We had sung matins in the choir, and had nearly finished chanting lauds,
when three knights of good fame, to wit, Sir Hugh de Basildon, Sir Hugh
Fitzhugh, of Purley, and Sir Walter de Courcy, from Inglesfield, arrived
at the abbey, and demanded speech of our superiors. So soon as the
service permitted, the lord abbat, the prior, and the other
obedientiarii of our house retired into the abbat's garden with these
worthy knights, who were in great haste, insomuch that they would
neither stay to partake of my lord's collation, which was now nigh upon
being ready, nor allow the saddles to be taken from their wearied
horses. They stayed but a short while in the garden, and then remounting
their steeds, they spurred away for Caversham, bidding the burghers of
Reading and a number of serfs, who had collected outside our gates, to
look after their bows and arrows, and to get such other weapons as they
could, and to stand upon their defence, as traitors to King Stephen were
abroad and might be soon upon them. These good people made loud
lamentation, for they were ill prepared and provided, and they could not
divine who these enemies and night burners could be. We, the humbler
members of the house, were alike ignorant; but after he had refreshed
his inward man, the good abbat came forth and addressed us all, and the
people without the gate, in this wise:--
"My brothers and children, and ye good men of Reading, who be also my
children, lift up your voices and say with me, God save King Stephen,
the rightful king of this realm, and down with the traitors who would
shake his throne!"
Having all of us shouted as we were bidden to do, and with right good
will, for King Stephen at this time was much loved in the land, my lord
abbat continued his oration.
"The case," said he, "stands thus. That ungodly restless woman, the
undutiful daughter of our late pious King Henry, whose body rests within
these walls--that presumptuous Matilda, once Empress, but now nought but
Countess of Anjou, hath sent over her bastard half-brother Robert, Earl
of Gloucester, to claim the throne of England as her right; as if the
martial nobility and bold people of this land could ever be governed by
a woman, and as if Stephen, our good king and the well-beloved nephew of
our late King Henry, who appointed him to be his successor, had not been
elected with the consent of the baronage, clergy, and people of England,
and confirmed in his lawful seat by our lord the Pope! Now this
traitorous Earl of Gloucester, after taking the oaths of fealty and
homage to King Stephen, and obtaining by the act possession of his great
estates in this realm, hath suddenly lifted up the mask and thrown down
the gauntlet, and sundry false barons like himself have followed his
pernicious example, and are now raging through the country, seizing upon
the king's towns and castles, treacherously surprising the castles of
honest lords and good knights, and burning the homes and destroying the
lives of all such as will not join them, or of all such as hold the
manors and lands these traitors desire to be possessed of. In the east
Hugh Bigod, steward of the late king's household, and the very man who
made oath before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other great lords
of the realm, as well lay as ecclesiastic, that King Henry on his
death-bed did adopt and choose his nephew Stephen to be his successor,
because this Matilda, Countess of Anjou, had been an undutiful child
unto him, and had given him many and grievous offences, and was by her
sex disqualified for the succession; this Hugh Bigod, I say, hath in the
east seized Norwich Castle and hoisted thereupon the banner of this
Angevin Countess. In the west the Earl of Gloucester hath armed all his
vassals, and is calling upon all such friends as hope to better their
worldly fortunes by deluging the country with blood and wasting it with
fire. Some of these evil men have raised the banner of war in our quiet
neighbourhood, and have fallen with merciless fury upon some of our
noblest and best neighbours, taking them by foul treachery and
surprisal, and waging war upon women and children, and unarmed serfs, in
the absence of their lords. Yesterday a great band of these traitors
marched from the vicinage of Windsore, and, last night, after a foul
plunder and butchery of the people, the townships of Basildon,
Whitechurch, Purley, Tidmersh, Tilehurst, Sulham, Theal, and Speen were
given to the flames. Sir Ingelric, of Huntercombe, who hath ever been
held as a loyal and fearless knight, and whose noble mate could trace
her Saxon ancestry beyond the days of King Alfred, was not at his home,
but his fair young wife being forewarned of their coming, made fast the
gates and defended the manor-house for divers hours: but, woe is me! the
evil men set fire to the house, and--_combusta est_, it is burned, with
the gentle dame and all that were in it! The brave Sir Ingelric of
Huntercombe was not there, or mayhap----"
"Ingelric of Huntercombe is here," cried that dark and sad-looking
knight, who had just arrived on a panting steed; "Ingelric of
Huntercombe is here, with a soul athirst for vengeance! But, my child!
My lord abbat, tell me of my babe!"
The fearful conflagration, which had made us all think of the day of
judgment, had caused my lord abbat, as well as the rest of us, to forget
the little stranger that had come in the basket, not without bringing
some trouble to him and to some of us; but his lordship soon collected
his thoughts, and seeing how the matter stood, he clasped in his arms
the knight, who had dismounted from his horse, and said to him in his
kind fatherly voice, "Sir Ingelric, may the saints vouchsafe thee
strength to bear the woe that hath befallen thee; but thy child is
safe."
"Let me see her," said the knight; "let me hold her in mine arms; her
mother shall I never see more! Her sweet body hath been consumed in the
fire that hath left me without a home! I can see my wife no more--no,
not even in death! But let me have sight of my child!"
The abbat then explained in a few words where the child was, and in what
good and tender keeping; and while he was doing this, Humphrey, our old
janitor, looking steadfastly at a churl who had dismounted to hold Sir
Ingelric's horse, and at another serf, who remained mounted, he said
aloud, "These be the two knaves that gave me the basket!" and then
entering into short converse with the men, Humphrey brought out these
facts:--At the near approach of the danger, of which she had been
forewarned, their mistress had given her child to them, with charge to
hasten with it to Reading Abbey, and then to make all possible speed
back to Tilehurst, whither, as she had fondly hoped, her lord would be
returned before his enemies could do her harm, for Sir Ingelric had gone
to no greater distance than to Wallingford, and a messenger had been
despatched after him on the only fleet horse he had left in the stable,
and well did she know that the love her husband bore her would bring him
rapidly to her rescue. This was all we learned now, but we afterwards
learned that the messenger on the fleet horse had been intercepted and
slain; that the manor-house had been stormed and set on fire before the
two serfs who had brought the child to Reading could get back; and that,
at this sad sight, the said two bondmen, full of devotion for their
lord, had thrown themselves into the woods, and had gone a wearisome
journey on foot in search of him, and had met their master between night
and morning near North Stoke Ford, for the conflagration had been seen
at Wallingford, and had filled the heart of Sir Ingelric with awful
presentiments, albeit he and no other man could at first conceive the
cause and nature of the mischief which had so suddenly broken out in a
time of the most perfect tranquillity. When Sir Ingelric had understood
that which had befallen, he had well nigh died of sudden horror; but,
rousing himself to vengeance, he had collected a few honest men and some
horses, and had ridden with all speed to our abbey, being but too surely
confirmed on his way, by a few of his serfs who had escaped, of the fate
his fair young wife had met in the manor-house. Never did I see a face
fuller of woe than was that of Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe when our good
abbat, taking him by the hand, led him within the house, to give him
ghostly consolation, and to commune with him upon the measures which
ought to be adopted for the defence of the country. But I should tell
how that, before our lord abbat quitted the outer gate, he gave
commandment that the draw-bridge, which had not been raised for many a
day, should be hauled up, and that the serfs of our abbey lands should
be set to work to deepen the ditch, and to dig a new trench right down
to the Kennet. Albeit no enemy was visible, the townfolk of Reading and
all the simple hinds that had assembled were seized with a mighty
consternation when we began to take measures for heaving up the bridge
and closing our strong iron-bound gate. By order of the prior many of
the better sort were admitted into our outer court, with their wives and
children, as well as their property. Those who remained without wrung
their hands, but departed not, for they felt that the very shadow of our
holy walls would be a better protection unto them than any other they
could find; and certes we would have brought them within those walls in
case of extremity; for was not our house the asylum of the unhappy as
well as the _refugium peccatorum_?
When Sir Ingelric had communed until the beginning of tierce with our
lord abbat, and had been somewhat restored by prayer and exhortation,
and by meat and wine, he came out and called for his horse. But the
abbat noted that the knight's horse needed rest, and so he ordered a
fresh steed to be brought from his own stable, together with his own
quiet grey palfrey, telling the brethren that he was minded to ride over
to Caversham with Sir Ingelric to deliberate with his well-beloved
nephew, who was too good a man of war to have omitted making some
preparations against the threatening storm. "You will put up a prayer or
twain for my safety," said the abbat to the prior, "and cause a
_Miserere, Domine_, to be sung in the church. And thou wilt hold thyself
ready, oh prior, to hurl an anathema at the head of the rebels, if they
should come near unto this godly house; and moreover thou wilt see to
such war-harness and weapons as we do possess, and station the
strongest-armed of our monks and lay-brothers, and the stoutest-hearted
of our serfs, with our men-at-arms, in the tower and turrets, with bows
and cross-bows; for it may chance that those who respect not the Lord's
anointed will have no respect for holy church that hath anointed him;
and when the children of Ishmael fall on, the children of Jacob may
defend themselves with the arms of the flesh."
Now our prior was a man of a very martial and fearless temperament, and
one that well remembered how, in the times that were passed, bishops and
abbats had put chain armour over their rockets and albs, and had ridden
forth with lay-lords and men of war, and had ofttimes done battle for
the cause which they held to be the just one, or the cause of the
church. It is not for a humble servant of mother church like me to
decide whether such actions be altogether conformable to the councils of
the church and the canons therein propounded; but this I do know, that
the sword and battle-axe have wrought their effects upon stubborn and
impenitent minds when our spiritual arms had failed, ay, when the wicked
had laughed to scorn our interdicts and our very excommunications. But
not to press further this _casus conscientiæ_, I will only record that
our prior responded with a firm voice and willing heart to the warlike
portions of our lord abbat's instructions, and that he, with marvellous
alacrity, did arm the house and prepare to do battle.
As the gate was unbarred and the draw-bridge again lowered to allow the
abbat and Sir Ingelric to go forth for Caversham, those of our knights
and men-at-arms who had ridden at an earlier hour to make
reconnaissance, came back with loose bridle to report that a great
battalia of the rebels was advancing upon the town of Reading by the
western road.
"Then," quoth our abbat, "is there no time to lose;" and putting his
foot in the bright silver stirrup, he got into his saddle without the
least assistance, albeit he was a corpulent man, and had had podagra.
Two of our knights and half of our men-at-arms rode after the lord abbat
and Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, but the rest tarried with us.
"Remember," said the abbat, turning the head of his palfrey, and
addressing the townfolk and the serfs, "remember well that ye be all
true men unto King Stephen!"
The poor people made a very feeble essay to shout "Long live King
Stephen!" and then prayed that we would admit them in at the
postern-gate if the rebels came nearer; which thing we did now promise
them to do.
The lord abbat and his party, riding away at a hard gallop, were soon
seen crossing at Caversham bridge; and very soon after they had crossed,
a goodly band of armed men was seen to take post on the opposite bank of
the river, a little below the bridge. Except these armed men, not a man,
woman, or child could be discovered anywhere; for the shepherds and
cowherds had driven their flocks and herds to the other side of
Thamesis, and all the serfs and labouring people had fled either to our
abbey walls or unto Caversham Castle. Only yesterday morning our green
meadows and fruitful corn-fields had been full of life and joy and
thoughtless song, but now they were solitary, and as sad and still as
the grave. The wind, which blew freshly from the westward, still brought
with it hideous drifts of smoke, which dirtied the bright blue sky, and
a coarse pungent smell, which overcame the sweet odours that were
emitted by our flowering hedge-rows and by the myriads of flowers which
grew in the bright green meads and along the moist banks by the river
side. It was all a Tartarus now; but on that sunny, happy May morning of
yesterday it was like being in paradise to stand on our outer turret and
scent the breeze, and feast the eye on plain and hill, meadow, river,
and woodland, and to hear the lark singing in the clear sky over our
head, and the blackbird whistling in the brake at our feet. Not a bird
of all that choir was left now: the foul smoke and the pungent smell
had scared them all away, as Ætna and Vesuve are said to do when they
vomit their sulphureous fires.
I was roused from some meditations of this sort by the scream of a
trumpet, and by a chorus of rude voices that shouted, "The Empress for
England! Down with the usurper Stephen! Long life to the Queen, and
death to all who gainsay it!"
And presently after hearing these sounds I saw the head of a great
column wind round the castle-mound (whereon there was not now any castle
deserving of the name), and take the high road which runs from Reading
town to Caversham bridge. Saint John the Evangelist to my aid, but it
seemed a formidable host! And there were many men-at-arms in the midst,
and a company of well-mounted and fully appointed knights rode at the
head of it. But our prior, after waxing very red and wrathful at the
first sight, did say, upon better observance, that the mass of that host
were but rascaille people, serfs that had slipped their collars, knaves
that had no arms but staves and bludgeons, and that would not stand for
a moment against a charge of horse, nay, nor even against a good flight
of quarrels or long-bow arrows.
"They will not win across the bridge," said the prior, "for the chains
be up, and pass the river they cannot, for the skiffs be all on the
other side, and there is no ford hereabout. But see, they halt! And now
they wheel round for the King's Mead! Will the caitiffs hitherward? Let
them come--our walls be of flint. By the founder of our house, it is
this way they come!"
And in little more time than it takes to say the credo and
pater-noster, the rebels crossed a brook which runs into Thamesis, and
came midway into the King's Mead, with the head of their column pointing
straight for our main gate. But who be those that follow them on the
grey palfrey and dapple jennet? By Saint John and Saint James, the
patrons of our house, it is our good lord abbat, and it is that
right-hearted man the mass-priest of Caversham, and the latter hath a
white flag fastened to his saddle, and he upholds a golden banner
whereon is depicted the effigies of Him who died for our sins, and
taught that there was to be peace upon earth and good will among all
men! And see, the rebels halt, and our abbat and the mass-priest
fearlessly ride up to their leaders, and discourse with them. Word can
we hear not at this distance, but plainly do we discern, by the abbat's
gestures, and by the frequent up-lifting of the holy standard, that the
head of our house is earnestly recommending peace and repentance, the
truce of God for the present, and agreement and reconciliation
hereafter. Gentle are our lord abbat's actions, and no doubt his speech,
albeit the rebels have set their impious feet upon the lands of our
abbey; but rude and outrageous are the gestures of those mailed knights
that do confer with him.... And can their ungodly rage amount to
this?... Yea, verily, so it is! One of them rides his big war-horse
against the grey palfrey, and the lord abbat of Reading is jostled out
of his seat, and lies prostrate on the grass--may it be soft beneath
him!
Judge ye of the choler of our prior, and of the grief and anger of all
of us that saw this shameful and sacrilegious sight. We shouted from
our tower and turrets, "_O turpissime!_" and the prior, standing upon
the loftiest battlement, stretched out his hands towards the traitors in
the King's Mead, even as Pope Leo did from the walls of Rome, when
Attila and his pagans came on for the assault of the holy city. But the
prior's first anathema was not said before our good abbat, assisted by
the mass-priest of Caversham, was on his feet, and to all seeming not
much the worse for his fall. He now spoke so loudly to the knights that
we could hear the sound of his voice and distinguish some of his words,
_specialiter_ when he conjured them to depart quietly thence, and avoid
the shedding of blood. It was plain that the savage crew would not
listen to him; and we saw him remount his palfrey, and turn his head
back towards the bridge. We much feared that the rebels would lay
violent hands upon him, and keep him as their prisoner; but, _nemo
repente_, this was but the beginning of the great wickedness; and albeit
impious factions did afterwards load the servants of the church with
chains, and throw even bishops into noisome dungeons, and keep them
there for ransom among toads and snakes, Jews and thieves, and other
unclean men, this present band did offer no let or hindrance to our lord
abbat or to the mass-priest, who went back at a good pace to Caversham
bridge.
"And now," quoth our prior, with a brightening eye, "we shall surely see
some feat of war if Sir Alain be alive! The foul rebels have refused to
parley, and have atrociously wronged the would-be peace-maker. Ay, by
the bones of King Henry, 'tis as I thought! The trumpets sound! Sir
Alain's lances are on the bridge! May the saints give them the victory!"
I, Felix the novice, being at the topmost part of all the abbey with
Philip, the lay brother, who had been teaching me how to use the long
bow, did now see a battalia rushing across the bridge, a mixed force of
horse and foot, and did further perceive a good company of cross-bowmen
descend the left bank of Thamesis as if their intent was to march below
our abbey to Sunning. The battalia which crossed the bridge divided
itself into two parts, of the which one marched hastily along the road
that leads right to the Castle-hill and town of Reading, while the other
and major part struck across the meadows for the King's Mead, never
halting or pausing until it was right in front of the rebels. With the
party in the mead were seen the pennon and cognizances of Sir Alain de
Bohun: it seemed but a small force compared with that which was opposed
to it, but of horse Sir Alain seemed to have rather more than the
adverse party. There was a short parley, the words of which we could not
hear, but it was very short, and then we heard right well, from the one
side the shout of "God for King Stephen!" and from the other "God for
the Empress-queen!" and when they had thus shouted for a space, they
joined battle. At first their superiority in number seemed to give the
rebels the advantage; and our prior was so transported at this, that he
clapped a coat of mail over his black gown, took a lance in his hand,
and called for his horse, and would fain have gone forth with our
knights and men-at-arms to charge the enemy in the rear. But, lo! the
cross-bows, of whom we had lost sight, appeared on the river in skiffs,
and in less than an Ave they landed on the right bank; and then they
formed in good order, and came on with quick steps to the right wing of
the foe, and shooting close and all together, smote it sorely with their
quarrels. And hereupon the rascaille people fell off from their leaders,
and ran in much disorder across the meadows. Now that part of Sir
Alain's battalion which had marched towards the Castle-hill set up a
triumphant shout, and drove the fugards back again, and moved upon the
other flank of the disordered rebel host. The serfs of the abbey-lands
and the townfolk and others who had been cowering under our walls and
even in our ditches, became full of heart at sight of the great success
of Sir Alain's cross-bows and the easy victory the good knight of
Caversham was now completing; and this encouraged the prior to
distribute bows and bills among them, and to throw open the abbey-gate
and form a third line or battalia round the discomfited foe. Divers of
our brotherhood did go forth with the prior, and even take a post in
advance upon the Falbury-hill; but I, Felix, having no commandment to
the contrary, stayed where I was, in a very safe place, whence I could
see all that chanced below. After making sundry desperate attempts to
stop the flight of their pedones and bring them to a head again, the
Empress's knights, not without holes in their chain jerkins, began to
fly themselves and to knock down and ride pitilessly over their own
people. They could go no other gait than close by our abbey and across
the Falbury; and when they came near unto our force on the hillock, a
stiffish flight of arrows and quarrels made them swerve and draw rein.
At this juncture, Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, whose lance was red with
blood, and whose casque had been knocked from his head by some terrible
blow, and whose face was covered with blood in a manner fearful to look
upon, came thundering among the rebel knights calling upon his mortal
foe, that caitiff knight Sir Jocelyn de Brienne, to tarry and receive
his inevitable doom as a felon traitor, coward, and foul murtherer. At
these hard words Sir Jocelyn, who was aforetime a man of a very evil
reputation, wheeled round his horse, and with his lance in rest charged
Sir Ingelric, who was charging him. Sir Jocelyn, the prime leader of
this first rebellion, and main actor in the horrible deeds of the
over-night, was wounded and unhorsed, and lay on the hard ground of the
Falbury (not on a soft mead like that on which he made fall our lord
abbat) crying "Rescue! rescue! Help me or I perish!"
Ay! there lay the proud strong man, struck down in his pride and
strength, looking towards our abbey-gate, and upon the hospital for
lepers, called the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, which Aucherius, the
second abbat of our house, did build near to the great gate, and I ween
that Sir Jocelyn would have changed his present estate even for that of
a leper! and still he cried "Rescue! rescue! Will no true man stop and
save me?" But the knights and men-at-arms that had ridden with him could
not stay to lift him up or give him any aid, for that Sir Alain de Bohun
and his horsemen were now again close upon them, and therefore did they
spur their steeds and gallop madly past some of the townfolk our prior
had armed. Rings still in my ear the horrible voice with which the
fallen and disabled Sir Jocelyn cried "Quarter! quarter!" and called
upon his foe to show mercy, and name what ransom he would; and still my
blood runs cold as I recall the manner in which Sir Ingelric of
Huntercombe, dismounting, lifted up his enemy's coat of mail and drove
under it into Sir Jocelyn's heart his long thick dagger, screaming,
"Where was thy mercy last night! Die unconfessed!" And Sir Jocelyn
perished, and another knight and ten men-at-arms perished unshrieved
upon our abbey lands, yea, and close unto our church and sacristy. Many
that escaped were sorely wounded, and well upon two score of the
commoner sort were made prisoners, either in the King's Mead or in the
Falbury. Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, mad with revenge, would have
butchered all these captives on the Falbury-hill as a sacrifice to the
manes of his beloved wife, but Sir Alain de Bohun stood between the
wretched serfs and this great fury, and when our good and merciful lord
abbat rode up on his grey palfrey, Sir Ingelric was somewhat pacified at
his discourse. By the foundation charter which the Beauclerc had given
us, it appertained to the lord abbat, and to none but him, to judge of
offences committed upon the lands of the abbey; yea, our lord abbat had
the privileges of the hundred courts, and all manner of pleas, with soc
and sac, infangtheof, and hamsockna; that is to say, he could try all
causes, impose forfeitures, judge bondmen and villeins, with their
children, goods and chattels, and try and punish any thief or
housebreaker, or other evil-doer taken within our jurisdiction. All
these rights and privileges were granted to the abbat of Reading Abbey
in their fullest extent, with judicial power in all cases of assault,
murder, breach of the peace, and the like; in short, in as full extent
as belonged to the royal authority. Lord Edward might have hanged every
one of those prisoners by the neck to the trees on the Falbury, and none
could have said him nay; or he could have chopped off their hands and
feet. But being of a merciful nature, he only made cut off the ears and
slit the noses of a few of the churls, and then dismissed them all, as
to keep them in prison would be troublesome and costly. And when this
last thing was done, all the victorious party came into our church,
where we the monks and novices did chant the _Te Deum laudamus_, after
which our abbat delivered a learned discourse upon the rights of King
Stephen, and put up a prayer for his preservation on the throne.
Much bloodshedding and many horribly vindictive acts did the lord abbat
prevent on this unhappy day: nevertheless much blood was shed, and a new
score of vengeance was commenced. The kin and friends of Sir Jocelyn
could no more forgive and forget his death than Sir Ingelric of
Huntercombe could forgive the burning of his house and the murther of
his wife; every man that had fallen in the field left some behind him
who were sure to call for vengeance.