VIII.

The day before King Stephen marched from Oxenford to pursue the

countess, our lord abbat, who grieved to see that his brother of

Abingdon was influenced by the changes of the times and by the rumour of

the great force which the Earl of Gloucester had brought with him, took

his departure for his own abbey, and with us went Sir Alain de Bohun,

who needs must restore his beloved son to his ladie and home ere he

tried again the fortune of war or entered upon any new emprise. The lord

of Caversham took with him a score of retainers, so that we were now

sixty-two well-armed men. The young Lord Arthur sometimes rode before

his father, and sometimes a manèged horse by himself, for the boy was

now in his tenth year, and had been taught by times to do that which

befits a knight. A proud and happy man I wis was Sir Alain as he looked

upon his only son and thought of the great joy their return would give

to the Ladie Alfgiva. Much also did I converse with the young Lord

Arthur on the road, and he did tell me how much he had grieved when Sir

Ingelric had carried away from him his little playmate who had travelled

with him so many days in horse litters, and who had abided with him in

so many castles that he could not tell the names of half of them. A

shrewd brave boy was the young Lord Arthur, and for his age marvellously

advanced in letters; and I, Felix, had at times given him instruction

before that Sir Ingelric did steal him away from his home so

feloniously. Again, though through no fear, since our party was so

strong and warlike, we shunned the townships and castles that lay near

our road. Also did we choose another ford whereby to cross the river Ock

without passing near the walls of that uncivil castellum that lay in the

swamps; for we were all anxious to be home and had no tools for trying a

siege; nay, had we not among us so much as a single scaling ladder. Yet

when we came to our poor house at Pangbourne we heard that which did put

us in heart to undertake the storming of a castle. It was dark night

when we arrived there, and the day had been a day of heavy snow with

rain, and I was sitting with a few others by the kitchen fire in the

chimney nook drying myself, when a little boy of the village came in and

tugged me by the sleeve, and said that there was one without who would

speak with me. Such message liked me not, nor did the time of night, for

I thought of Urswick and his hell-horse; nevertheless I soon followed

the boy to the house porch, and thereby I found a lonely man, sitting on

a cold wet stone, with his face muffled, and his body bent to the earth

like one sore afflicted. Started I not back with the thought that the

form that I saw was but the spectrum of Urswick! It spake not, nor did

it move. I turned me round to grasp my conductor by the arm, but the boy

was gone; and I stood alone with that lone and dolorous figure which I

could but faintly see, for there was no moon, and the stars were

overcast with black clouds, and verily my fears or my exceeding great

awe did not aid my eyesight. But at last the figure rose from the cold

stone and said, "Is it thou, oh Felix? Is it thou, my once friend?"

The voice was that of John-à-Blount from Maple-Durham; and before I

could say "It is even I," that erring novice clasped me by the hand and

peered into my face, and turned me towards the faint uncertain light,

and then fell upon my neck, and wept aloud. I led him farther from the

house-door, and when he grew calmer I communed with him where none might

overhear his words; but I took not this step until he vowed to me that

his soul was penitent, and that he had come unto Pangbourne only to do a

good deed. He confessed unto me that the love of woman had been his

undoing, that one of the countess's foreign damsels had practised upon

him and bewitched him, and that he had done many deadly sins on her

account in battles and nightly surprisals, and the burning and storming

of towns. But after a season the young cockatrice had scorned his love,

and had told him that she must mate with a great lord, and not with a

runagate shaveling, who had neither house nor lands: and at her own

prayer her mistress, the Countess Matilda, had sent poor John-à-Blount

away to serve with Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, and Sir Ingelric had for

a long time left him in his castle with a gang of robbers and

cut-throats.

"Oh, John-à-Blount!" said I, "these foreign women be worse than painted

sepulchres. I doubt not that Urswick was entreated in like manner by his

leman."

"He was, and worse," quoth John; "and it did drive him into a boiling

madness, and into the doing of the most savage deeds."

"Urswick had ever a wild heart and volage thoughts; Urswick perished in

his guilt," said I: "but thou are more fortunate in that thou livest to

repent."

"I know his fate," said John, "and may the saints now spare us the sight

of him on his infernal steed! By all the saints that preside over our

house at Reading, I was penitent before; but the tale of these nightly

visitings of my comrade Urswick did complete my guerison, and make me

resolve to do that which I have now come hither to propose."

"What good and expiatory deed is that?"

"The delivering up of Sir Ingelric's detestable castle," replied

John-à-Blount.

"That were a good deed if thou couldest do it."

"I can," said John, "if a few will march thitherward with me; for there

be those within that will help me, captives that I can release from

their chains, and unwilling vassals of Sir Ingelric. Dost comprehend me,

Felix?"

I then asked whether the little Alice were safe within the castle, and

whether Sir Ingelric's second wife were a mate worthy of such a husband,

for fame reported her to be so, and it was hard to think well of one who

had married the slayer of the husband of her youth. John gave me

assurance that Alice was there, and harshly used by her step-mother, and

that the said dame was well nigh as merciless and rapacious as her

present lord, keeping prisoners in the donjon and putting them to the

torture for their money.

"But we lose time," said John; "the deed in hand must be done to-night,

or some within the hellish cavern will be racked to-morrow morning. So

lead me to the prior--to the new lord abbat I would say--that I may

propound my plan unto him or unto Sir Alain de Bohun. When the deed

shall be done they will throw me into the abbey prison; but I am past

caring for that, and have not long to live."

I told him that our new abbat, the Lord Reginald, was the most indulgent

of men, and Sir Alain the most generous, but he would not be comforted.

While walking back to the porch of the Pangbourne house I did inquire of

him how he so well knew about our coming and our party; and to this he

made answer that Sir Ingelric's castellan, who had gotten by his

stealthy movements and savage assaults the name of the Wolf, did

constantly keep in his pay some wretched serfs who acted as scouts and

spies, and ofttimes lured heedless men to their destruction. "Ye were

watched," said John, "at your going unto Oxenford, and would have been

attacked if you had not been so well provided; and ye have been tracked

and watched on the return, and I, upon the report of those espials, and

upon a feigned show of great zeal, have been sent hither by Sir

Ingelric's fit mate to see whether an attack might not be made during

the darkness of the night upon my lord abbat's horses and baggage."

"May the foul fiend reward that same unwomanly ladie for the impious

intention," said I.

"He will," quoth John, "if the good lords will but take counsel of so

lowly and miserable a man as I am."

When we came near unto the porch, the heart of my sad companion failed

him, and he said that he could not face the lord abbat so suddenly, and

that it were better I went in to prepare the way for him. I had no

suspicion of his penitence or his present good faith, but my short

experience in war had made me wary, and I called to some men-at-arms

that were tending their horses in the stable, and bade them look to the

stranger. My lord abbat and Sir Alain were already at their supper, and

savoury was the smell of the fried fish of Thamesis and the roasted

meats that were spread on the table before them; but before he heard

half of that which I had to say, the abbat thrust aside his platter and

gave thanks to Heaven as for the return of a prodigal son, and thanked

the patron saints of our abbey for so good a prospect of destroying a

nest of robbers; and Sir Alain gave thanks for the same, and for so fair

a hope of recovering the gentle little Alice; and the young Lord Arthur,

who was eating at a side table placed near the fire, started to his feet

and said that he would go with sword and pike to break open the wicked

castle and recover his playmate; and they all three bade me hasten to

the porch and bring in John-à-Blount. Many a hardened sinner would have

been brought to repentance if he could but have seen in how kindly a

manner the lord abbat received the penitent stray sheep of his flock. He

raised John from the earth, he told him that his sins would be forgiven

him, he bade him be of good cheer, and to put some little present cheer

into the haggard trembling young man he gave him a cup of wine in his

own silver cup. Although he had been straitened by no siege and had

undergone no compulsory fast, the face of that black-eyed damsel that

wore a green kirtle was not more changed than that of John-à-Blount: and

I almost shuddered as I looked upon it in the bright light of that room.

The abbat and Sir Alain listened with eager attention to the unhappy

youth; and when they had heard him out his plan was speedily agreed. He

would hasten back to the foul den he had left, and tell Sir Ingelric's

people that the weary travellers were buried in sleep, and that there

was the fittest opportunity in the world for seizing their cattle and

baggage, and bringing off a rich booty. The entire garrison of the

castle was barely two-score men. One half of these would sally to make

the booty, and these might all be seized on their march by an ambuscade

of my lord abbat's followers. Of those that would remain within the

castle sundry were ready to revolt, and John-à-Blount would release the

many prisoners, and slay the castellan, that ravenous wolf, in the den.

"My son," said the abbat, as John was taking his hasty departure, "do

what thou wilt with the Wolf, but spare Sir Ingelric's wife."

"And," said Sir Alain, "as thou valuest thine own life, or the future

health of thy repentant soul, have a care of the little Alice in the

affray."

John laid his right hand upon his breast, and bowed lowly. Following him

almost to the door of the room our kind-hearted lord abbat said, "Still

there is one thought that doth spoil my present hope and joy: thou

mayest fail in thine enterprise, and if thou art but suspected thou wilt

be murthered by that bloody Wolf. Bethink thee, my son! Peradventure it

may be better that thou stayest in safety where thou art, and that we

leave this vile castellum to be reduced by regular siege at some future

day."

"My lord and father," said John, dropping on his knee, and kissing the

abbat's hand, "should I die in the attempt to perform a good deed, thou

wilt have prayers and masses said for me. But I shall not die to-night,

and I see no chance of miscarriage. I could wish that for me the danger

were greater, that it might the better stand as an atonement for my many

transgressions."

"Go then, my son, and God speed thee! And then will we ourselves shrieve

thee, and absolve thee after some due penitence, and make thee sound in

conscience, and heart-whole and happy again."

John-à-Blount kissed the abbat's hand once more, and prayed the saints

to bless him: but as he rushed out at the door we saw big tears in his

eyes, and heard him mutter that he should never be happy again in this

world.

"That poor boy," quoth Sir Alain, "hath not yet forgotten the young

syren that led him astray."

"'Tis witchcraft and sortilege, _maleficium et sortilegium_," said the

abbat. "But by the help of our prayers and relics we will disenchant

him."

Sir Alain shook his head, but said no word.

Forty men of us put on harness and followed in the track of

John-à-Blount when he had been gone some short time. Sir Alain would

have willed the lord abbat to tarry in the house with Arthur, but the

abbat would on no account be left out of the adventure, saying, that his

presence and exhortations might spare unnecessary bloodshed; yet while

he was saying the words he was feeling the point of his lance, and he

took with him his heavy battle mace. We all journeyed on foot, for war

horses would be but an incumbrance at Sir Ingelric's castle, and by

neighing or making other noise they might spoil our ambuscade on the

road. That road was a very rough one, and the night continued rather

dark; hence divers of us stumbled, and fell more than once: nevertheless

we kept up a good pace, and in little more than an hour came to a wooded

hollow, about midway between Pangbourne and Speen, through which the

robbers must pass on the way from their castle to our manor-house. The

trees were all leafless and bare; but the trunks of the ancient oaks

were thick, and so every man of us got him behind an oak, twenty on this

side the narrow road and twenty on that, and there we all stood

concealed from view, and silent as grave stones. I, Felix, had a bad

catarrh, yet did I neither cough nor sneeze all the while I was there,

for I had prayed unto the saint that hath controul over coughs and

colds. For a space that seemed to us very long we heard no sound, and in

that wooded hollow and night-darkness we could see but a very little

way. I began to think that the good strategem had miscarried, and to

moan inwardly for John-à-Blount as a murthered man. But at last we

heard, not voices, for the ungodly Philistines were as silent as we, but

the heavy tread of footsteps on the broad heath, just above the hollow;

and these sounds rapidly came nearer; and then, by peeping round the

bole of my covering tree, I did faintly discern a score or more of dark

figures descending in loose and careless array into the hollow. As we

had been bidden, we all stood stock still until the robbers were at the

bottom of the hollow, and between us; but so soon as they were there as

in a trap, Sir Alain shouted "Now for the onslaught in the name of King

Stephen!" and our abbat shouted "Down, traitors, down!" and the valorous

Lord of Caversham and our not less valorous lord abbat, and every man of

us, from this side of the pathway and from that, sprung from behind the

trees and hemmed in the evil-doers; and in less time than I can say it

the heavy mace of our lord abbat laid two of the robbers on the earth

with bleeding pates, and Sir Alain's lance went through the body of one

that seemed the leader, and pinned him to the very oak behind which I

had been standing. The rest, after making vain effort to retreat the way

they had come, laid down their arms and cried piteously for quarter and

for that mercy which they had never shown to other men. There were a

score of them besides the three that had gotten their death-warrants. We

bound the score with the cords and thongs we had brought with us, and

putting them in motion with the sharp heads of our lances, we proceeded

rapidly to the foul donjon at Speen, our lord abbat saying that thus far

was well, and some of our captives already beginning to say to Sir Alain

that they would change banners and fight for King Stephen if his

lordship would spare their lives and accept their services. The dark

wintry clouds rolled away, and the stars shone out brightly as if in

approbation of our enterprise, and in no long while we did see that

equable little river the Lambourne, which neither overflows in winter

nor shrinks in summer, but is at all seasons the same (its pike be pale

in colour, and in taste not to compare with those of Ock), gliding to

join our own swift, sweet Kennet at the township of Shaw; and we saw

still clearer the swift Kennet gliding before us, on its way from Speen

to our abbey walls at Reading and the broad Thamesis. And then, as we

hurried on our way, and as the stars shone out with still more

brightness, we discovered broken columns and fragments of walls,

standing up from the ground like spectres on a heath; and anon we heard

the owls hooting to one another among these ancient ruins. And ancient

in sooth they were, for the Romans in the days of the Cæsars had built

them a city at Spinæ which men do now call Speen, and these dark and

fantastically shaped fragments and ruins were all that remained of it;

for the men of Newbury, who have ever had a great envy to other

townships and a great liking for the property of other men, had levelled

most of the Roman walls and had carried away the stones and bricks

thereof to enlarge their own town; and people of other townships had

helped themselves at Spinæ as though it had been a common quarry. Such

fate befalls towns in decay; but such will never befall our glorious

abbey at Reading, for the saints and angels have custody thereof, even

as we have meetly expressed, in large letters graven upon the left door

of our gate-house under the abbey arms, ANGELI TUI CUSTODIANT MUROS

EIUS. But I wis it was not on this night that I did think of the

renowned Romans, or make these sanctifying reflections. True, I walked

in the paths of pensive thought; but it was only to think of

John-à-Blount and of the emprise we had in hand. And when we reached the

lonely mill on the Kennet, a few bow-shots below Sir Ingelric's castle

at Speen, we hid ourselves behind the mill and blew three blasts upon a

trumpet, for this was the only signal which John-à-Blount had asked for.

"And now," said our lord abbat, telling his beads, "may the saints

befriend the brave boy from Maple-Durham. The token of his success will

be three corresponding blasts. Let us be motionless and silent until we

hear them." For a space the sound of our own brazen instrument floated

along the waters, and was given back in echoes by the sleeping hills;

and then for a longer space, during which an expeditious mass-priest

might have said a camp-mass, nought was heard but the plash and ripple

of the ever sweet and clear Kennet, and the faint moaning of some trees

whose bare branches were shaken by the fresh gale which had blown away

the clouds, and brought forth the lustrous and approving stars. But

then, I wis, there came from the evil den the sounds of a mighty crash

and clangour of arms that made us all start, and then sounds of woe and

lamentation, shrieks and yells like those of the damned, which made us

all shudder and cross ourselves. And, anon, upon these hellish sounds

came three blasts from a trumpet, loud and shrill; and at the hearing

thereof our lord abbat clasped his hands and said joyously, "The bold

youth is safe, the deed is done; so now to the castle, which is ours!"

And we all ran from behind the mill to the foul den, driving our

captives with us at the spear point as before. Short was the distance,

and great our speed; yet before we reached the castle moat the

draw-bridge was down, the gate was open, and under the archway, in the

midst of a company of men who had still chains and fetters on their

legs, but who held flaming torches in their hands, stood John-à-Blount

with the gashful, blood-dripping head of the Wolf fixed on his lance.

John had released the army of prisoners at the opportune moment, and

being joined by some of Sir Ingelric's people, he had made himself

master of the castle without need of any aid from us: but the Wolf and

some of his evil band who could expect no quarter had made a desperate

resistance, and had been slain to a man. The warder who had raised the

portcullis and the few others who had aided in the emprise were now

shouting for King Stephen, and Sir Alain de Bohun and the lord abbat of

Reading, and the terrified captives we had with us, joined in these

cries with such voice as their fears and astonishment allowed them to

raise. As we all marched in at the gate the abbat said, "John, my son, I

fear thou hast been somewhat too hasty and violent! I would have put

some questions to that wild beast before sending him hence; yet is the

Wolf better dead than alive! But, my son, I trust thou hast not allowed

harm to be done unto the dark ladie of this most dark and bloody lair?"

"The evil woman is safe in her bower; I did lock her up before I

unlocked the prisoners whose hearts were steeled against her," said

John.

"And where," asked Sir Alain, "is the gentle flower that was not made to

bloom in this horrent place?"

"There," quoth John, pointing to one of the female captives who came

running across the quadrangle of the castle with the little Alice in her

arms. "She is there, the true and worthy child of her gentle and

martyred mother, and may she long live to make compensation to the world

for the many cruelties and crimes of her unnatural father;" and as he

spake John threw far from him into a dark corner the bleeding head of

the Wolf, lest Alice should be scared by the sight thereof.

The dear child was presently in the arms of the good Lord of Caversham;

and though she had not seen his face for eighteen long months, and

though she had not quite recovered from her great terror on being

startled from her sleep by the clashing of arms and those shrieks and

yells, she soon knew Sir Alain, and clung round his neck with many a

fond kiss, and with many a fond inquiry after her own dear mother the

Ladie Alfgiva and her companion and champion Arthur, whom she had left

in sad case at Oxenford.

The first thing we did within the castle was to secure our prisoners

with the chains which Sir Ingelric's unhappy captives had been wearing,

and to hurl them into that horrible and feculent prison where so many

good and peaceful men had long been rotting. Next we gave food to some

of the released captives who had been so tortured by fast that their

bones were cutting through their skin. And then we did all assemble in

the great hall with a great glare of torches and tapers, and the lord

abbat and Sir Alain being seated on the dais at the head of the hall in

the massy chairs in which Sir Ingelric and his dame had been wont to sit

in the days of their pride and evil power, that dark ladie was summoned

from her uneasy bower to that august presence. A dark dame was she, and

fierce as an untamed she-wolf as she came into the hall, screaming that

the empress-queen and her husband Sir Ingelric would know how to avenge

the traitorous deeds of this night, and the foul surprisal of a loyal

castle. These her words, and others that were more vituperative, chafed

our good lord abbat, and with a solemn and severe countenance he said

unto her, "Peace, woman! peace! these be not words to be heard by the

company here assembled, who be all true men and faithful lieges to King

Stephen. Most fit mate for a bloodthirsty and ungodly lord who hath

changed his party as men change their coats, who hath never had in view

ought else than his own interest, and who for these eighteen months last

past hath stopped at no crime whereby he might enrich himself; dost call

it loyalty to the queen or countess to turn thy castle into a den of

robbers and torturers, to waste the country round about it until it

looks like unto a Golgotha,--to seize, rob, imprison, and torment all

manner of men, as well the secret partisans of Matilda as the open

partisans of King Stephen, as well the poor and lowly as the rich and

great, and as well the quiet franklins and toiling serfs, who be of no

party and who only seek to live in peace, as the knights and trained men

of war that go forth to battle? Call ye this loyalty and faithfulness to

a party? Honourable men, alas! may have honestly differed in these

unhappy disputes, but thy husband hath been but a robber, and it is for

that there be so many like him in the land that these wars have lasted

so long. Dost call the seizing of priests and monks upon the highway

loyalty? Dost call it Christian duty and reverence to mother church to

kidnap the servants of the altar and put them to the rack as thy people

have done? Oh, woman, the holy water that baptised thee was thrown away!

But thou shalt away hence to some sure keeping in a lonely cell, where

thou mayest have time for repentance and prayer. We did only send for

thee that we might remind thee of thy many sins, and get from thee the

keys of thy ill-acquired treasures, and some list or knowledge of those

who have been robbed by thee, to the end that we may make restitution."

No ways humbled or abashed, the dark ladie of the castle called my lord

abbat robber and housebreaker, and said that she had only levied tolls

and baronial droits; that Sir Ingelric had taken away most of the money

to give it to the misused and distressed queen; and that it was but a

small matter that which remained in the house. And then, with great

pride and insolency, she threw down upon the table one heavy key, saying

that that was the key to the only treasure.

"The foul dame lies in her throat," cried one of her own people, "she

hath treasure in other places; she hath gold, and silver, and jewels,

aye, and church-plate stolen from the very altar, hid in most secret

hiding-places; and, my lords, ye will not get to the full knowledge

thereof unless ye do put her in her own crucet-house!"

Albeit, they were fully resolved to come at this great wealth, Sir Alain

de Bohun shuddered at the mention of that terrible engine of torture,

and the lord abbat said that such things were accursed by the church,

and that verily he would never crucet a woman.

"Then will ye never get at the silver and gold!" said the man who had

before spoken.

But at this juncture the repentant old warder of the castle stood up,

and said that his daughter, who had been handmaiden to Sir Ingelric's

wife, knew the whole secret, having watched her mistress with feminine

curiosity, and could so point out every recess and hiding-place; and at

the hearing of these words the dark woman uttered a shriek, and fell to

the ground as if her heart had been cleft in twain; so fearfully had she

and her lord sold themselves to Lucifer, and made a god of money. The

sight of blood and of the foe standing triumphant on her own hearth had

not made her quail, nor had the mention of the crucet-house caused her

to tremble; but the thought of losing all her accursed spoil had gone

through her like a knife. We could not leave her where she was, lest

some of her lately released captives should lay violent hands upon her;

so we carried her to a turret-chamber, and having bound her so that she

should not lay violent hands upon herself in a maniacal mood, and having

placed one of her women to watch by her, we made fast that door and went

in search of the treasure, being guided by the warden and his daughter.

It was, in truth, but a small matter that which we found under the lock

to which the dark ladie had given us the key; but, in the hiding-places,

within the thick walls, and under the stone floors of the dark ladie's

bower (places so invisible and recondite that of ourselves we never

could have found them), were piled silver and gold, and wrought-plate

and jewels, that seemed to me enough to pay a king's ransom, and that

made mine eyes twinkle as I looked upon them by that light from many

torches. When he had gathered it all together in a mighty great heap, in

the middle of the room, our abbat made fast that door also, and hung a

crucifix to the door-post, and threatened with excommunication all such

as should approach the door until ordered by him so to do. "Souls have

been lost," said he, "in the getting together of that heap, and his soul

will assuredly perish that touches it for his own use. It is all the

property of the church, or the property of the poor, or the heavy ransom

of tortured victims. The malison of heaven will go along with every part

of it that is not restored to its rightful owners. So now, my children

all, follow me down these flinty stairs to refresh yourselves with meat

and drink; for the day is dawning in the east, and we shall have hard

work at daylight. This infamous donjon must down: not a stone must be

left upon another."

"I did help to build it," said Sir Alain, "but will now be more happy in

destroying it! Not a nook must be left to be repaired of my

false-hearted ravenous friend, or of any other wolf of his choosing."

"Humanity will bless the destruction! Tears of joy will be shed for

leagues round about," said one of the released captives; "and when all

dens of the like sort be a-level with the earth, England will be England

again."

It was a marvellous and a provoking thing to see how well the foul

robbers had been victualled and provided; gaunt hunger ranged all round

them, and filled the fertile but untilled valleys with its cries and

screams; but their buttery was crammed with the best of meat, their

stalls were filled with beeves and sheep, their cellars were full of

ale, mead, and wine, their granaries with corn, their stables with the

best of horses. Rarely have I seen so sumptuous a feast as that to which

we did sit down in the castle hall, with our sharp winter-morning

appetites.

By the time this goodly collation was finished it was broad daylight.

"So now," said the lord abbat, "will we think of carrying out these

goods and chattels, and then of destroying tougher crusts than those of

venison-pasties. Bring me forth the rascaille-people from the

prison-house, that they may lend us their shoulders and aid us in

destroying their own foul nest."

Being boyishly and unwisely curious to see with mine own eyes the

abominable pit of which I had heard so much, I went with those that

repaired to the house of captivity and torture, and one who had been

released over-night did follow me thither to explain its horrible

mysteries, as one who had full experience of them all. Misericordia Dei,

into what a bolge of hell did my staggering feet carry me! And what an

atmosphere was that which made my head turn giddy and my stomach sick!

Deep in the bowels of the earth, within the foundations of the keep of

the castellum, was a great chamber paved with the sharpest flints, and,

dimly lighted from above by a few chinks, so narrow that the bats could

scarce have crept through them. The noisome air, never fanned by the

sweet breath of heaven, was made more foul and poisonous by accumulated

filth and stagnant pools of blood, and a fetid smell of smoke. The

torches we brought in to give us light to discover all the mysteries of

the place burned with a sickly and uncertain flame.

"Can man live here?" said I.

"I lay dying here the full length of nine moons," said my guide.

"And what is this?" said I, looking into a short narrow chest not much

unlike the coffin of a child, but half-filled within with sharp stones

and spikes of iron.

"Curses on it, that is the crucet-house," replied the man, "and therein

they did thrust the body of a full-grown man, breaking his limbs and

causing him exquisite torture. That was one of their processes for

gratifying their cruelty or for extorting money. And this," continued

the man, kicking a monstrous great beam which seemed loaded with iron,

and to be heavy enough to bear down and crush two or three of the

strongest men, "this is one of their sachenteges, which they would lay

upon one poor man, and these iron collars with the sharp steel spikes

are what they put round men's throats and necks, so that they could in

no direction sit, or lie down, or sleep, for these collars be fastened

by these strong iron chains to the stone walls. In my time I have seen

two men and a woman perish with these hell-collars about their necks."

"And what be these sharp knotted strings?" said I, growing more and more

faint and sick.

"These strings," replied the man, "they twisted round the head until the

pain went to the brain. And see! these be the thumb-screws. And see

above-head that pulley and foul rope! At times they pulled us up by the

thumbs, and hung heavy coats of mail to our feet; at other times they

hanged us up by the feet and smoked us with foul smoke until our blood

and brain...."

"By our Ladie of Mercy, say no more--show me no more;" and so saying, I

rushed out of the infernal place with a cold sweat upon my brow and my

limbs all quivering.

"I am told," said the old captive, who followed me, "that there be still

worse prison-houses than this, and that there be many scores of them in

the land."

"May they all down!" said I; "and may men in after days not believe that

they ever stood! But, franklin, I do pray thee say no more, for I feel

those collars on mine own neck, and the anguish at the brain!" And, in

truth, I was in so bad case that I could do nothing until Philip the

lay-brother did bathe my brow with some cold Kennet-water, and make me

drink a cup of wine.

The evil castle was soon cleared of whatsoever it contained (not even

excepting a poor maimed Jew that had been so misused in the crucet-house

that he could neither walk nor crawl), and so soon as everything was

taken up we began to demolish the abominable walls. Many poor men who

lived in that neighbourhood came to our assistance, and being first

refreshed by meat and drink, they laboured with astonishing vigour,

giving joyous shouts whenever a great piece of the building was brought

down. By commandment of our lord abbat the instruments of torture were

all heaped together in that foul cell under the keep, and a great supply

of wood, brush-wood, and straw being placed therein, fire was set to the

whole, and so mighty a combustion was made that the stones cracked, and

the flints seemed to melt, and every beam or other piece of timber

taking fire, the greater part of the tower fell in with a terrific

noise, and a most hellish smoke. While the castle was burning it was

terrible to see how the impenitent dark ladie did gnash her teeth and

stamp her feet, as likewise to hear how she did curse Sir Alain de Bohun

and our good abbat, and all of us that were there present. Surely in

that horrid frenzy she would have died the death of Judas Iscariot if

we had not bound her hands, and kept a strong guard over her. When the

smoke cleared away, and we saw that the keep was nearly all down, our

lord abbat distributed the victual and sheep and cattle among the

famishing men who had come to help us, and who engaged not to leave the

place until the moat should be filled up, and the walls all made level;

and then we departed with our prisoners and all the treasure to

Pangbourne, rejoicing as we went. Only no joy could be gotten into the

sad heart of John-à-Blount; the commendations of that great man of war,

the Lord of Caversham, did not cheer him, nor was he made the happier by

our good abbat's telling him that he would provide well for him in some

other manner of life than the monastic, for which he never could have

had the due vocation. John thanked the lord abbat, but there was no joy

in his gratitude. As I walked by his side I did try to comfort him by

telling him that he had broken none of the greater vows of our order, as

he was happily only in his noviciate; but he only shook his head at this

my remark, and said, "Felix, it is not so much a wounded conscience and

remorse, as something else that is leading me to the grave!" And then I

saw that he was thinking of that foreign damsel that had led him into

sin, and had then spurned his love, and I did thrice cross myself and

fall to telling my beads, for verily phantasms of that other black-eyed

maiden in the green kirtle came flashing through mine own weak brain,

aye, lively effigies of her, both as I saw her first in her pride and

beauty in our abbey garden, and as I saw her last, famine-wasted and

crushed with fear in the castle-yard at Oxenford. But the saints gave

me strength to expel the visions, and I never saw those living perilous

eyes again.

To me the most tender and beautiful thing in all this our great

adventure and emprise was the meeting of little Arthur and Alice. Our

good abbat was certainly of my mind, for he almost danced with joy at

the sight thereof, and kept long repeating in his most joyous tones,

"These children were made the one for the other! It is not man that can

separate them, or keep them long asunder! My predecessor abbat Edward

said the words, and the gift of prophecy was in him before he died."

The day being far advanced before we got back from the evil castle, we

tarried that night at our poor-house at Pangbourne, keeping good watch;

for albeit we knew that our great enemies were afar off, yet were we and

our poor serfs but as lambs among most ravenous wolves, bears, and

lions--_in medio luporum rapicissimorum, ursorum, et leonum_. A trusty

messenger had been sent to Reading Abbey and the castle of Caversham the

night before, and now we despatched another to bid the stay-at-home

monks prepare a Te Deum, and a feast for us on the morrow.