Pausing in my work, I rose and looked out across the sunlit sea. Then,
eager to gain further knowledge, returned and continued the deciphering,
as follows:
"Of the years I remained at Croylande, growing old in years, and often
visiting with my friend Malcolm Maxwell the beadsman Petre of Castor,
beyond the town of Peterborough, I speak not, save to say that much
happened in London of the king's marriages and or our lord-Cardynall
Wolsey's disfavour with his majesty.
"But now, reader, another thing did happen in the year 1537 that
unquieted our abbot and all of us--namely, that the king intended to
suppress and seize our abbey, as his majesty had seized the houses of
Romburgh, Fyneshed, Walsinghame, and Bury St Edmonds. Whereupon our
abbot, John Welles, a holy and well-beloved man, wrote unto Thomas
Cromwell, chief secretary to the king's highness, this letter:
"`With due reverence I command me unto your honourable lordship, humbly
asserteing the same that I send your lordship by this bearer part of our
fen fish, right meekly beseeching your lordship favourably to accept the
same fish, and to be good and favourable, lord, unto me and my poor
house, in such cause as I hereafter shall have cause to serve unto your
good lordship, and I with my bretheren shall daily pray to our Lord God
for the long continuance of your lordship in health.--At Croylande the
xxv. day of March, by your daily orator, John, abbot there.'
"But it pleased not the King's Secretary that our splendid abbey should
be spared, and the gift of our fish was unavailing. The king's highness
recognised not the good and true service done to his grace, and gave not
his favour unto us. Because of its isolation our abbey became a place
of refuge in those black days of the king's wrath against us. Through
those years I had lived a quiet life in the cloister, mostly employed in
prayer and meditation, for of a vertie I was penitent, and prayed for
the repose of the soul of my Lady Lucrezia. Alas, the secular spirit
prevailed in our land, and we received worde at the first daybreak in
December 1538 that the commissioners, William Parre, Robert Southwell,
and Thomas Myldemay, who had seized the monastery of St Androse in
Northampton for the king's use, intended to seize likewise our house and
lands. Therefore did our good abbot John take me aside with Malcolm
Maxwell and held counsel with us how best to conceal owr altar plate and
jewels, of the which we held a goodly quantitie. Secretly, knowing how
safe a place was the fish-ponde, wherein I had already hidden the Borgia
treasure, I suggested it, and that night, leaving sufficient silver to
satisfy his majesty's commissioners, the three of us took the great
silver altar and a goodlie number of the Abbey treasures, and, placing
the latter in three chests bound with iron, sank them deep in the mud in
the centre of the pond. Only Maxwell and myself were privy to the
secret that we had taken from the abbey treasury the things that
follow."
In Old English the list read:
"i. greate altar of sylver, mayde by the Abbat Richard in 1281.
i. great chalyce of golde gyven by Thomas de Bernack in the yeere
1356.
iiij. large chalyces of sylver.
iiiij. patens.
i. alms bason.
viij. cuppes of sylver.
iii. cuppes of golde.
ii. golde candelsticks.
iiij. golde crucifixes.
viij. cuppes of sylver.
ii. sylver boxes full of the precious stones tayken from the altars
and
robes. Some of great syze.
iii. small boxes of other jewells."
Continuing, the record stated:
"Of the rest, we left two chalices and other things for the king's
highness, the Abbot knowing well that our house must be destroyed and
desecrated, and that we must be scattered. The night was dark, with
thicke fen-mist, when we carried forth the heavy chests and let them
down noiselesslie into the water at a spotte at the opposite end to
where through many years my own treasure lay well concealed. The ponde
was deepe, and dried not in summer, beinge fed by many springs, and well
fylled wyth good carp for Fridays. Malcolm kept watch by the south door
while I, wyth the Abbot, sank owr treasure in the deepest parte of the
lake. Then, when we returned in silence, we all three went into the
Abbot's chamber and there swore to Almighty God to ever preserve the
secret, tayking oath that neither should seeke to recover the hidden
treasure withoute the consent of the other two. We knew that our
glorious abbey was doomed, and wished to save what we could for the
Church's benefit. And we were not mistaken, for three dayes later the
Commissioners came with Thomas Cromwell himself, and our good Abbot was
forced to surrender unto them everything. Thus we monks, to the number
of one hundred and sixty and four, were dispersed; and the king's men
stripped our great church, seized all that was of value, sold the bells
and the lead, and then broke and battered down the walls. Seeing their
ill-intentions, some of us still remayned in refuge in houses of the
people in the neighbourhood, I finding hospitality at an inn called The
Oak Branch at Eye, while Malcolm was at Thorney, owr abbot having
departed to London.
"Through a full month we watched the destruction of owr magnificent
Abbey, how that Southwell's men did break owr statues and tore down the
very tower, I lingering there because of my own treasure concealed and
unable to recover it lest my actions should be noted. Once I heard
rumour that Southwell intended to pump out the lakes, and surely the
pump was sette up. Then did I tremble, well knowinge that all that we
had hidden must be discovered. Cromwell, however, considered that they
had seized all of which we were possessed, and luckily gave orders for
the work of pumping to be stopped, an order which pleased me mightily,
for every other hole and corner was well searched for anything hidden,
especially for books and proclamations against the king's actions.
"On the fifth of February 1539, my friend Malcolm Maxwell, who like
miself had been compelled by the king's commissioners to discard his
habit, came to me, saying that he had decided to return to Scotland, his
own country, and offered me asylum in his brother's house, the castel of
Treyf, in Galloway. His invitation accepted, I managed one night by the
light of the moon to drag the fish-pond, and after many attempts
succeeded in recovering the casket of wood and iron that I had brought
from Italie, no one knowinge of my actions. To Malcolm, who was older
than myself, I declared that my casket contained my Booke of Hours and a
relic of Saint Peter--the which I had brought from Rome--for he knew not
that it really contained my dead lady's jewels and her secrete phials.
As touching our journey north by the great roade through Stamford and
York to Carlisle I will not speak, save to say that we hadde manie
adventures, and more than once I was in imminent peril of losing mi
precious casket. On the borderlandes all was in disorder, and the
moss-troopers were ever ready to steal and kill. While passing by the
high-road through Dumfries and Dalbeatie we went into the great Abbey of
Dundrennan, and prayed before the silver image of Our Lady there; and
also we made a pilgramage to St Ninian's shrine, afterwards passing
across the hills and glens by Auchencaim and over Bengairn, and thence
to the river Dee, where, upon an island, stood the greate grim castle of
Treyf, once the impregnable fortalice of the Black Douglas, but now in
the possession of my Lorde Maxwell of Terregles, an ancient baron of
great landes, and brother of Friar Malcolm.
"In this, the wildest part of Galloway, we were received warmly by my
lord of Treyf, who on the nighte of our arrival was entertaining in the
great banquetting-hall John Gordon of Lochinvar, who had juste been to
France with the Scottish King incognito in search of a wife; Gylbert
Earl of Cassilis; David Vaus, abbot of Soulseat; his brother John Vaus
of Bambarrock; with the lairds of Garlies and Sorby. The talk as we ate
our venison with wheat bread was of how the two Galloway lairds the
Macdowalls of Freuch and of Mindork were invadinge Arran with fire and
sword, and how they had burned the castle of Brodick to the ground. By
their conversation I knewe well that although my lord Maxwell was
steward of Kilcudbricht [Kirkcudbright] and keeper of Treyf, which the
kinge had wrested from the Douglas; he was, however, not truly loyal,
and that there was conspiracy against the king just as there had been in
that same stronghold in the days of the Black Douglas.
"Still far from it that I, a houseless fryar, should utter complaints,
for mi lord, not havynge seen his brother for fifteen years, treated us
both with greatest courtesy, and gave us asylum for as long as we
wished, assigninge to us rooms in the tower that commanded the sweep of
the river lookynge up towards Greenlaw. Through a full year I remained
with my lorde Maxwell, riding often against the Gordons of Kenmuir, the
Douglases of Drumlanrig, and the Agnews of Locknaw, having well
concealed my treasure-casket in a safe spot upon the island. Old in
yeares, yet much fierce warfare did I see across the hills and
treacherous mosses of Galloway, often ridinge over the border against
the English with Malcolm, who, like myself, had readilie doffed the
habit for the breastplate. We besieged the castle of Kenmuir, and took
its lord prisoner to Stirling, as also we did the lord of Orchardton,
Willyam Cairns.
"At this time our King Henry of England had shaken off the Holy Father's
authority, and the doctrines of the reformed religion were widelie
spreading among the people. In Scotland, too, a greate national change
was unavoidably approachinge; for religious reformation had been long
advancing, and doctrines in opposition to the Romish Faith had been
propagated in Galloway by the Gordons of Airds. The Bible, which had
been locked up from the laity by the clergy, was now procured in
numbers, and secret meetings were beinge held in the woods to read it,
for even possession of a copie of the sacred book was a penal offence.
Of a verity the persecution was terrible, for many were imprisoned or
committed to the flames.
"Treyf was a goodly stronghold, square, surrounded by a barbican and
flanked at each angle by a circular tower, secured in front by a deep
fosse and vallum, while the island itself was surrounded by the rapid
waters of the Dee; and my lord Maxwell, with the kinge's authority
behind him, was the most powerful of the lords of Galloway. One night,
however, we returned from ridyng against the English from Lochmaben.
Our Galloway troopers, with Lochinvar at their head, had utterly routed
a large body of Somerset's men, and as in the sundown my charger's heels
clattered on the drawbridge of Treyf, Malcolm, who had remained, came
forward to greet me with pale face, and took me up into my chamber where
we could speak privately. He told me that the conspiracy against the
kinge, formed by his brother, had been discovered, and that a mounted
messenger had arrived from Helen Lady of Torhouse, who was with the
Court in Edinburgh, to warn him that his majesty had sent an armed force
on his way to us. My lord Maxwell's intentions regarding an alliance
with Somerset to the detriment of the Scottish king had been betrayed by
one of the conspirators, Johnston of Lockwood, and the messenger alleged
that five thousande men were already at Dumfries wyth orders to storm
and take Treyf, with my lord Maxwell, his brother Malcolm, and myself,
who, cominge from England as we dyd, were beleeved to have been in the
plot, and to also arrest young Gordon of Lochinvar, Abbot Vaus of
Soulseat, and Gylbert Earl of Cassilis, at their various houses. My
lord Maxwell was absent wythe James Earle of Bothwell at Earlston, but a
messenger was sent in hot haste to him, while Malcolm and myself tooke
counsel as to how we should act. My lord's fair daughter Margaret was
in the castle, and we saw that to save her and ourselves we must all
three flie. They were hastily preparinge while I had gone in secret to
secure my precious casket, when the guard suddenly announced that the
advance guard of the kinge's army was already at Treyf Mains. Not an
instant was to be lost, therefore, compelled to leave my ladie
Lucrezia's jewels in their safe hiding-place, I sprang into the saddle
of a fresh charger, which one of the troopers led to me, and, following
Malcolm and the fair Margaret, dashed across the drawbridge and along
the frail wooden brydge that connected the island wyth the opposite
banke. Scarce had my horse's hoofs touched the road than the weak
supports of the bridge were knocked away, fell in pieces in the river,
and were swept down the stream, while at the same instant the portcullis
fell, and the rattling of chains told that the drawbridge was drawn up
and the stronghold isolated and rendered impregnable.
"The fair daughter of Maxwell proved a good horsewoman, and through the
long dark night we all three rode our hardest, well knowinge that
capture meant either death or imprisonment in the dungeons of Edinburgh.
Indeed, our departure was noted, and for some hours we were hotly
pursued; but Margaret Maxwell knew the countrie as well as any
moss-trooper, and she led us safely through the Glenkens into the giant
solitudes of Carsphairn; then, after a rest, taking a circular route, we
rode along the wild shore of Loch Doon, over the Rhinns of Kells, and
across to Auchenmalg Bay, where we arrived in sadde plight and exhausted
on the second night. Through the whole of Galloway the kinge's men were
searchinge for us, and we heard that my lord Maxwell had already fallen
into their hands near Loch Ken, while Treyf was holding out against the
besiegers. To remain in Scotland longer was impossible, although I
grieved in secrete that I had no means by which to recover my precious
casket. Ours was truly a position of gravest peril."