with Israelites and money-changers; yet still
remembering that this evil thing had been begun in order to get money
to send to the insatiate Danes. All this while Prince Knut kept his
state, and said not a word. But the cunning old man went on to say,
that hitherto the profits of the expedition had not been half enough to
pay King Svend Estrithson the price of half the ships he had lost last
year; and that, although the amount of gold and silver in the
shrine-boxes might be but small, there was a rumour that there was
other good treasure in the house.[196]
Here it was that the Lord of Brunn grew red, for he was the first to
understand that the greedy Dane meant to speak of the chalices and
pateras, the crown of gold, the gold and silver tables, and the other
things of great price that he had brought away with him from
Peterborough in order that they might be saved from Torauld of Fescamp.
Again speaking, when he ought not to have spoken—before Abbat Thurstan
could speak or collect his thoughts—the chamberlain said, “Verily, oh
Dane! I have under my charge some strong boxes which the Lord of Brunn
sent hither from Peterborough; and, albeit, I know not with precision
what these strong boxes contain...”
Here Abbat Thurstan stopped the talkative chamberlain and said, “Let
the strong boxes contain what they will, the contents are none of ours!
They be here as a sacred deposit, to be returned to the _good_ monks of
Peterborough when they can get back to their house and their church,
and live without dread of Saxon traitors and Norman plunderers!”
But many of the Danes, believing the Peterborough treasure to be far
greater than it was, said that it would be no such sin to employ it for
secular purposes, or to give it for the support of friends and allies
who had quitted their homes and their countries, and had crossed the
stormy ocean to aid the English; for that, when the Danes and the
English between them should have driven the Normans out of the land,
there would be no lack of gold and silver wherewith to replace the
sacred vessels, and to give back to Peterborough Abbey far more than
had been taken from it. Some of them declared, and severally promised
and swore by their own saints, that if Knut, their leader, and the son
of their king, was but gratified in this particular, he would land all
his best warriors and join Hereward the Saxon, and so go in search of
Duke William and bring the Normans to battle: and if Knut did not swear
by his saints, or say much by word of mouth, he nodded his head and
seemed to consent—the christened infidel, and unprince-like prince
that he was.
It may be judged whether Lord Hereward was not eager for such an
increase of strength as might enable him to carry the war into the
heart of England or under the walls of the city of London! It may be
judged whether he did not burn for the opportunity of fighting a great
and decisive battle: but Hereward had a reverence for the property of
the church, and a great misgiving of the Danes; and he whispered to his
best friend, the Lord Abbat, “If we put this guilt upon our souls, and
give these insatiate Danes all that they ask, they will do not for us
that which they promise, but will sail away in their ships with the
plunder they have made as soon as the storms of winter approach.”
This too was the doubt if not the entire belief of Thurstan. But the
chamberlain and the prior called out aloud for a chapter; and those who
were of a party with the prior and chamberlain laboured might and main
to convince the whole brotherhood that the Danes ought to be gratified,
and that they could be gratified without sin. Nay, some of them
whispered to the more timid part of the community, that if the
Peterborough treasure, as well as the shrine-money, were not quietly
given to Knut, he would take it by force, as the house and the avenues
to it were filled with his armed men, and as his barks were lying close
under the abbey walls. The call for a chapter now became so loud and
general that the Lord Abbat could not resist it; and so, leaving his
guests in the hall, Thurstan went to the chapter-house, and, being
followed by all who were competent to vote, the doors were closed, and
the brotherhood deliberated. That deliberation was long, and would have
been longer but for the impatience of the Danes, who vociferated in the
hall, and even went the length of running to the door of the
chapter-house and striking upon it, with loud and most unmannerly
shoutings. At last it was resolved by the majority, and sorely against
the will of the Lord Abbat, that the Danes should have the
shrine-money, with other Ely treasure, and all the Peterborough
treasure,[197] with the exception of the relics, for which it was
thought they would care but little, inasmuch as they were not relics of
Danish saints.
Thurstan was so grieved at this resolution that he would not report it
in the hall; but the prior gladly charged himself with the office, and
then he and the chamberlain and the sacrist conveyed the cunning old
Dane, and the prince, his master, into the treasury of the house, and
there counted and delivered over to them all the gold and silver, and
all the gilded crosses and silver vessels, and all the silks and
hangings, with everything else which had been brought from
Peterborough, except the relics. But even these last were taken out of
the reliquaries which held them, as the said reliquaries were made of
gold and of silver, or of crystal and amber curiously wrought, and so
Knut would carry them away with him.
Let Peterborough weep for its own, and Ely weep for that which was its
own![198] King Canute, who had so loved to keep the festival of the
Purification in great solemnity at Ely Abbey, had once brought his wife
unto the abbey, and Emma, the queen, had given many rich gifts to the
church. A piece of purple cloth, wrought with gold and set with jewels,
such as there was none like it in the kingdom, she offered to St.
Etheldreda; and to the other saints there, she offered to each of them
a covering of silk, embroidered and set with jewels, but of less value
than the former. Also did Emma, the queen of King Canute, give, as a
covering for the high altar, a large pall of a green colour, adorned
with plates of gold, to be used on the grand festivals; and to be
placed over this she gave a great piece of fine linen of a deep red
colour; and this linen covered the whole of the altar, and reached from
the corners quite down to the ground, and it had a gold fringe more
than a foot in breadth, and making a rich and glorious show. Prince
Knut knew of these precious gifts of Queen Emma, for the fame of them
had gone into foreign lands, and therefore his cunning old man asked
for them and got them, to the great displeasure of the saints.
As the Danes were carrying all this treasure down to their ships, the
cunning old man renewed his assurances that the prince, being thus
gratified, would soon do great things for the Saxon cause. Hereward
asked the old man in his plain direct way, _when_ Knut would land his
warriors? The cunning man replied, that it was not for him to fix the
day and hour, but that his lordship would soon hear news of the fleet.
The Lord of Brunn then turned aside and said to the Lord Abbat—“By
Saint Ovin and his cross, I believe the first news will be that the
fleet has started back to Danemarck! Let us yet stop this treasure and
send them away empty-handed, at least from Ely! I care nought for their
serried ranks, and ponderous battle-axes. We have a good force, my Lord
Abbat, in the township, and, were that not more than enough, a few
blasts of the Saxon horn would bring us warriors from the Camp!”
“My son,” said Thurstan, “I fear their battle-axes no more than thou
dost; but I cannot dare act in violation of the decisions of the
chapter. Alas! there are jealousies and animosities enough already. As
sure as the sun shines in the heavens, that dark browed, envious prior
is in a plot against me! Could he find the opportunity, he would
deprive me of my authority by a vote of the house in chapter. I dare
not resist the will of the majority: the gold and the treasure must
even go, since traitors and fools, but more fools than traitors, have
so willed it.”
“Then,” quoth the Lord of Brunn, “Let us only hope and pray that this
Knut may have more good faith and honour than we give him credit for.”
“I will speak to him again, ere he depart,” said the Abbat.
And Thurstan spoke earnestly to Knut, and Knut nodded his head, and
uttered many Ahs! and Ohs! but said nothing farther. It was thought by
some that this taciturnity did not proceed from choice but from
necessity, as the son of the Danish King had swallowed a prodigious
quantity of wine, and could hardly stand on his legs without support.
And in the drinking of wine and strong drinks, if other nations
marvelled at the Saxons, the Saxons themselves marvelled at the Danes.
So great was the quantity consumed on this day that the wine-cellars at
Ely, which had not been replenished since Lord Hereward’s first return
from foreign parts, were left almost dry. And thus, having drunk nearly
all the wine and taken off all the treasure of the house, the Danes and
their prince got back to their ships. Knut stood up on the deck of the
royal galley, just under the royal standard of Danemarck, and made some
gestures, as though he would make a speech. Such of the monks of Ely,
and such of the Saxon lay lords as had given him their attendance to
the water-side, stood a-tip-toe on the river-bank, and strained their
eyes to see, and opened wide their ears to hear; but nothing came from
Knut but an Ah! and an Oh! and a loud hickup; and the galley being
unmoored and the rowers on their banks, Knut waved his hand, and the
vessel glided down the river towards Lynn.
That very night the town of Lynn, which had received the Danish fleet
in all friendship and with much hospitality, was plundered and set fire
to; and before the next night the whole fleet had quitted the Wash and
the English coast, and was in full sail for Danemarck, loaded with the
plunder of England and with the money which had been again paid by the
Normans as the price of Danish treachery.
Even while he was lying in the river Thamesis[199] with his great
fleet, and was seeming to threaten the Tower of London, Knut received
on board envoys and rich presents from Duke William, and was easily
made to sign a treaty of amity and alliance with the Normans, even as
his uncle Osbiorn had done the year before. And did the traitorous
Danes enjoy the spoil they had gotten? Not so. When they got into the
middle of the sea there arose a violent storm and dispersed the ships
wherein were lodged the spoils made at Ely[200] and at other places,
and some of these ships went to Norway, some to Ireland, and some to
the bottom of the sea; and all of the spoils of Ely and Peterborough
that reached Danemarck consisted of a table and a few reliquaries and
crucifixes; and these things, being deposited in the church of a town
belonging to King Svend, were consumed by fire, for the careless and
drunken shipmen set fire to the town and church by night,[201] and so
caused the loss of much more treasure than that which the shipmen had
brought with them from England. The amount of the total treasure paid
to Knut by Duke William was never known with any certainty in England,
out of the very vitals of which it was torn; but it is known in another
place, where all these acts of treachery are recorded, and heavily will
it press upon the soul of Knut, and upon the selfish soul of his
father, Svend Estrithson, who ratified the foul bargain he had made.
And, even in this world, hath not the avenging hand of Heaven smitten
them twain? Hath not the excommunication of the holy church fallen
twice upon Svend? Hath not unnatural warfare raged long between the
sons of Svend, and hath not Knut been murdered in his prime—aye,
murdered, in a church, to which he fled for sanctuary? He had offended
the saints by his broken faith, and by plundering the shrines in
England; and therefore no shrine or altar could save him from the
treachery and malice of his own subjects.
All the evils done to England by Knut and his Danes are not yet told,
but they will plainly appear hereafter.