Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe and the other knights whose houses had been
destroyed by the so sudden onset of their enemies, regained possession
of their lands; and, in other parts of the kingdom, Stephen, by force of
arms, or by treaty, recovered nearly all the castles which had been
taken from him. Merciful was the soul of King Stephen, even as that of
our lord abbat; for, although he lopped off the hands of some few of the
mean sort, he took not the life of one lord or knight, but, upon
submission made, did pardon them all their late rebellion. The empress's
illegitimate half-brother, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, fled beyond sea;
and when he was safe in Anjou, he sent his defiance to Stephen, wherein
he renounced his homage, and called the king usurper. But before he fled
out of England, Earl Robert had made a great league with many of our
barons, and had induced the Scottish king to engage to invade our land
with all the forces he could collect. King Stephen was again triumphant
over his many foes; he took castle after castle from the English barons,
and rarely began a siege which did not end prosperously. When the Scots,
and Gallowegians, and Highlanders, and men of the Isles, burst into
Northumberland and advanced into Yorkshire, Stephen was not there; but
the army that was collected for him by Thurstan, my lord archbishop of
York, and that was commanded for him in the field by Ranulph, my lord
bishop of Durham, and by William Peveril and Walter Espee of
Nottinghamshire, and Gilbert de Lacy and his brother Walter de Lacy of
Yorkshire, gained a glorious and most complete victory over the Scottish
barbarians at Northallerton in the great battle of the Standard, slaying
twelve thousand of them. The country, and the poor people of it,
suffered much during these sieges, and intestine wars, and foreign
invasions; but they came not near to Reading Abbey, and King Stephen was
everywhere successful, until, in an evil hour for him and for all of us,
he did violence to the church in order to satisfy the rapacity of his
ungodly men of war. For ye must know that King Stephen, in order to gain
the affections of the lay baronage, had given away so many lands and so
much money, that he had now nought left to give, and still those barons
cried "Give! give! or we will declare for the empress." "I see a flaw in
your title, therefore give me two more castles," said one great lord. "I
see two flaws, therefore give me four more castles that I may support
your right," said another great lord. "I fought for thee at
Northallerton, and therefore must have some domain for my guerdon," said
another. But castles, domains, all had been given away already; there
remained not of the crown lands enough to keep the king and his
household, and as for the treasury, it had long been empty. Seeing that
Stephen was like a spunge that had been squeezed, and that nothing was
to be gotten except by war and change of government, sundry of these
great lords withdrew to the strongest of their castles, and renewed
their correspondence with the Earl of Gloucester. In these great
straits, and while Stephen was holding his court in Oxenford, threatened
by foreign invasion, and not knowing how to distinguish his friends from
his foes, he was advised by the worst of his enemies to lay his hands
upon the property of churchmen. The most potent and wealthy churchman of
that day was old Roger, bishop of Sarum, who had been justiciary and
treasurer to Henry Beauclerc, and who had for a season filled the same
offices under Stephen; and next to the Bishop of Winchester, Stephen's
own brother, no man had done more than this Bishop Roger to bar the
claim of the empress, and secure the crown for the king. Moreover, this
great Bishop of Sarum had two episcopal nephews almost as great as
himself; the first of them being Alexander, bishop of Lincoln; the
second, Nigel, bishop of Ely. All three had been great builders of
castles, and men of a bold and martial humour. I find not in the canons
or in the fathers that bishops ought to make their houses places of
arms; but it is to be remembered King Stephen, to please the baronage,
had, at the commencement of his reign, given every baron permission to
fortify his old castle or castles, and to build new ones; nor is it to
be forgotten that in the midst of so many places of arms, the simple
unfortified manor-house of a bishop could never have been a safe abiding
place, or have afforded any protection to the serfs who cultivated the
soil, and the rest of my lord bishop's people. If Bishop Roger and his
nephews did build some castles for the defence of their manors and the
people upon them, and did expend much money in temporalities, they did
also raise splendid edifices to the glory of God. Witness the great
church at Sarum, which Bishop Roger rebuilt after it had been injured by
fire and by tempest--witness the beautiful works done at Lincoln by
Bishop Alexander, who nearly rebuilt the whole of that cathedral; and at
Ely, by Bishop Nigel. And these three great prelates did make noble use
of their wealth, in bringing over from foreign parts good builders and
artisans, and men of letters and doctrine, to improve and teach in their
several ways the people of this island; and if Bishop Nigel was somewhat
overmuch given to hunting and hawking, and spent much time, as well as
much money, upon his falcons and falconers, doubtlessly it was because
the climate of Ely is cold and damp, and requireth much exercise of the
body for the conservation of health, and because the circumjacent fen
country doth incredibly and most temptingly abound with wild-fowl proper
for the hawk to fly at. But to the propositus. King Stephen, being
minded to plunder these three great prelates, did summon them all three
to his court at Oxenford, where many ravenous lay lords and some foreign
lords had previously assembled. The two nephews, apprehending no
mischief, and being young men and active, went willingly enough; but it
was otherwise with the uncle, who was now a very old man. Bishop Roger
had lost his relish for courts, and seemingly had some presentiment;
for, as he started on his journey, he was heard to say, "By my Ladie St.
Mary, I know not wherefore, but my heart is heavy; but this I do know
for a surety, that I shall be of much the same service at court as a
fool in battle." At Oxenford the three bishops were received with a
great show of courtesy, as men who had done notable service to the king,
and as men whom the king delighted to honour; but they had not been long
in the town when a fierce quarrel arose about quarters and purveyance
between the retainers of Bishop Roger and the followers of that
outlandish man the Earl of Brittany. The aged prelate would have stilled
this tumult, but the Bretons, who had been purposely set on by those
about the king, would not desist, and swords being drawn on both sides,
the affray did not end until many men of the commoner sort were wounded,
and one knight was slain. And hereupon it was wickedly given out that
the bishops' people had begun the affray, and that the three bishops had
set them on to break the king's peace, and murther his guests within the
precincts of his royal court. Bishop Roger, the uncle, was seized in the
king's own hall, and Alexander, the bishop of Lincoln, at his lodgings
in the town; but Bishop Nigel, who had taken up his quarters in a house
outside the town, getting to horse, galloped across the country, and
threw himself into the castle of Devizes, the strongest of all his
uncle's strongholds. And it was thought that the Bishop of Ely would not
have been able to do this, and to distance his pursuers by leaping hedge
and ditch, if he had not providentially practised hunting and hawking in
his easy days. Bishop Roger, and his less fortunate nephew Alexander,
bishop of Lincoln, were confined in separate dungeons at Oxenford. They
were severally told that the king held them as traitors, and that the
price of their liberation would be surrender unto Stephen of all their
castles and manors, with whatsoever treasure they contained; and those
who delivered the message chuckled at it, seeing that they hoped to have
a share in the great spoil. At first Bishop Roger and Bishop Alexander
did manfully refuse to give up anything, but bishops in dungeons and in
chains are weak, and kings be sometimes very strong; and after they had
been menaced with torture and death, the two prelates put their names
and seals to an act of surrender and renunciation, and the castles which
Roger had built at Malmsbury and Sherborne, and that which he had
enlarged and strengthened at Sarum, and the magnificent castle which
Bishop Alexander had built at Newark, together with other places of
strength, were taken possession of by the king's people, in virtue of
the orders of the two bishops to their own people. But the alert,
hard-riding, and warlike Bishop of Ely would not give up the castle of
Devizes, into which he had thrown himself on his escape from Oxenford;
and, counting on the strength of his uncle's best fortress, and on the
affection the garrison and the people of the neighbouring country bore
to his family, Nigel did defy the power of King Stephen. Our unhappy
ill-advised king, whom I have so often seen, and with whom I have so
often spoken in this our house at Reading, had not the head to conceive,
nor the heart to execute, the foul trick which followed. No! it was all
the contriving and the doing of some of his ill-advisers, of the Earl of
Brittany, or Sir Alberic de Vere, or some other or others of those
children of perdition. Fasting is commendable at some seasons, but
starvation is horrible at all. If a man starve himself, he is guilty of
the worst and most unnatural species of suicide; and if a man starve
another, certes he is guilty of the cruellest of murthers. That which
impresses on my mind the belief that the aforesaid Sir Alberic de Vere
was deep in this guilt, are the facts of which I have had assurance; to
wit, that Sir Alberic never afterwards gave a feast in his own castle,
without seeing the apparitions of two ghastly, pale, starving bishops
take their stand opposite to him, and knit their brows, and wave their
right hands, as if they were pronouncing a curse each time his plate was
laid before him or his wine-cup filled; and that the said Sir Alberic
did die at the last of angina, which closed up his throat and allowed no
food to pass. Bethink ye whether the knight did not then think of Bishop
Roger and his episcopal nephew! But the procedure to force the Bishop of
Ely to give up the strong castle of Devizes was this:--Bishop Roger and
his nephew, the Bishop of Lincoln, were loaded in their dungeons with
more chains, and orders were given that they should be kept without food
until the castle was delivered up to King Stephen. When Bishop Nigel was
told of this intent he could not believe it, nor was it easy, even in
those wicked days, for any man to conceive the world wicked enough to
starve two prelates. "I will keep mine uncle's castle for him," said
Bishop Nigel, "for they dare not do the thing they speak of." But,
alack! his lordship was soon convinced to the contrary; for Bishop Roger
himself, already pale and emaciated, was carried to Devizes, and made to
state his own case in front of his own castle. And the old man implored
his nephew to surrender, and so save the life of his uncle and that of
his brother: and then Bishop Nigel gave up that great fortress, and
thereupon Bishop Roger and Bishop Alexander were allowed to have food,
after they had been three days and three nights in a fearful fast.
Before long all three of the bishops were set at liberty, but they had
been plundered of nearly all they possessed. The evil advisers of King
Stephen got most of the spoil. The robbery did not even a momentary good
to the king, and terrible was the penalty he was made to pay for it. The
whole body of the dignified clergy turned against him; and even his own
brother, Henry, bishop of Winchester, who was now the Pope's legatus for
all England, did join the other bishops in charging Stephen with
sacrilege. It was his own brother, the legatus, who summoned the king to
appear before a synod of bishops at Winchester; and what is brotherly
love when weighed in the balance with the duty of every churchman to the
church? King Stephen would not attend _personaliter_, but he sent unto
Winchester that Sir Alberic de Vere of whom I have spoken; and Sir
Alberic went into the hall of synod with a great company of armed
knights, and did there much misuse the prelates of the land, and did
refuse, in Stephen's name, to make restitution to Bishop Roger and his
two nephews of that of which they had been despoiled; and when he had
done these things, Sir Alberic made appeal to the pope and dissolved the
council, the wicked knights with him drawing their swords to enforce
obedience. The bishops separated for that present, but every one of them
saw that madness and much wickedness had prepared the downfall of King
Stephen. Bishop Roger died of old age, and grief and indignation, and of
the fatal effects of that dread fast; and while he was dying, the plate
and money which he had saved from the king's rapacity, which he had
devoted to the completion of his glorious church at Sarum, and which he
had layed for safety upon the high altar, were seized and carried off by
some who cared not for the guilt of sacrilege, and who were so blind
that they could not see in what such crimes must end. Forty thousand
marks, by our Ladie, was the value of that which was stolen from the
shadow of the Holy of Holies!
Now some of the baronage and clergy did send messengers into Anjou to
invite the Empress Matilda into England, and to give her assurance good
that they would place her upon the throne of her late father. And the
ex-empress, being a woman of a high spirit, did presently come over with
her half-brother the Earl of Gloucester, and one hundred and forty
knights; and the two nephews of the late Bishop Roger and many of the
optimates did renounce their allegiance to King Stephen and join her
standard. Bishop Nigel, who would have continued to hold the castle of
Devizes if it had not been for that fearful fast, went into the Isle of
Ely, his own diocese, and there amidst the bogs and fens, and on the
very spot where Hereward the Lord of Brunn had withstood William the
Conqueror, he raised a great rampart and collected a great force against
Stephen. In other parts our bishops were seen mounted on war-horses,
clad in armour, and directing in the battle or the siege: and many and
bloody were the battles which were fought during two years, and until
King Stephen was surprised and defeated in the great battle of Lincoln,
and taken prisoner by the Earl of Gloucester, the half-brother of the
empress. Stephen was now thrown into a dungeon in Bristowe Castle, and
his brother the Bishop of Winchester and legatus acknowledged the right
and title of the empress, and led her in triumph to his cathedral church
at Winchester, and there blessed all who should be obedient to her, and
cursed all who should refuse to submit to her authority. And this being
done, Stephen's brother, the bishop and legate aforesaid, did convene an
assembly of churchmen to ratify her accession. At this synod the said
legate bore testimony against his brother, and said that God had
pronounced judgment against him; and the great churchmen, to whom it
chiefly belongs to elect kings and ordain them, did elect Matilda to
fill the place which Stephen's demerits had vacated. Yet some of the
clergy there were who did not think that they could be so easily
discharged of the oaths they had taken unto Stephen, or move so far in
this matter without a direct command from our lord the pope, and many
lords there were, as well of the laity as of the clergy, who did not
like Matilda the better for knowing more of her. But not one felt more
unhappy at these changes than our good lord abbat, who came back from
the last meeting of the clergy at Winchester well nigh broken-hearted;
for, albeit he lamented his errors, he had much affection for King
Stephen and great reverence to the obligations of an oath, and very
earnestly desired peace and happiness to the country.
Also was he and all of us of the house at Reading and all devout and
considerate men in the land, much consternated by great signs in the
heavens: for on the twenty-first of the kalends of March in the year of
our redemption eleven hundred and forty, while we were sitting at
dinner, there was so great an eclipse of the sun that we could not see
to eat our meat, and were forced to light candles, and when lights were
brought in our appetites were gone because of our great fear; and when
we went out to gaze at the obscured sun and blackened heavens we did
plainly see divers stars twinkling near the sun. And these sad sights
were seen all over the land, making men believe, while they lasted, that
chaos was come again, and that this day was to be the day of judgment.
Abbat Edward did interpret these things as omens of our future woe.
"I do foresee," said he, "that infinite woe will arise out of these our
distractions, and I can plainly see with only half of an eye that too
many of our magnates be looking to nothing but their own worldly
advantage. With this classis of men 'twill be down with Stephen and up
with Matilda to-day, and down with Matilda and up with Stephen
to-morrow; just as they hope to gain by the change. They will all find
in the end that they have miscalculated, but that will not heal the
wounds that will have been inflicted on the country through their
selfish unsteadiness, and lack of principle, and oath-breaking. The
ex-empress hath brought a pestilent set of hungry foreigners over with
her; and every one of them is looking for some great estate or bishopric
or abbey; others will follow, and they will have no bowels of compassion
for the people of this land. 'Tis true King Stephen hath done much amiss
or hath allowed evil things to be done in his name, but Matilda will do
worse, and will have less power than he to prevent the rapacity and
bloodthirstiness of others! Steel-clad barons and knights will not yield
obedience to the distaff. Even the church will be divided. St. John and
St. James to our aid! but my heart trembles for this house, and for the
poor townfolk of Reading, and the freemen and the serfs who have so long
lived in peace upon our manors; I am an old man--this journey to
Winchester hath added the weight of ten more years--I shall not live to
see an end to these troubles which have already lasted four years. Death
will relieve me from witnessing the worst; but when I am gone hence, oh
my brethren and children, put your faith in heaven, and remember that
the honestest policy is aye the best, and meditate night and day, and
labour hard, in order to lessen the sufferings of our poor vassals and
dependants."
Grieves me to say that some of our house who made many solemn
protestations now, did not in after-time do that which they ought to
have done.
Affairs were in this state, and the flames of civil war were raging all
round us, and the health of our good lord abbat was daily breaking more
and more, when the Empress Matilda passed through Reading without
stopping at our abbey to say an orison at her father's grave, being on
her way to Westminster, there to be crowned and anointed by those who
had crowned King Stephen only six years ago. But the citizens of London,
who were very bold and powerful, loved Stephen more than Matilda, and
before the coronation dresses could be got ready they rose upon her and
drove her from the city, flying on horseback and at first almost alone,
as she did. This time the daughter of the Beauclerc found it opportune
to come to our abbey, for she wanted food, lodging, and raiment, and
knew not where else to procure them. A messenger on a foundered horse
announced that she was coming, and by the time the man had put his beast
into our lord abbat's stable, a great cloud of dust was seen rolling on
the road beyond the Kennet from the eastward. "_Medea fert tristes
succos_--she is coming, and will bring poisons with her! She cometh in a
whirlwind," said our good lord abbat, "and albeit she is her father's
daughter--the lawfully begotten daughter of the founder of this house,
(though some men do say the contrary,) it grieves me that she cometh at
all. Last year, and at this same season of the year, we did lodge and
entertain King Stephen, and prayed God to bless him; and now must I
feast this wandering woman and cry God save Queen Matilda? The
unlettered and rustical people be slow of comprehension, yet will they
not have their hearts turned from us by seeing these rapid shiftings and
changings? And so soon as the commoner sort lose their faith or belief
in the principles of their betters, crime and havoc will have it all
their own way. This people--this already mixed people of Saxons and
Normans--will go backwards into blood, and there will be war between
cottage and cottage as well as between castle and castle!"
The empress-queen arrived at our gates, and with a numerous attendance;
for some had followed by getting stealthily out of London, and some had
joined her on the road. Sooth to say she was an imperious, and
despotical, and loud-voiced, manlike woman, and of a very imposing
presence. Maugre her hasty flight she had a coronet of gold on her head,
and a jewel like a star on her breast, and her garments were of purple
and gold. A foreign lord, with a truculent countenance, bore a naked
sword before her, and another knight, with a visage no less stern,
carried a jewelled sceptre.
"'Tis mine own father's house," said she as she came within our gates,
"'tis the gift and doing of mine own father, of blessed memory, and
much, oh monks! did you wrong him and me by entertaining within these
walls the foul usurper Stephen. The usurper is rotting in the nethermost
dungeon of Bristowe Castle, and there let him die; but, oh abbat, lead
me to my dear father's tomb, that I may say a prayer for the good of his
soul; and see in the coining place what money thou hast in hand, for
much do I lack money and must for the nonce be a borrower! Bid thy
people make ready a banquet in the hall, for we be all fasting and right
hungry; and send into the township and call forth each man that hath a
horse and a sword, in order that he may follow us to Oxenford, and help
to be our guard upon the way. Do these few things, oh abbat, and I will
yet hold thee in good esteem. The land rings with thy great wealth and
power. By Notre Dame of Anjou! 'tis a goodly house, and the walls be
strong, and the ditch round about broad and deep,--by the holy visage of
St. Luke! I will not hence to-night though all the rebel citizens of
London, that do swarm like bees from their hives, should follow me so
far."
Our good lord abbat could do little more than bow and cross himself, and
our prior of the bellicose humour, who partook in our abbat's affection
for King Stephen, reddened in the face and turned aside his face and
grinded his teeth, and muttered down his own throat, "Beshrew the
distaff! The Beauclerc, her sire, was more courteous unto clerks!"
Our sub-prior, being of a more supple nature, and being, moreover, not
without his hopes of being nominated to the abbatial dignity so soon as
our lord abbat should be laid under the chancel of the abbey church,
kneeled before the empress-queen, and then formed some of the monks _in
processionale_, and began lead the way to the sepulchre of Henricus
Primus. But this roused the abbat and threw the thoughts of our prior
into another channel, and the lord abbat said in a grim and loud whisper
unto the sub-prior, "I am chief here, and none must move without my
bidding;" and the prior said without any essay at a whisper, "Oh, sub,
seek not to climb above _me_!"
The proud woman reddened and said, "If ye would honour me, oh monks, as
your queen, make haste to do it! An ye will not, I can get me in without
your ceremonies. No time have I to lose, and money and aid must be
forthcoming!"
Then up spake the lord abbat Edward, and said in a loud voice, "Oh dread
ladie, when that king of peace and lion of justice, _Rex pacis et leo
justitiæ_, did found this house, he did give us his royal charter,
wherein it is said, 'Let no person, great or small, whether by violence
or as a due custom, exact anything or take anything from the persons,
lands, or possessions whatsoever belonging unto the monastery of
Reading; nor levy any money, nor ask any tax for the building of bridges
or castles, for carriages or for horses for carrying; nor lay any custom
or subsidy, whether for ship-money or tribute-money or for presents;
nor....'"
"Oh abbat of the close fist," said Matilda, "I only want to borrow."
"But we may not lend without full consent of all our chapter monks in
chapter assembled," quoth the prior.
"And the foundation charter of Henricus Primus," said our abbat,
"recommends all the successors of the said royal founder to observe the
charter as they wish for the divine favour and preservation, and
pronounces a malediction upon any one that shall infringe or diminish
his donations. Dread ladie, thou art the Beauclerc's daughter: the curse
of a father is hard to bear!"
There was some whispering and sign-making among her followers; but the
imperious woman said not a word: she only stretched out her right hand
and pointed forward, into the interior of our abbey.
We now formed in more proper order and went through the church to the
Beauclerc's grave, on the broad slab of which there burned unceasing
lamps, and sweet incense renewed every hour, and at the edge of which
there was ever some brother of the house telling his beads and praying
for the defunct king, the founder of the house. Dim was the spot, for
death is darkness, and too much light suits ill with the decaying flesh
and bones of mortal man, be he king or plough-hind; yet, as the
empress-queen entered, our acolytes touched the tips of three hundred
and sixty-five tapers--sweet smelling tapers made of the wax brought
from Gascony and Spain and Italie--and in an instant that dim sepulchral
place was flooded with light, the converging rays meeting and shining
brightest upon the black slab and the graven epitaph which began with
the proud titles of the Beauclerc king, and which ended with that
passage from holy writ which saith that all is vanity here below.
Matilda knelt and put her lips to that black slab (which she safely
might do, for it was kept clear of all dirt and dust, it being the sole
occupation of one of the lay brothers of our house to rub it every day
and keep it clean), and she said an orison, of the shortest, and made
some show of shedding tears; but then she quickly rose, and would have
gone forth from the vault or cappella. But the lord abbat was not minded
that the first visit paid by his daughter to the tomb of her father
should pass off with so little ceremony and devotion; and, he himself
taking the lead with his deep solemn voice, the Officium de Functorum,
or Service for the Dead, was recited and chanted. The empress-queen was
somewhat awed and moved, and there seemed to be penitential tears in her
eyes as we chaunted "Beati Mortui qui in Domino moriuntur;" but at the
last requiem "Æternam" she flung away from the place and began to talk
with a loud shrill voice of worldly affairs and of battles and
sieges--for the royal-born woman had the heart of a man and warrior, and
her grandfather the great Conqueror was not more ambitious or avid of
dominion than she.
When we had well feasted Matilda and those who followed her in the
abbat's apartment, we hoped she would be gone, for it was a long and
fine day of June, well nigh upon the feast of St. John, and she well
might have ridden half way to Oxenford before nightfall; but she soon
gave the abbat to understand that she had no intention of going so soon.
Without blushing she did ask how and where we monks could lodge her and
her women for the night, telling us that she could not think of
sleeping in the town, seeing that it was but poorly defended by walls
and bulwarks. The abbat looked at the prior, and all the fathers looked
at one another with astonishment, but the ungodly waiting-women, who
came all from Anjou and other foreign parts, only smiled and simpered as
they gazed at one another and observed our exceeding great confusion.
"In truth, royal dame," said our lord abbat, "it is against the rule of
our order to lodge females within our walls."
"But I am your queen, oh abbat," said Matilda, "and this is a royal
abbey, and my sire founded it and endowed it! Have I not, as my father's
daughter and lawful sovereign of this realm, the right to an exemption
from the severity of your ordinances?"
"Ladie," quoth the abbat, "I wit not that you have such right, or that
the rule of St. Benedict is in any case to be set aside."
"But it hath been set aside," said Matilda, "and queens and their
honourable damsels have slept in royal abbeys before now."
"That," quoth the abbat, "was before the Norman conquest, when, through
the indolence, carelessness, and gluttony of the Saxon monks, the
statutes of our order were generally ill-observed."
"But I tell thee, oh stubborn monk, that I, the empress-queen, that I,
thy liege ladie Matilda, have slept and sojourned in half the abbeys and
priories of England!"
"'Tis because of these civil wars which have so long raged to the
destruction of all discipline and order, and to the utter undoing of
this poor people of England! I, by the grace of God, abbat of Reading,
would not shape my conduct after the pattern of some abbats and priors
that be in this land, or willingly allow that which they perchance may
have permitted without protest, and to the spiritual dishonour of their
houses."
Here the eyes of the empress-queen flashed fire, and wrathful and
scornful was the voice with which she said unto our good lord abbat, in
presence of most of the community, "Shaveling, I am here, and will here
tarry so long as it suits my occasions! I believe thy traitorous
affection for my false cousin Stephen hath more to do with thine
obstinacy than any reverence thou bearest to the rules of thine order.
But, monk, 'tis too late! thou shouldest have kept thy gates closed! I
and my maidens are within thy house, and these my faithful knights will
see thee and thy brethren slain between the horns of the altar rather
than see the Queen of England thrust out like a vagrant beggar from the
abbey her own father founded!"
As the empress-queen said these words the knights knit their brows and
made a rattling with their swords. This did much terrify the major part
of our community, and I, Felix, being then of a timorous nature, and a
great lover of peace, as became my profession, did creep towards the
door of the hall. But our prior spoke out with a right manful voice
against the insults put upon our good abbat, telling the empress-queen
to her face that respect and reverence were due to the church even from
the greatest of princes; that her father, of renowned and happy memory,
would not so have treated the humblest servant of the church; and that
if this unseemly business should be put to the issue of arms--if swords
should be drawn over her royal father's grave--it might peradventure
happen that the armed retainers of the abbey would prove as good men as
these outlandish knights, and that the fathers and brothers of the house
would fight for their lives, as other servants of the church had
ofttimes been constrained to do in these turbulent, lawless, ungodly
days.
At this discourse of our bellicose prior the empress-queen turned pale
and her lip quivered, though more through wrath than fear, as it seemed
to me; but her knights left off noising with their swords; and one of
them, a native knight, spoke words of gentleness and accommodation, and
put it as an entreaty rather than as a command, that the queen should be
allowed to infringe our rules for only one night.
"My conscience doth forbid it," said our lord abbat, "for it may be made
a precedent, to the great injury and decay of our discipline. Therefore
do I solemnly enter my protest against it. But as I would not see this
holy house defiled by strife and blood, nor attempt a forcible
expulsion, I will quit mine apartments." And so saying, the lord abbat
withdrew, and was followed by all of us. The queen slept in the abbat's
bed; her maidens on the rushes, which were carried into that chamber
from the abbat's hall; and the knights and men-at-arms slept in the Aula
Magna. And, as our good abbat had foreseen, this evil practice was taken
as a precedent, in such sort that empresses and queens, and other great
princesses, have in these later times been often lodged in Benedictine
and in other houses; yet, wherever the abbats and monks entertain a
proper sense of their duty, they lodge these visitors in the lord
abbat's house, apart from the religious community.
But before sleeping, the empress-queen did many things, for it still
wanted some hours of the Ave Maria, and many were the stormy thoughts
that were working in her brain. Two of her knights we allowed to go out
of the house by the postern-gate, but farther ingress we granted to
none; and not only did our armed retainers keep watch for us, but our
monks, under the vigilant eye of the prior, did also keep watch and ward
all through that evening and night, for we feared some extreme mischief;
and it would not have failed to happen if Matilda had been enabled to
get her partisans in greater force within the house. In truth, not many
of our community knew that night what sleep was. The materials for an
abundant supper were furnished to the empress-queen and her people; and
some of these last were singing ungodly songs in the abbat's great hall
when our church-bell told the midnight hour; yea, there was a noise of
singing, and a running to and fro, and a squealing of womanly voices
long after that, to the great sorrow and shame of the fathers of our
house. I, Felix, albeit only a novice, was of those who slept not. And I
saw a great sight. Watching in the eastern turret, I did see a fiery
meteor, hirsute like a comet, but not so big, shoot up from the marshes
on the other side of the Kennet, not far from the back of our abbey; and
this meteor, as it passed over our house, did divide itself into three
several parts, and these did rush away to the westward as quick as
lightning, and there drop and disappear. Before the night came again I
was made to understand what these things meant.