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 LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 MRS. H. RUSSELL AMORY 
 
 GIFT OF HER CHILDREN 
 R. W. AND NINA PARTRIDGE
 
 "'WS^I^^^XK-.
 
 LEGEND OF READING ABBEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' THE CAMP OF REFUGE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHARLES KNIGHT & Co., LUDGATE STREET. 
 
 1845.
 
 A 
 
 LEGEND OF EEADIXG ABBEY. 
 
 L 
 
 It was ill the year of Grace eleven hundred and 
 thirty-seven (when the grace of God appeared to 
 be entirely departing from the sinful and unhappy 
 land of England), and Steplien of Blois, nephew of 
 the deceased King Henry Beauclerc, sat upon the 
 throne, lawfully and honestly, as some men said, 
 but most unlawfully, according to others. And 
 the woe I have to relate arose from this diver- 
 gency of opinion, but still more from the change- 
 ableness of men's minds, which led our bishops, 
 lords, and optimates to side now with one party 
 and now with the other, and now change sides 
 again, to the great perplexing of the understanding 
 of honest and simple men, to the undoing of their 
 fortunes, and well nigh to the utter ruin of this 
 realm, which that learned clerk and right politic 
 King Henricus Primus had left in so Hourishin^ 
 and peaceful a condition. 
 
 Our great religious house of Reading (may the 
 hand of sacrilege and the tlames of war never more 
 reach it !), founded and endowed by the Beauclerc, 
 
 B
 
 6 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 had then been newly raised on that smiling, favoured 
 spot of earth which lies on the bank of the Kennet, 
 hard by the juncture of that clear and swift stream 
 with our glorious river Thamesis ; and in sooth 
 our noble house was not wholly finished and fur- 
 nished at this time ; for albeit the first church, 
 together Avith most of its chapels and shrines, was 
 in" a manner completed, and our great hall was 
 roofed in, and floored and lined with oak, the lord 
 abbat's apartment, and the lodging of the prior, 
 and the dormitory for the brethren, and the gra- 
 nary and the stables for my lord abbat's horses, 
 were yet unfinished ; and, except on Sundays and 
 tlie feast days of Mother Church, these parts of the 
 abbey were filled by artisans and well-skilled work- 
 men who had been collected from Windsor, Wal- 
 lingford, Oxenford, Newbury, nay even from the 
 right royal city of Winchester, which abounded 
 with well-skilled masons and builders, and the 
 capital city of London, where all the arts be most 
 cultivated. Moreover, sundry artists we had from 
 beyond the seas, as masons and hewers of stone, 
 who had been sent unto us from Caen in Normandie 
 by the defunct king, and some right skilful carvers 
 in wood and in stone, who had been brought out 
 of Italie by Father Michael Angelo Torpietro, a 
 member of our house, who had quitted the glorious 
 monastery of Mons Casinium, which had been 
 raised and occupied by the founder of our order, 
 the blessed Benedict liimself, when he was in the 
 flesh, in order to live among us and instruct us in 
 humane letters and in all the rules and ordinances 
 of our order, wherein we Anglo and Anglo-Nor- 
 man monks, in verity, needed some instruction. 
 And this Father Torpietro of happy memory had
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 7 
 
 also been enabled by the liberality of our first lord 
 abbat to bring- from the city of Pisa in Italie a 
 right good limner, who painted such saints and 
 Virofins upon gilded panels as had not before been 
 seen in England, and who was now painting the 
 chapel of our Ladie Mith rare and inappreciable 
 art, as men who have eyes and understanding may 
 see at this day. All the learned and periti do 
 affirm that for limning and gilding our chapel of 
 the Ladie doth excel whatever is seen in the 
 churches of AVestminster and Winchester in the 
 south, or in the churches of York and Durham in 
 the north, or in the churches of Wells and Exeter 
 in the west, or in Ely and Lincoln in the east. [I 
 speak not of the miracles performed by our relics : 
 they are known to the world, and be at least as great 
 as those performed by our Ladie of Walsingham.] 
 Albeit our walls of stone and flint were not all 
 finished in the inner part, our house was girded 
 and guarded by ramparts of royal charters and 
 papal bulls. Two charters had we from our 
 founder, and one from King Stephen, confirmator}' 
 of those two. And great were the immunities and 
 privileges contained in these charters. No scutage 
 had we to pay ; no stallage, no tolls, no tribute ; no 
 customs in fair or market, no tithing penny or 
 two-penny, no amercements or fines or forfeitures 
 of any kind ! Our mills were free, and our fisheries 
 and our woods and parks. Ko officer of the king 
 was to exercise any right in the woods and chases of 
 the lord abbat, albeit they were within the limits of 
 the forests royal ; but the lord abbat and the monks 
 and their servitors were to hold and for ever enjoy the 
 same powers and liberties in their woods and chases 
 as the king had in his. Hence was the House of 
 
 b2
 
 8 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 Eeading ever well stocked with the succulent meat 
 of the buck. Too long were it to tell all that our 
 founder Henricus did for us. At the beginning of 
 his reign, he abolished the ancient power of abbats 
 to make knights ; yet, in order to distinguish our 
 house, he did, by a particular clause in our charter 
 of foundation, give unto the lord abbat of Reading 
 and to his successors for ever, authority to make 
 knights, whether clerks or laymen, provided only 
 that the ceremony should be performed by the 
 abbat in his clerical habit and capacity, and not 
 as a layman, and that he should be careful to ad- 
 vance none but men of manly age and discreet 
 judgment. Of all the royal and mitred abbeys in 
 the land ours was chiefest after Glastonbury and 
 St. Albans ; and assuredly we have some honours 
 and privileges which those two more ancient houses 
 have not. I, who have taken up the pen in mine 
 old age to record upon enduring parchment some 
 of tlie passages I witnessed in my youth and ripe 
 manhood, would not out of any unseemly vanity 
 perpetuate my name and condition ; I would lie, 
 unnamed, among the humblest of this brotherhood 
 who have lived or will live without praise, and 
 have died or will die without blame ; but as the 
 world in after-time may wish to know who it was 
 that told the story I have now in hand, and what 
 were my opportunities of knowing the truth, it 
 maybe incumbent on me to say so much as this : — 
 John Fitz-John of Sunning was my secular name 
 and my designation in the world of pomps and 
 vanities ; my mother was of the Saxon, my father 
 of the jSTorman race ; my mother (I say a requiem 
 for her daily) descended from a great Saxon earl, 
 or, as some do say, prince ; and my father's grand-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 9 
 
 father, who fought at the battle of Hastings, ^vas 
 cup-bearer to William the Conqueror, in sort that 
 if I could be puffied up with mundane greatness I 
 have the wherewithal : my name in religion is Felix, 
 of the order of St. Benedict and of the Abbey of 
 Eeadino; ; and as a servant of the servants of the 
 Lord, I have filled without discredit, in the course 
 of many years, the several high offices of sub- 
 sacrist and sacrist, refectorarius, cellarer, chamber- 
 lain, and sub-prior ; and mayhap when I shall be 
 gone hence some among this community will say 
 that there have been worse officials than Father 
 Felix. 
 
 In the year eleven hundred and thirty-seven I 
 was but a youthful novice, still longing after the 
 flesh-pots of Egypt, and mourning for the loss of 
 the worldly liberty I had enjoyefl or abused in my 
 mother's house at Sunning, which was a goodly 
 house near the bank of Thamesis, on a wooded 
 hill hard by the -wooden old Saxon bridge of Sun- 
 ning. But I was old enough to comprehend most 
 of the passing events ; and being much favoured 
 and indulged by the lord abbat and several of the 
 brotherhood, I heard and saw more than the other 
 novices, and was more frequently employed upon 
 embassages beyond tlie precincts of the abbey 
 lands. It w^as a common saying in the house 
 that Felix the Sunningite, though but little given 
 to his books within doors, was the best of boys for 
 out-door work. By the favour of our Ladie, the 
 love of in-door studies came upon me afterwards 
 at that time when I was first assailed by podagra, 
 and since that time have I not read all the forty 
 and odd books that be in our library, and have £ 
 not made books with mine own hand, faithfully
 
 10 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 transcribing the Confessions of St. Angustin, and 
 the whole of the Life of St. Benedict, and missals 
 not a few ? But not to me the praise and giory, 
 sed nomini tuo ! 
 
 As I was born in the house at Sunning (may the 
 sun ever shine upon that happy village, and upon 
 the little church wherein rests the mortal part 
 of my mother) on the eve of St. John the Evan- 
 gelist, in the year of our Redemption eleven hun- 
 dred and twenty, being the twentieth year of the 
 Beauclerc's reign, I was, on the feast of St. Edbert, 
 Bishop and Confessor, in the year eleven hundred 
 and thirty- seven, close upon the eighteenth year of 
 mine age. 
 
 St. Edbert's festival, falling in the flowering 
 month of May, is one which my heart hath always 
 much affected. The house had kept it right mer- 
 rily ; and notwithstanding the unfinished state of 
 portions of the abbey, I do opine that our ceremo- 
 nies in church and choir were that day very mag- 
 nificent, and fit to be a pattern to some other 
 houses. All labours were suspended ; for he is a 
 niggard of the worst sort that begrudgeth even 
 his serfs and bondmen rest at such a tide ; and 
 eager as was our lord abbat Edward for the com- 
 pletion of our stately edifice, and speciliater for the 
 finishing of our dormitory, he would not allow a 
 man to chip a stone, or put one flint upon another, 
 or hew or shape wood upon St. Edbert's day ; and 
 he was almost angered at the Italian limner for 
 finishing part of a glory which he had begun in 
 our Ladle's chapel. It was a memorable day, and, 
 ifiter alia, for this : it was the first night that the 
 good lord abbat slept within the walls of the 
 abbey ; for hitherto, on account of the cold and
 
 A LEGE^'D OF READING ABBEY. il 
 
 dampness of the new walls, he had betaken himself 
 for his nightly rest either to a house close by in 
 the town of Reading-, or to the house of a God- 
 fearing relation, who dwelt on the other side of 
 Thamesis at Caversham. 
 
 After the completorium and supper (we had 
 both meat and wine of the best at that ccena), the 
 weather beins: Marm, and the evenino: altosrc^ther 
 beautiful, the abbat and reverend fathers, as well 
 as the younger members of the house, gathered 
 together in my lord abbat's garden at the back of 
 the abbey, and sat there for a season on the green 
 bank of the Kennet, looking at the bright river 
 as it glided by, and at the young moon and 
 twinkling stars that were reflected in the water, or 
 discoursing with one another upon sundry cheerful 
 topics. Good cheer had made me cheerful, and it 
 remembers me that I made little coronals and 
 chains of the violets that grew by the river bank, 
 and of the bright-eyed daisies that covered all the 
 sward, and threw them upon the gliding and ever- 
 changing surface of the Kennet, and said, as I had 
 done in my still happier childhood, " Get ye down 
 to Sunning bridge, and stop not at this bank or 
 on that, but go ye right down to Sunning, and 
 tell my mother tliat I am happy with my shaven 
 crown." 
 
 The lord abbat, looking back upon the tall tower 
 of our church, and the broad massive v/alls of our 
 Aula Magna, said — 
 
 " In veritate, this is a goodly and substantial 
 house, and one fitted to beautify holiness."* 
 
 " In truth is it," said that good and learned 
 Italian father who had brought tlie litnner from 
 Pisa.
 
 12 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 " Torpietro," said the abbat, " this soil grows 
 no marble ; we have not hereabout the nitent 
 blocks of Carrara, or the soberer marble of Lucca ; 
 w8 have neither granite nor freestone ; but rounded 
 chalk -hills have we, and flints love the chalk-pit, 
 and the pits of Caversham are inexhaustible ; and 
 with our mortar, rubble, and flints, we have built 
 walls three fathoms thick, and have made an abbey 
 whicli will stand longer than your Italian temples, 
 built of stone and marble ; for time, that corrodes 
 and consumes other substances, makes our cement 
 the harder and stronger. Somewhat rough are 
 they on the outside, like the character of our na- 
 tion ; but they are compact and sound within, and 
 not to be moved or shaken — no, scarcely by an 
 earthquake." 
 
 " 'Tis a substantial pile," quoth Torpietro. 
 " Balestra, nor catapult, nor manginall, nor the 
 mightiest battering-ram, will ever breach these 
 walls ; and therefore is the house safe against any 
 attack of war, and therefore will it stand, entire as 
 it now is, when a thousand years are gone." 
 
 '* Nay," said the abbat, " name not war : a 
 sacred place like this is not to be assaulted ; and 
 our good and brave King Stephen is now firmly 
 and rightfully seated, and we shall have no in- 
 testine trouble, "^""e have no fig-trees, or I would 
 quote to thee, Brother Torpietro, that passage 
 which saith .... Felix, my son, leave off throw- 
 ing flowers in the stream ; run unto the gate, and 
 see what is toward, for there be some who smite 
 upon the gate with unwonted violence, and it is 
 now past the curfew." 
 
 AYhen the abbat first spoke to me, I heard a 
 mighty rapping, which I had not heard before, or
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 13 
 
 had not heeded, being lost in a reverie as I 
 watched my coronals on their voyage towards 
 Sunning bridge ; but when his lordship spake to 
 me, I hurried across the narrow garden, and into 
 the house, and up to the outer gate, where I found 
 Humphrey, the old janitor, and none but he. 
 Humphrey had opened the w icket, and had closed 
 it again, before I came to the gate. '• Felix, thou 
 good boy of Sunning," said he unto me, " thou art 
 as nimble as the buck of the forest, and art ever 
 willing to make thy young limbs save the limbs 
 of an old man, so prithee take this corbel, and bear 
 it to my lord abbat's presence forthwith, and bear 
 it gently and with speed, for those who left it said 
 there was delicate stuff within, which must not be 
 shaken, but wliich must be opened by the lord 
 abbat right soon. So take it, good Felix, for 
 there is no lay-brother at hand, and the weight is 
 nought." 
 
 I took up the corbel gently under my left arm, 
 and began to stride with it to the abbat, down at 
 the Kennet banks. I was presently there, for 
 albeit the corbel was of some size, the weight 
 thereof was indeed as nothing. 
 
 '•' So, so," said my lord abbat, as he espied me 
 and my burthen, '• AVliat have we here?" 
 
 ^' Doubtless," said the then refectorarius, *• some 
 little donation from tlie faithful. Venison is not 
 as yet ; but lamb is in high perfection at this 
 season." 
 
 " Xay," quoth the coquinarius, ''from the shape 
 of the wicker, I think it is rather some sizeable 
 pike, sent down by our friends and brothers at 
 Parigbourne." 
 
 '• Bethinks me rather," said the lord abbat, 
 
 b3
 
 14 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 waving his right hand over the corbel (the jewels 
 and bright gold of his finger-rings glittering in the 
 young moon as he did it), " bethinks me rather 
 that it is a collation of simnels from our chaste 
 sisters the nuns of AVargrave, who ever and anon 
 do give a sign of life and love to us the Bene- 
 dictines of Heading Abbey. But open, Felix ! 
 cut the withies, and undo the basket-lid, and let us 
 see with our own eyes." 
 
 As my curiosity was now at the least as great as 
 that of any of my superiors in age and dignity, 
 I cut the slight bindings, and undid the corbel ; 
 and then there lay, uncovered and revealed to sight 
 — the most beautiful babe mine eyes ever beheld 
 withal ! 
 
 " Benedicamus !" said the lord abbat, gazing 
 and crossing himself. 
 
 " Miserere ! The Lord have mercy upon us ! 
 But what thing have v,e here ?" quoth the prior. 
 
 " 'Tis a marvellous pretty infant," said the 
 limner from Pisa, " and would do to paint for one 
 of the cherubim in the chapel of our Ladie." 
 
 " A marvellously pretty devil," said our then 
 sub-prior, a sourish man, and somewhat overmuch 
 given to suspicious and evil thoughts of his bro- 
 thers and neighbours : " What have we celiba- 
 tarians and Benedictines to do with little babies ? 
 I smell mischief here — mischief and irregularity. 
 Felix, what knowest thou of this corbel ? I hope 
 thou knowest not all too much ! But know all or 
 know nothing, why, oh boy, didst bring this ar- 
 canum into this reverend company ?" 
 
 " Father," said I, " 'twas Humphrey bade me 
 bring it, and for all the rest I know nothing ;" 
 and this being perfectly true, yet did I hold down
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 15 
 
 my head, for that I felt the blood all glowing in 
 my face, not knowing how or why it should be so. 
 
 '• Bid the janitor to our presence," said the lord 
 abbat. 
 
 Humphrey, who had nothing doubted that the 
 basket contained some creature comforts, such as 
 the faithful not unfrequently sent to our house, 
 soon appeared, and was not a little amazed to see 
 the amazement of the monks, and the high dis- 
 pleasure of the abbat ; for as age had somewhat 
 dimmed his sight, and as the last gleams of twi- 
 light were now dying away, the good janitor did 
 not perceive the sleeping babe. 
 
 " Humphrey," said the abbat, " what is this 
 thou hast sent us ? Tell me, in the name of the 
 saints, who gave thee this basket?" 
 
 As the abbat spoke the infant awoke from its 
 slumber, and began to cry out, and lay its arms 
 about, as if feeling for its nurse ; and hereat our 
 old janitor's wonderment being manifoldly in- 
 creased, he started back, and crossed himself, and 
 said, *' .Jesu Maria! Jesu Maria!" 
 
 '•' Say what thou hast to say," cried our sacrist ; 
 " my lord abbat would know who left this corbel 
 at the gate, and why thou didst take it in ?" 
 
 " But," said the old janitor, making that reve- 
 rence to his superiors which he was bounden to do, 
 " may I ask what it is that the corbel holds ?" 
 
 "A babe," said the prior. 
 
 " And of the feminine gender — to make the 
 matter worse," said the teacher of the Novices. 
 
 '' 'Tis witchcraft," said Humphrey — " 'tis nought 
 but witchcraft ! What Christian man, or woman 
 either, could ever think of sending a babe to the 
 monks of Readinof !"
 
 16 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 " But who sent the basket?" said the abbat. 
 
 " That know I not," said old Humphrey, still 
 crossing himself. 
 
 " Then who left it with thee ?" asked the saerist. 
 
 " Two serfs that I have seen at this house afore- 
 time," said Humphrey — " two honest-visaged churls, 
 who were out of breath when they came to the 
 wicket, and who went away to the westward so 
 soon as they had put the basket in my hands, and 
 told me to handle it gently, and carry it to my 
 lord abbat forthwith." 
 
 " And said they nothing more?" quotli the 
 prior. 
 
 " Yea, they did say there was delicate stuff 
 within." 
 
 " And what stuff didst thou think it was ?" said 
 the coquinarius. 
 
 " Verily something to eat or drink." 
 
 " Thou art stolid," said the sour sub-prior ; 
 *' thou art stolid, oh Humphrey, to take a corbel 
 from strange men. AYouldst know the serfs 
 again ?" 
 
 " I should know them again if I could but see 
 them again. Seen them I have aforetime. Whose 
 men they be I know not ; but I thought I had seen 
 them before bring gifts and offerings to our house ; 
 and it is not in my office to open anything that is 
 shut, except the convent-door ; and ill would it 
 have beseemed me to have been prying into a 
 basket left for my lord abbat." 
 
 " But said the churls nothing else?" asked the 
 abbat. '• Bethink thee, oh Humphrey ! said the 
 churls nought else ?" 
 
 '' Methinks that when I asked them whose men 
 they were, and who had sent this present, one of
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 17 
 
 tliem did make reply that my lord abbat would 
 know right well." 
 
 Here all our eyes were bent upon the good 
 abbat, who, to tell the truth, did look somewhat 
 conturbated. But when the head of our house had 
 recovered from this sudden emotion, he said to the 
 janitor, " AVere those the very words the man did 
 speak .^" 
 
 " The matter of the words Mas that," said Hum- 
 phrey ; " yet I do think the slaves subjoined that 
 if your lordship knew not who sent the gift, your 
 lordship would soon know right well. But as the 
 churl was walking away while he was speaking, 
 I cannot say that these were his ipsissima verba.'" 
 
 ^^ Janitor," quoth the abbat, '^ knowest thou 
 what festival of mother church it is we have cele- 
 brated this day?" 
 
 " The feast of the blessed Saint Edbert," re- 
 sponded Humphrey, with a genuflexion and an oro 
 pro nobis. 
 
 ^' Then from tliis day forward," quoth the lord 
 abbat, " take not and admit not within these gates 
 any donation or thing whatsoever from men that 
 thou knowest not, and that run from our door 
 instead of tarrying to refresh themselves in the 
 hospitium." 
 
 '• That last unwonted and unnatural fact," quoth 
 the cellarer, " ought to have warned thee, oh Hum- 
 phrey, that there was mischief in the corbel." 
 
 '' But," replied the janitor, ^' it was past the 
 time of even' prayer, nay, after supper-time ; and 
 they did place the basket in my hands, and vanish 
 away all in a minute, and I could not throw the 
 corbel after them, nor could I leave it outside the 
 gate. But mischief did I suspect none."
 
 18 A LEGEJ^D OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 Humphrey being dismissed, the elders of our 
 house debated what had best be done with the 
 child, which had not ceased crying all this while, 
 and which moved my heart to pity, for it was a 
 beautiful babe to look upon, and it seemed right 
 hungry, and witchcraft could there be none about 
 it ; for our sub-prior, who had adventured to take 
 it up in his arms, had espied a little golden cross 
 round its neck, and an Agnus Dei sewed to its 
 clothes. The lord abbat, whose heart was always 
 kind to man, woman, and child, nay, even unto the 
 beasts in the stable and field, and the hounds of 
 the chase, said that albeit it had been cast into a 
 wrong place, it was assuredly a sweet innocent 
 and most Christian-looking child, and that as the 
 hour was waxing very late, it would be well to 
 keep it in the house until the morrow morn. But 
 the sub-prior bade his lordship bethink himself of 
 the sex of the child, and of the rigid rule of our 
 order, which, in its strictest interpretation, would 
 seem to imply that nothing of the sex feminine 
 should ever abide by night within our cloisters. 
 " In spite of its cross and agnus," subjoined the 
 sour suspicious man, " I must opine that this 
 piping baby hath been sent hitJier by some secret 
 enemy, in order to bring down discredit and asper- 
 sions upon our community." 
 
 " But what, in the name of the Virgin, 
 wouldst have us do with the little innocent ?" said 
 the abbat. 
 
 " Peradventure," quoth the sub-prior, " it were 
 not badly done to set the brat afloat in its basket 
 down the Kennet into Thamesis. It may ground 
 among the rushes, and be found by the country 
 people, or it may "
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 19 
 
 " Brother," said the abbat, '• thy heart is wax- 
 ins;' as hard as the flint of our ^valls I I ^vould not 
 do that thing, or see it done, to escape all the 
 calumnies which all the evil tongues of England 
 could heap upon me." 
 
 " No, assuredly, nor would I," said the sub- 
 prior ; " for upon after-thought it doth appear that 
 the babe perchance might drown. Still, my lord 
 abbat, it is not well that it should stay where it is, 
 or that the town-folk of Heading should know that 
 it hath been brought to our door ; for they have too 
 many bad stories already, and some of them do 
 remember the wicked marrying priests of the days 
 of the Red King." 
 
 " True, oh sub-prior," quoth the lord abbat ; 
 " true and well-bethought. AVe must not, there- 
 fore, send the child into Reading town ; but I will 
 have it conveyed unto my good nephew at Caver- 
 sham, and his wife will have care of it until we 
 shall learn whose babe it is, and why so mysteri- 
 ously sent hither. There is gentle blood in those 
 veins ; this is no churl's child. I never saw a 
 more beautiful babe, and in my time I have bap- 
 tized many an earl's daughter, ay, and more than 
 one little princess. It must be a strange tale that 
 which shall explain how the mother could ever 
 part with such an infant. But it grows dark ; so. 
 Philip, take up the basket, and bear it straightway 
 and with all care and gentleness to Caversham ; 
 and Felix, do thou go with Philip, and salute my 
 kinsman in my name, and relate unto him the 
 strange and marvellous manner in which the basket 
 hath been brought into our house, and tell him I 
 will see him in the morning after service." 
 
 Philip was an honest lay-brother of the house,
 
 20 A LEGE^^D OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 and between him and me there had always been 
 much friendship ; for on my first coming to the 
 abbey, to be trained to religion and learning, he 
 had procuretl many little indulgences for me, and 
 had ofttimes taken me behind him on his horse 
 when he rode towards Sunning to look after a 
 farm which my lord abbat had near to that place. 
 He "Was a mirthful man, and so fond of talk, that 
 when he had not me riding behind him he usually 
 discoursed all the way with his horse. Kow he 
 took up the corbel Mith as much gentleness as a 
 lady's nurse, and we began to go on our way, the 
 dear child still piping and bewailing. The sub- 
 prior followed us to the gate to give Humphrey 
 the needful order to open, for at that hour the 
 janitor would not have allowed egress to any lay- 
 brother or novice. " Beshrew me," said old Hum- 
 phrey as the sub-prior withdrew, " but this found- 
 ling hath brought trouble upon me and sharp 
 words ; yet let me see its face, good Philip, for I 
 hear 'tis a Christian child, and a lovely." 
 
 Hereupon v/e took the basket into Humphrey's 
 cell by the gate, where a light was burning ; and 
 the janitor having peered in its face, vowed, as 
 others had done, that he had not seen so fair a 
 babe. '• 'Tis nine months old, at the very least,'' 
 said he ; '• and ye may tell by its shrill piping that 
 'tis a strong and healthy child. Mayhap it cries 
 for hunger ;" and at this timeous thought the old 
 janitor brought forth a little milk and honey and 
 gave it to the babe, who partook thereof, and then 
 smiled and dropped fast asleep. 
 
 VTe took the shortest path across the King's 
 Mead to Caversham bridge. As we walked along 
 Philip ceased not from talkino: about the child and
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 21 
 
 the unprecedented way in which it had been left 
 at the abbey. Being a man much given to specu- 
 lation and the putting of tliis thing and that toge- 
 ther, he made sundry surmises which I will not 
 repeat, for they touched the good lord abbat, and 
 the next morning proved that though very inge- 
 nious they had no foundation in truth. AY hen we 
 cam.e to the long wooden bridge, we found, as we 
 had expected, that part of it was raised, and that the 
 old man that levied the toll for the baron was fast 
 asleep. But our shouting soon roused the toll- 
 man, and he soon challenged us and lowered the 
 draw-bridge, though not without sundry expres- 
 sions of astonishment that two monks should be 
 abroad at so late an hour. When we told him 
 whither we were going, he bade us make haste, for 
 the lights were disappearing in the mansion, and 
 the family would soon be buried in sleep. He 
 then lowered the draw-bridge at the other end, and 
 we went on towards the hill side with hasty steps, 
 the only light visible in the mansion being one that 
 shone brightly through the casement of the south- 
 ern turret. 
 
 " Ralpho, the toll-man," said I, '"'must have 
 been more than half asleep, or assuredly he would 
 have asked what we were carrying in the basket at 
 this time o'night." 
 
 " May the babe have an extra blessing," quoth 
 Philip, " for that it sleeps on and did not wake on 
 the bridge ! A pretty tale would gossip Ralpho 
 have had to tell about us Benedictines if the Ijabe 
 had set up its piping on the bridge !" 
 
 The castellum or baronial mansion stood on the 
 top of Caversham hill at the point where that hill 
 is steepest ; the village lay at its feet, and the
 
 22 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 church then stood midway between the castle and 
 the village. We were soon at the edge of the dry- 
 moat ; but the draw -bridge was up, and we had to 
 shout and blow the cow-horn for some time before 
 we could make ourselves heard by any one within ; 
 and when the warder awoke and looked forth he 
 was in no good humour. But as v/e made our- 
 selves known, and told him that we came from the 
 lord abbat upon an occasion that brooked no delay, 
 he altered his tone ; and after telling us that though 
 bedward, he believed his lord and ladie were not 
 yet in bed, as he could see a light in their bovver 
 above, he lowered the dravz-bridge and unbarred 
 the Micket. That which Ralpho had omitted to 
 do on the bridge, the warder did under the gate- 
 way of the castle ; for, pointing to the basket, he 
 said, '• What have we here, brother Philip ? Gates 
 and sweetmeats for my lord and ladie? Ay, 
 Reading Abbey is famed for its confections !" 
 
 He had scarcely said the words when a noise 
 came from the basket which made him start back 
 and cross himself; for the dear child began to pipe 
 and scream, and much more loudly methought 
 that I had heard it do before. We, however, 
 stayed not to talk with the astonished warder ; for 
 a waiting-woman had come down from the southern 
 turret to inquire what was toward, and we fol- 
 lowed this good woman, who was still more aston- 
 ished than the warder, to the chamber where the 
 lord and ladie were. Sir Alain de Bohun was a 
 bountiful lord, ever kind of heart and gentle in 
 speech ; and the Ladie Alfgiva, his wife, de- 
 scended from the Saxon thanes who had once 
 owned and held all the country from Caversham 
 to Maple-Durham, was the gentlest, truest ladie.
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 23 
 
 and at this season one of the fairest that lived any- 
 where in Berkshire or Oxfordshire. Before hearing 
 the short tale we had to tell. Sir Alain vowed that 
 tlie little stranger was welcome, and that so sweet 
 a foundling should never want home or nurture 
 while he liad a roof-tree to sit under ; and the ladie 
 took the child in her arms, and kissed it, and 
 pacified it ; and before I had gotten half through 
 niy narration, and the message from my lord abbat, 
 the babe went to sleep on the ladle's bosom. Our 
 limner from Pisa ought to have seen that sight ; 
 for the Madonna and Child he did afterwards paint 
 for the chapel of our Ladie was not so beautiful 
 and tender a picture as that presented to mine eye 
 by the wife of Sir Alain de Bohun and our little 
 foundling. Much marvelled the gentle ladie at 
 the tale ; but her other feelings were stronger than 
 her curiosity and astonishment ; and she soon 
 withdrew to place the child with her own dear 
 children — a little boy some four or five years old, 
 and a little girl not many months older than the 
 stranger. Sir Alain gave to the lay-brother Philip 
 a piece of money, and to me a beaker of wine, and 
 so dismissed us with a right courteous message to 
 our abbat and his good and right reverend uncle. 
 
 The warder would have stayed us to explain 
 how it Mas that monks went about in the hours of 
 night with a babe in a basket ; but as he had a sharp 
 wit and a ribald tono^e, we forbore to answer his 
 questions, and recommending him to the saints that 
 keep watch by night, and telling him it was too 
 late for talk, we began to return rapidly by the 
 way we had come. As Ralpho let us across 
 Caversham bridge he bemoaned the hardness of 
 his life, and complained that Sir Alain put him to
 
 24 A LEGEND OF READIXG ABBET. 
 
 much unnecessary trouble in a time of peace and 
 tranquillity, when the bridge might very well be 
 left open by night and by day without fear of the 
 passage of foes. Alack ! before the next morning 
 dawned Ralpho was made to know that vSir Alain's 
 caution was very needful. Scarcely had Philip 
 and I gotten a rood from the bridge-end when that 
 honest lay-brother shouted '• Fire I Fire I a fire !" 
 and looking to the west, the sky behind the town 
 and hills of Reading seemed all in a blaze. The 
 voung moon had set ; but as we came to the King's 
 Mead our path was lighted by a glaring red light, 
 which seemed every instant to become stronger and 
 redder. " Eheu !" said Philip, who knew every 
 township better than I then knew my Litany ; 
 " Eheu I there is mischief afoot ! The flames 
 mount in the direction of Tilehurst and Sulham 
 and Charlton I More than one township is a- 
 burning !" 
 
 I looked down the river, and joyed to see that 
 there was no sign of conflagration at Sunning, and 
 returned thanks therefore to my patron saint. 
 
 AVe were now running across the mead as fast 
 as we could run ; but before we came to the abbey- 
 gate the alarm-bell rung out from the tower, and 
 a loud shouting and crying came from the town of 
 Reading, and the sounds of another alarm-bell from 
 Sir Alain's castellum at Caversham. 
 
 '• What can tliis mean?" said Philip. '• The two 
 serfs that brought the babe to our house came from 
 the westward, or did go back in that direction, or 
 so said old Humphrey. After twenty years and 
 more of a happy peace, is this land to be wasted 
 again by factions and civil war?" 
 
 Alas ! Philip liad said it ! This night Avit-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 25 
 
 nessed the beginning- of those troubles which car- 
 ried woe into every part of England, and which 
 ended not until sixteen long years had passed over 
 our heads, sending some of our brotherhood with 
 sorrow to the grave, and making others old men 
 before their time ; for, to say nothing of our per- 
 sonal sufferings and hazards, there was not one 
 among us but had a brother or a sister and friends 
 near and dear to him tortured or butchered in 
 these the worst wars that were ever waged in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 When we returned into the abbey we found that 
 the lord abbat had called up his men-at-arms, 
 and the three good knights who did military service 
 for the abbey in return for the lands they held ; 
 that one of these knights and divers of the men-at- 
 arms were mounting and about to go forth ; and 
 that tlie better conditioned of the town people of 
 Reading were already bringing their goods and 
 chattels to our house for protection ; for the walls 
 of the town had been allowed to fall into ruin 
 during the long and happy peace which Henricus 
 Primus had kept in the land, and our burghers had 
 almost wholly lost the art military. Some of these 
 men, who had been to the hills, said that the whole 
 country was on fire from Inglesfield to Tilehurst, 
 and from Tilehurst to Purley, which news de- 
 stroyed the hope our good abbat had been enter- 
 tainino' that the fire mi^ht be accidental and con- 
 fined to the thatch-covered houses of one tillage 
 or township. And, in very deed, by this time the 
 whole west seemed to be burning, and the welkin 
 to be overcast by smoke and flame, and a reflected 
 lurid and horrible light. The swift stream of the 
 Kennet looked as thouoh its waters had been trans-
 
 26 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 muted into red wine, and the broad Tliamesis 
 shined like a path of fire. jSTo eye closed for sleep 
 in the abbey that night ; and it was not until a full 
 hour after the scarcely perceptible dawn of day 
 that certain intellioi-ence was broug'ht us as to the 
 causes and parties which had thus beo-un to turn 
 our pleasant and fruitful land into a wilderness.
 
 ( 2- ) 
 
 II. 
 
 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 
 ±'itzhugh, of Purley, and Sir AYalter de Courcy, 
 from Inglesfield, arrived at the abbey, and de- 
 manded 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 Eeading 
 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 iyrnorant ; but after he had refreshed his in-
 
 28 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 ward 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 
 Heading, 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 un- 
 godly restless woman, the undutiful daughter of 
 our'late pious King Henry, whose body rests within 
 these walls — that presumptuous iMatilda, once Em- 
 press, but now nought l)ut 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 Henrj^ who appointed him 
 to be his successor, had not been elected with the 
 consent of the baronage, clergy, and people of Eng- 
 land, and confirmed in his lawful seat by our lord 
 the Pope ! Kow 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 toAvns and 
 castles, treacherously surprising the castles of
 
 A liEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 29 
 
 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 un- 
 dutiful child unto him, and had given him many 
 and grievous offences, and was by her sex disquali- 
 fied for the succession ; this Hugh Bigod, I say, 
 hath in the east seized Norwich Castle and lioisted 
 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 chil- 
 dren, 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, Whitecliurch, 
 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 
 
 c
 
 30 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 Alfred, was not at his home, but his fair 5'Oung 
 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 w hat good and tender keep- 
 ing ; and while he was doing this, Humphrey, our 
 old janitor, looking steadfastly at a churl who had
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 31 
 
 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, tlieir 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 ene- 
 mies 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 inter- 
 cepted 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 them- 
 selves 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 tran- 
 quillity. When Sir Ingelric had understood that 
 which had befallen, he had well nigh died of sud- 
 
 c2
 
 32 A LEGEND OF BEADING ABBEY. 
 
 den 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 1 
 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 conster- 
 nation 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 veiy 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 asy- 
 lum of the unhappy as well as the refugium pec- 
 catoriim .^ 
 
 "When Sir Ingelric had communed until the be-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 33 
 
 ginninoc of tierce with our lord abbat. and liad 
 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 knig-ht's 
 horse needed rest, and so he ordered a fresh steed 
 to be brought from his own stable. t02:ether with 
 his own quiet grey palfrey, telling the brethren 
 that he was minded to ride over to Cavershara 
 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. Domiyie. 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 sliould 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, ^^ ith our men- 
 at-arms, in the tower and turrets, with bows and 
 cross-bows ; for it may chance that those who re- 
 spect 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 mav 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 remem- 
 bered hov\-, 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
 
 34 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 cause of the church. It is not for a humble ser- 
 vant of mother church like me to decide whether 
 guch actions be altog-ether conformable to the 
 councils of tlie church and the canons therein pro- 
 pounded ; but this I do know, that tlie sword and 
 battle-axe have wrought their effects upon stub- 
 born and impenitent minds when our spiritual arms 
 had failed, ay, when the wicked had laughed to 
 scorn our interdicts and our very excommunica- 
 tions. But not to press further this casus con- 
 scientice, 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 Iluntercombe, but the rest tarried 
 with us. 
 
 " Remember," said the abbat, turning the head 
 of his palfrey, and addressing the town-folk and 
 the serfs, " remember well that ye be all true men 
 unto King Stephen !"
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 3o 
 
 The poor people made a very feeble essay to 
 shout " Long- live King Stephen !" and then prayed 
 that we would admit tliem in at the postern-gate 
 if the rebels came nearer ; which thing ^^ e did now 
 promise them to do. 
 
 The lord abbat and his party, riding away at a 
 hand 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 over- 
 came 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 pun-
 
 36 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 gent smell had scared them all away, as JEtna. and 
 Vesuve are said to do when they vomit their sul- 
 phureous 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, " Tlie Empress for Eng- 
 land ! 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 de- 
 serving 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 M^axing 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 skifls 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 37 
 
 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-hearteil man the mass-priest of 
 Caversham, and the latter hath a white Hag fas- 
 tened 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 I 
 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 
 
 c 3
 
 38 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 and sacrilegious sight. We shouted from our 
 tower and turrets, " O turpissi?ne I " 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 as- 
 sault of the holy city. But the prior's first ana- 
 thema 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 shed^ 
 ding 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 be- 
 ginning of the great wickedness ; and albeit im- 
 pious 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,
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 39 
 
 '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 per- 
 ceive 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 
 Eeadinor, 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 trans- 
 ported at tins, 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
 
 40 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 town-folk 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 bat- 
 talia 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 Em- 
 press'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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 41 
 
 this juncture, Sir Ingelric of liuntercombe, wlicse 
 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 un- 
 horsed, 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 horse- 
 men were now again close upon them, and therefore 
 did they spur their steeds and gallop madly past 
 some of the town-folk our prior had armed. Rings 
 still in my ear the horrible voice with which the
 
 42 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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, scream- 
 ing, " Where was thy mercy last night ! Die un- 
 confessed !" 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 oflTences 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 ham- 
 sockna ; that is to say, he could try all causes, im- 
 pose 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 juri>diction. All these 
 rights and privileges were granted to the abbat of 
 Reading Abbey in their fullest extent, with judicial
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 43 
 
 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 trou- 
 blesome 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 vindic- 
 tive 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.
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 111 
 
 Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe and the other 
 knights whose houses had been destroyed by the 
 so sudden onset of their enemies, regained posses- 
 sion of their lands ; and, in other parts of the king- 
 dom, Stephen, by force of arms, or by treaty, re- 
 covered nearly all the castles which had been taken 
 from him. Merciful was the soul of King Ste- 
 phen, 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 be- 
 yond 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 pros- 
 perously. When the Scots, and Gallowegians, 
 and Highlanders, and men of the Isles, burst into 
 Northumberland and advanced into Yorkshire,
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 45 
 
 Stephen was not tiiere; but the army that was 
 collected for him by Thurstan, my lord arch- 
 bishop of York, and that was commanded for him 
 in the field by Ranulph, my lord bishop of Dur- 
 ham, 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 Scot- 
 tish 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 everj^ where 
 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
 
 46 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 of these great lords withdrew to the strongest of 
 their castles, and renewed their correspondence 
 w4th the Earl of Gloucester. In these great straits, 
 and while Stephen was holding his court in Oxen- 
 ford, 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 imfortified manor-house 
 of a bishop could never have been a safe abiding 
 place, or have afforded any protection to the serfs 
 w4io 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
 
 p 
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 much money in temporalities, they did also raise 
 splendid edifices to the glorj^ 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 Lin- 
 coln 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 Ste- 
 phen, 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 where- 
 fore, but my heart is heavy ; but this I do know 
 for a surety, that I shall be of much the same ser- 
 vice at court as a fool in battle." At Oxenford
 
 48 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 the three bishops were received with a n:reat 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 Alex- 
 ander, 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 him- 
 self 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 dun- 
 geons 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 49 
 
 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 Malms- 
 bury and Sherborne, and that which he had en- 
 larged and strengthened at Sarum, and the mag- 
 nificent castle which Bishop Alexander had built 
 at Newark, together with other places of strength, 
 were taken possession of by tlie 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 affec- 
 tion the garrison and the people of the neighbour- 
 ing countr}^ 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 ail. If a 
 man starve himself, he is guilty of the worst and 
 most unnatural species of suicide ; and if a man
 
 50 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 Rpger 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 Lin- 
 coln, 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 im- 
 plored 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 there-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 51 
 
 upon Bishop Roofer 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 ^Vinchester, 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 Ste- 
 phen would not attend personaliter, but he sent 
 unto Winchester that Sir Alberic de Yere 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 r-estitu- 
 tiou 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 
 knig'hts with him drawinof 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
 
 52 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 money which he had saved from the king's rapacity, 
 which lie 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 thou- 
 sand 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 Ma- 
 tilda 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 hun- 
 dred and forty knights ; and the two nephews of 
 the late Bishop Koger 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 Con- 
 queror, 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. Ste-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. o3 
 
 phen was now thrown into a dung-eon in Bristowe 
 Castle, and Lis brother the Bishop of Wincliester 
 and legatus acknowledged the right and title of 
 the empress, and led her in triumph to his cathe- 
 dral church at Winchester, and there blessed a.li 
 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 cliurchmen, to whom 
 it chiefly belongs to elect kings and ordain tlieni, 
 did elect Matilda to fill the place which Stephen's 
 demerits had vacated. Yet some of tlie clergy 
 there were who did not tliink that they could be 
 so easily discharged of the oaths they had taken 
 unto Stephen, or move so far in this matter with- 
 out a direct command from our lord the pope, and 
 many lords there were, as mcII of the laity as of the 
 clerg}^, who did not like Matilda the better for 
 knowing more of her. But not one felt more un- 
 happy at these clianges 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 obliga- 
 tions 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 consideratemeninthe 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 
 
 D
 
 54 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 we were sitting at dinner, tliere 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 be- 
 cause 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 Avere 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 Edv»'ard did inter- 
 pret 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-daj', and down with Matilda and up with Ste- 
 phen to-morrow ; just as they hope to gain by the 
 change. They will all find in the end that they 
 have miscalculated, but that Avill not heal tlie 
 v>'ounds that will have been infliicted on the country 
 through their selfish unsteadiness, and lack of prin- 
 ciple, 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 bo\Aeis of com- 
 passion for the people of this land. 'Tis true King 
 Stephen hath clone 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 cbe-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 55 
 
 dience 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 "Win- 
 chester 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 hon- 
 estest policy is aye the best, and meditate night 
 and day, and labour hard, in order to lessen the suf- 
 ferings of our poor vassals and dependants." 
 
 Grieves me to say that some of our house who 
 made many solemn protestations now, did not in 
 aftertime 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 ^^'as daily breaking more and 
 more, when the Empress Matilda passed through 
 Heading 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 Ma- 
 tilda, 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 Beau- 
 clerc 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 
 
 d2
 
 56 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 com- 
 ing, 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 enter- 
 tain 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 Nor- 
 mans — 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 fol- 
 lowed 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. jMaugre her hasty flight she had a coro- 
 net 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 coun^.
 
 A LEGEXD OF READING ABBEY. 57 
 
 tenance, bore a naked sword before her, and an- 
 other 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 bv enter- 
 taining within these walls the foul usurper Ste- 
 phen. 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 fosting 
 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 Kotre 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. Mho 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
 
 5S A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 pi'O- 
 cessionale, 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 7ne ! " 
 ' 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, JRex pads et leojus- 
 titice, 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 car- 
 rying ; nor lay any custom or subsidy, whether 
 for ship-money or tribute-money or for presents;
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 59 
 
 '' Oh abbat of the close fist," said Matilda, '• I 
 only want to borrow." 
 
 '• But Ave may not lend without full consent of 
 all our chapter monks in chapter assembled," quoth 
 the prior. 
 
 '•' And the foundation charter of Henricus Pri- 
 mus," said our abbat, '• recommends all the suc- 
 cessors of the said royal founder to observe the 
 charter as they wish for the divine favour and pre- 
 servation, 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 edsre of which there M'as ever some brother 
 of the house telling his beads and praying for the 
 defunct king, the fomider 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 tlie em- 
 press-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 Italic — and in an instant 
 that dim sepulchral place was flooded with light, 
 the convero'ing^ ravs meetinor and shining" briohtest 
 upon the black slab and the graven epitaph which 
 began with the proud titles of the Beauclerc king,
 
 60 A LEGEND OF EEADIXG ABBEY. 
 
 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 ori- 
 son, of the shortest, and made some show of shed- 
 ding 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 devo- 
 tion : 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 v.as 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 '• vEternam'* 
 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 gi-and- 
 father 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 
 line day of June, well nigh upon the feast of St. 
 John, and she Avell might have ridden half way to 
 Oxenford before nightfall ; but she soon g-ave the 
 abbat to understand that she had no intention of 
 going so soon. Without blushing she did ask how 
 and ^vhere we monks could lodge her and her
 
 A LEGEJfD OF READING ABBEY. 61 
 
 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 ex- 
 ceeding great confusion. 
 
 " In truth, royal dame," said our lord abbat, 
 ^' it is against the rule of our order to lodge fe- 
 males 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 
 Konnan 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 
 
 D 3
 
 62 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 pre- 
 sence of most of the community, " Shaveling, I 
 am here, and Avill 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 ;
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 63 
 
 and that if this unseemly business should be put to 
 tlie 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. There- 
 fore 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 w^as 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
 
 64 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 com- 
 munity. 
 
 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 
 w ere 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 ex- 
 treme 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 oiu* church-bell told the midnight hour ; 
 yea, there Avas 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 66 
 
 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 
 thin OS meant.
 
 < 66 ) 
 
 IV. 
 
 From all ungodly guests libera 7ios I Although 
 thev had feasted so late at night, the people of the 
 empress did make an early call for a matutinal re- 
 fection ; and our good chamberlain and coquinarius 
 and cellarius were made to bestir themselves by 
 times, and sundry of our lay brothers and servitors, 
 to the great endangering of their souls, were made 
 to run with viands and drink into our lord abbat's 
 liall, and there wait upon the daughter of the 
 Beauclerc and her foreign black-eyed damsels, who 
 did shoot love-looks at them and discompose their 
 monastic sobriety and gravity by laying their hands 
 upon their sleeves and twitching their hoods for 
 this thing and that (for the young Jezebels spoke 
 no English), and by singing snatches of love songs 
 at them, even as the false syrens of old did unto 
 the wise Ulysses. Certes, the founder of our order, 
 the blessed Benedict, did know what he was a-doing 
 when he condemned and prohibited the resort of 
 women to our houses and their in-dwelling with 
 monks. Monks are mortal, and mortal flesh is 
 weak : et ne nos inducas in tentationem. 
 
 It was still an early hour, not much more than 
 half way between prima and tertia, when more 
 troubles came upon us. The two knights who had 
 been sent forth by the daughter of the Beauclerc
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 67 
 
 to make an espial into the condition of the country, 
 and to summon her friends unto her, returned to 
 our gate with a large company of knights and men- 
 at-arm.-?, and demanded to be readmitted. Our 
 good abbat, calling together the fathers of the house, 
 held counsel with them ; and it was agreed that to 
 admit so great a company of men of war would be 
 joerilous to our community ; and even our bellicose 
 prior did opine that our people would be too few to 
 protect the abbey if these men without should be 
 joined to those the empress had within. It w^as 
 our prior who addressed that great company from 
 the porter's window over the gateway, telling them 
 that the two knights who had come from London 
 with the empress might be readmitted, but that our 
 doors would not be unbarred even unto them unless 
 the rest of that armed host went to a distance into 
 the King's Mead. Hereat there arose a loud cla- 
 mour from those knights and men-at-arms, with 
 great reproaches and threats. Yea, one of those 
 knights, Sir Richard a Chambre, who was in after 
 time known for a most faithless man, and a variable, 
 changing sides as often as the moon doth change 
 her face, did call our lord abbat apostate monk 
 and traitor, and did threaten our good house with 
 storm and spoliation. The major part of us had 
 gathered in front of the house to see and hear what 
 ■was passing; but, alack ! we were soon made to run 
 towards the back of the abbey, for while Sir 
 Richard a Chambre was discoursing in this un- 
 seemly strain, and shaking his mailed fist at the 
 iron bars through which he could scantly see the 
 tip of our prior's nose, a knight on foot, who wore 
 black mail and a black plume in his casque, and who 
 never raised his visor and scarce spoke word after
 
 68 A LEGEND OF BEADING ABBEY. 
 
 these few, came running round the eastern angle 
 of the abbey walls, shouting " 'Tis open ! 'tis ours ! 
 Win in, in the name of Matilda!" The voice that 
 said these few words seemed to not a few of us to 
 have been heard before, but we had no time to 
 think of that. The armed host set up a shout, and 
 ran round for our postern gate, which openeth upon 
 the Kennet, and we all began to run for the same, 
 our lord abbat wringing his hands, and saying 
 " The postern ! the postern ! some traitor hath 
 betrayed us !" 
 
 Kow our postern was secured by two great locks 
 of rare strength and ingenuity of workmanship, 
 and the keys thereof were not intrusted to the 
 portarius, but were always kept by the sub-prior, 
 and without these kej's there was no undoing the 
 door either from within or from without. As he 
 ran from the great gateway, I heard our prior say 
 in an angry voice unto the sub-prior, " Brother 
 Hildebrand, how is this ? Where be the keys ?" 
 And I heard the sub-prior make response, " On 
 my soul, I know not how it is, but verily the keys 
 I did leave under the pallet in my cell." 
 
 When we came into the paved quadrangle, we 
 found some of our retainers hastily putting on their 
 armour ; but when we came into the garden, we 
 found it thronged with men already armed, and we 
 saw the postern wide open and many more warriors 
 rushing in through it : the evil men who had stayed 
 with the queen, and who had so much abused our 
 hospitality, had already joined the new comers, and 
 the united and still increasing force was so great 
 that we could not hope to expel them and save our 
 house from robbery and profanation. Our very 
 prior smote his breast in despair. But our good
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 69 
 
 abbat, though of a less bellicose humour, had no 
 fear of the profane intruders, for he stood up in the 
 midst of them and upbraided them roundly, and 
 threatened to lay an interdict upon them all for the 
 thing that they were doing. But anon the empress 
 herself came forth with one that waved a flag over 
 her head, and at sight hereof the sinful men set up 
 a shouting and fell to a kissing, some the flag, 
 which was but a small and soiled thing, and some — 
 on their knees — the hand of the Beauclerc's daugh- 
 ter; and while this was passing, those foreign 
 damsels came salting and skipping, and clapping- 
 their hands and talking Anjou French, into the 
 garden. There was one of them attired in a short 
 green kirtle that had the smallest and prettiest feet, 
 and the largest and blackest eyes, and the longest 
 and blackest eyelashes, and the laughingest face, 
 that ever man did behold in these parts of the 
 world ; and she danced near to me on those tiny- 
 pretty feet, and glanced at me such glances from 
 those black eyes, that my heart thumped against 
 my ribs ; but the saints gave me strength and pro- 
 tection, and I pulled my hood over my eyes and 
 fell to telling my beads, and thus, when others were 
 backsliders, I, Felix the novice, was enabled to 
 stand steadfast in my faith. 
 
 The empress had taken no heed of our lord 
 abbat, or of any of us ; but when she had done 
 welcoming the knights that came to do her service, 
 and, imprimis, to escort her on her way to Oxen- 
 ford, she turned unto the abbat and said, " Monk, 
 thou art too weak to cope with a queen, the 
 daughter of a king, the widow of an emperor, and 
 one from whom many kings will spring. But by 
 thy perversity, which Ave think amounts to treason.
 
 70 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 tliou hast incurred the penalty of deprivation ; and 
 when M'e have time for such matters, or at the very- 
 next meeting of a synod of bishops and abbats, I 
 will see that thou art both deprived and im- 
 prisoned." 
 
 '' That synod," said our abbat very mildly, 
 ^' will not sit so soon, and from any synod I can 
 appeal to his holiness the Pope." 
 
 •• Fool !" quoth Matilda, with the ugliest curl 
 of the lip I ever beheld ; " obstinate fool ! the 
 Pope's legate is our well-beloved subject and friend 
 the Bishop of Winchester." 
 
 '* See that you keep his allegiance ! He hath 
 put you upon a throne, and can pull you down 
 therefrom ! " So spake our prior, who could not 
 stomach the irreverent treatment the Countess of 
 Anjou put upon his superior, and who knew that 
 Matilda had in various ways broken her compact 
 with him, and done deeds highly displeasing to 
 King Stephen's brother, the tough-hearted Bishop 
 of Winchester. 
 
 '•' Beshrew me!" quoth Matilda; "but these 
 Reading monks be proud of stomach and rebellious ! 
 Sir Walleren of Mantes, drive them into their 
 churcli, and see that they quit it not while we 
 tarry here." 
 
 " I will," said the foreign knight ; '' and also 
 will I see that they do sing the Salve, Hegina," 
 
 And this Sir Vralleren and other un knightly 
 knights drew their swords and called up their re- 
 tainers ; and before this ungodly host the abbat 
 and prior and the monks were all compelled to 
 retreat into the church, leaving the whole range of 
 the abbey to those mIio had so unrighteously in- 
 vaded it. But as soon as we were in the choir,
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 71 
 
 instead of singing a Salve, Regina, we did chant 
 In te, Domine, speravi. 
 
 A strong guard was put at the church-door and 
 in the cloisters ; but it was not needed, as we could 
 oppose no resistance to those who were now rob- 
 bing our house ; and as it had been determined 
 therefore that all who had come into the church 
 should remain, with psalmody and prayer, until 
 these men of violence should take their departure 
 from the abbey, or complete their wickedness by 
 driving us from it. As they ransacked our house, 
 as though it had been a castle taken by storm, and 
 as they shouted and made such loud noises as 
 soldiers use when a castle or a town hath been 
 successfully stormed, we only chanted the louder 
 in the choir. For full two hours did these par- 
 tisans of Matilda ransack the abbey, with none to 
 say them nay. At the end of tliat time, when they 
 had gotten all that they considered worth taking, 
 that ill-visaged knight Sir Walleren of Mantes 
 came to the church-door, and called forth the 
 abbat and prior, saying that the queen would 
 speak with them before she went, and give them a 
 lesson which they might remember. Though thrice 
 summoned in the name of the queen, the heads of 
 our house did not move, nor would they have gone 
 forth at all if the fierce Sir "NYalleren aforesaid had 
 not sent in a score of pikes to drive them, or prick 
 them from their seats. Nay, even then, the prior 
 would have run not unto the door, but unto the 
 altar ; but the good abbat, fearing that God's 
 house might be desecrated by blood, took the prior 
 by the sleeve, and whispered a few^ soothing words 
 to him, and so led him out into the cloisters ; and 
 tlien all we who had been driven into the church
 
 72 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 followed the abbat and the prior, and went to the 
 quadrangle, where was the queen on horseback, 
 mounted on the lord abbat's own grey palfrey, 
 which had been stolen from the stable, together 
 with every horse and mule that our community 
 j)ossessed. It was a sad sight ; and the lord abbat's 
 master of the horse and his palfrey -keeper were 
 wringing their hands at it. Our good cattle, save 
 and except the lord abbat's palfrey and a fine war- 
 horse which had appertained to one of our knights, 
 but which was now mounted by that silent knight 
 in the black mail, who never raised his visor, were 
 loaded with the spoils of our own house, to wit, the 
 coined money taken out of our mint, provisions, 
 corn, Avine, raiment, and goodly furnishings. The 
 masked knight had a plain shield^ carried by his 
 page, and no cognizance wherebj^ he might be 
 known : he held in his hand one of the queen's 
 reins, and by his gestures, and his constant looking 
 to the great gate of our house, which was now 
 thrown wide open, he seemed very eager to be 
 gone. As our lord abbat, with his hand still 
 upon the prior's sleeve, came through the crowd 
 and nigh to the space where Matilda sat upon his 
 own palfrey, she first frowned upon him and then 
 laughed at him, and between laughing and frown- 
 ing said — '• Oh abbat that shalt not be abbat long, 
 thou hast comported thyself like a traitor and a 
 very churl in stinting thy queen of that which she 
 needed, in begrudging hospitality to these fair 
 damsels, and in barring thy doors against these my 
 gallant knights and faithful people. For this 
 have we, for the present, relieved thy house of 
 some of its superfluous stuff. It is not well that 
 disloyal monks be so well supplied and furnished.
 
 A LEGEND OF READIJfG ABBEY. 73 
 
 when a queen, and noble ladies, and high-born 
 knights be unprovided and bare, and forced by- 
 treasons foul to flee from place to place as if they 
 were accursed Israelites. Light meals are fol- 
 lowed by light digestion, and abstinence is favour- 
 able to prayer and devotion. Yet have we taken 
 nothing from ye, O monks, but what is rightfully 
 ours, or was given ye by my father of thrice glo- 
 rious memory." 
 
 " Oh Empress, or Countess of Anjou, or Queen 
 of England, if so must be, the deeds which have 
 been done in this holy liouse, built and endowed 
 by thy father for the expiation of his sins, will make 
 the bones of thy father turn in his grave, and will 
 bring down a curse upon the heads of thee and thy 
 party. Bethink thee, and repent while it is yet time! 
 Thy father, the father of his people and the peace 
 of Iiis country. Pax patricE, gentisque suce Pater ^ 
 did for the good of his own soul found this abbey, 
 and endov/ it with the town and manor of Reading, 
 and Avith all the lands which had aforetime be- 
 longed to the nunnery of Reading and the monas- 
 teries of Cholsey and Leominster (which houses 
 had been destroyed in our old wars), and he did 
 make it one of the royal mitred abbeys, and did 
 give the lord abbat privilege to coin his own 
 money, by having a mint and mintmaster. Other 
 donations did he make, and other privileges and 
 honours did he confer upon our community. And 
 hath not our lord the pope by a special Ijull con- 
 firmed and sanctified this Ivingly grant, and taken 
 our house, with all its possessions and appur- 
 tenances, to wit, lands cultivated and uncultivated, 
 its manors, meadows, woods, pastures, mills, 
 fisheries, and all other, under the protection of the
 
 74 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 holy Eoman see? And hath not his holiness 
 decreed that none are to disturb our house, or to 
 lay an impious hand on our possessions, or to 
 keep, or diminish the same, or in any other way 
 give us trouble ; but that all that we have and 
 hold is to be kept under the government of the 
 monks, and for the pious uses for which it was 
 given ? And in the same bull hath not the pope 
 blessed those who keep this commandment, and 
 cursed those who in any way break it ? Unless 
 thou makest restitution thou wilt be denied the 
 viaticum on thy death-bed — et a sacratissimo cor- 
 2iore et sanguine Dei et Domini nostri aliena 
 
 fatr 
 
 At these words spoken, the countess did some- 
 what tremble on the palfrey, and turn pale ; but 
 one of her wicked advisers from beyond sea said 
 that she did but borrow, and would make resti- 
 tution at the fitting time, and that we, being so 
 rich, could well spare some of our substance. 
 
 Our treasurer, who would not deign to speak to 
 this foreign marauder, said to the countess, " Oh, 
 ill-advised ladie, we be none so rich, and much is 
 expected from us. By thy father's endowment 
 full two hundred monks are to be kept for aye in 
 this his royal abbey, and we be as yet scantly more 
 than one hundred and two score. Also do the 
 good people that we have drawn to this township 
 of Reading look to us for present employment and 
 support ; and herein have we much laboured, for 
 the good of the realm, and the happiness of the 
 commoner sort. In the days of thy grandfather, 
 the dread Conqueror of this kingdom, when the 
 Domesday-book was made, Reading had only 
 twenty-nine houses; but now look abroad, and
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 75 
 
 see how new houses have risen, and men have 
 increased under the shadow of our peaceful walls." 
 
 " There will be woe and want among that 
 industrious people," said abbat Edward, " if thou 
 carriest away from us this great spoil, and all the 
 money that we have minted I The curse of the 
 poor, which is tlie next terriblest thing to the 
 curse of God and holy church, will cling to thee, 
 oh countess, or queen ! Look to it, oh Matilda ! 
 I see the crown already dropping from thy head." 
 
 *' This is treason !" said the silent knight with 
 his visor down, in a voice which made all of us 
 start, for it sounded like that of one who had lately 
 been our fast friend. 
 
 Matilda, rising in her saddle, with glaring eyes 
 and reddened cheek, said, ''And I, rebel monk, 
 do see the mitre falling from thy head. Thou wilt 
 not be abbot of Heading this time next month." 
 
 '^ Fiat Tohmtas, let the Mill of God be done," 
 replied our lord abbat. 
 
 '• And now," quoth the violent daughter of the 
 Beauclerc, '•' let us ride on our way for Oxenford. 
 Methinks we be now strong enough to defy all 
 traitors on the road." And she struck with her 
 riding-wand the grey palfrey, which it much 
 grieved our abbat to lose, and followed by her 
 knights and her leering and laughing foreign 
 damsels, she rode out at our gate, and with a great 
 host departed from Reading. 
 
 Wien the evil-doers were all gone we made fast 
 our doors, and proceeded to examine the condition 
 of our house and its community. They had com- 
 pletely emptied the buttery, the store-house, the 
 granary, the wine-cellar ; they had so stripped the 
 lord abbat's house and the lodging of the prior that
 
 76 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 there was nothing left in them save the tables and 
 <jhairs, the mats and rushes ; they had broken open 
 both treasury and sacristy, and had stolen thence 
 all our most precious relics, and all our gold and 
 silver vessels, and all our portable pictures and 
 crucifixes ; they had not left us so much as a 
 patera, a chalice, or an encensoire ; they had even 
 laid their impious thievish hands upon the silver 
 lamp which had been used to burn day and night 
 at the head of the Beauclerc's tomb, and they had 
 carried off with them the Agnus Dei and the 
 jewelled cross which Henricus Primus had worn 
 for many years of his life, and which, at his order, 
 had been laid upon his tomb. That silver lamp 
 had been sent to the abbey by Queen Adelise, the 
 Beauclerc's second and surviving wife, who, on 
 the first anniversary of the Beauclerc's death, gave 
 us the manor of Aston in Hertfordshire, offering a 
 pall upon the altar in confirmation of the grant ; 
 and who likewise gave us the land of Reginald, 
 the Forester, at Stanton-Harcourt, nigh unto Oxen- 
 ford, and afterwards the patronage and revenues 
 of the church of Stanton-Harcourt, to supply the 
 cost of the silver lamp, Avhich she herself did order 
 should burn continually before the pix and the 
 tomb of her late husband. Yet Matilda and her 
 plundering band had carried off this precious 
 cresset — and long did they prevent us getting any 
 rent or revenues from the lands which Queen 
 Adelise had granted us. Not the most recondite 
 and secret part of our house had escaped their 
 search. Much did we marvel at this, until, call- 
 ing over the roll, we found that three members of 
 our community did not answer to their names. 
 The three missing were, two novices, to wit, young
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEl'. 77 
 
 Urswick, the Avhite-headed, from Pangbourne, and 
 John Blount from Maple-Durham, and one full 
 monk, to wit, Father Anselm, of Korman birth, 
 who had but lately taken the vows, but who had 
 been much employed by our treasurer in offices of 
 trust. The two novices (may their souls be as- 
 soiled !) had been wiled away by those young 
 Jezebels, and had put on warlike harness, and had 
 gone with Matilda to serve her as men-at-arms : 
 Father Anselm, being a well-favoured man, had 
 found favour in the sight of the Countess of 
 Anjou, and had gone with her to be her mass- 
 priest, and to aim at some vacant bishopric or 
 abbey. Well had it been for us if he had never 
 come back to Reading. Heavy suspicions had 
 fallen upon our sub-prior Hildebrand, touching 
 the postern gate ; but it was ascertained upon in- 
 quiry, that Urswick, the white-headed, who had 
 been wont to wait upon the sub-prior, did, at the 
 bidding of Matilda, or of one of her damsels, steal 
 the keys and undo the door. 
 
 Besides the three deserters from our own body, 
 we found that divers of our armed retainers had 
 taken service with the errant countess, and had 
 gone away with her with their arms and horses ; 
 and that even one of our knights, who did service 
 for the lands of the abbey he held, had forgotten 
 his bounden duty and his honour in a sudden fan- 
 tastic affection for a pair of black eyes. 
 
 We were bemoaning our losses, and our exceed- 
 ing great calamity and disgrace, and wondering 
 where we should get a dinner, when, some three 
 hours after the departure of Matilda, and the host 
 that followed her standard, another oreat body of 
 horse and foot, bearing the bainier of King Stephen, 
 
 E
 
 7^ A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 marclied towards our gates, demanding meat and 
 drink, and vowing, with many soldier-like profane- 
 oaths, that they would burn and destroy all such' 
 as were not for Stephen. The new alarm thus; 
 created was, however, but short, for some noble- 
 barons and knights, who had been riding in the- 
 rear, came spurring up to the van, which was now- 
 halting in the Falbury, and among these we saw, 
 with his vizor down, that right noble lord Sir 
 Alain de Bohun, Lord of Cavershani and the 
 well-beloved nephew of our lord abbat, whose 
 sad heart was much rejoiced at his so sudden ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 '• Be it King Stephen or Queen Matilda," said 
 the abbat, " let us throw open our gates to our 
 well-beloved nephew, for he will not see harm 
 done to us, and now, verily, we have nothing to 
 lose but lives not worth the taking.*' And the 
 gates were thrown open, and Sir Alain vras wel- 
 comed and affectionately greeted by his uncle ; and 
 after many expressions of astonishment and indig- 
 nation at the wrongs which had been done usy 
 Sir Alain and divers of the lords and knights with 
 him retired for a space to the lord abbat's de- 
 spoiled and naked apartment, with the lord 
 abbat and our prior, and some other fathers. I 
 was not of that council, being but a novice, nor 
 can I say it that I ever learned in after times all 
 that was said in it ; but I do know that when it 
 was finished (and it lasted not long) the prior came 
 forth with a very confident countenance, and told 
 us all that the Bishop of Winchester, the pope's 
 Legatus a latere, had changed sides, that Stephen 
 of Blois was still King Stephen, and that we must 
 sing a Te Deum laudamus for that same. And
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 79 
 
 we all went forthwith into our church, and the 
 barons and knights went in after us, and we ad- 
 mitted as many as the church would hold of those 
 men-at-arms, and bill-men and bow-men, that had 
 halted in the Falbury with King Stephen's banner, 
 and albeit we were hungry and faint, we sang the 
 Te Deiun for Stephen with sonorous voices. 
 
 Sir Alain de Bohun, one of the very few lords 
 of England that never changed sides during these 
 nineteen years of revolutions and wars, had fought 
 bravely for King Stephen in the great battle at 
 Lincoln, where other barons and knights had de- 
 serted with all their forces to Matilda's illegitimate 
 brother and commander the Earl of Gloucester ; 
 and after Stephen had been taken prisoner (not 
 until both his sword and battle-axe had been 
 broken). Sir Alain had escaped from the field and 
 had joined one of the many leagues of nobles who 
 vowed never to submit to the distaff, or allow the 
 Countess of Anjou to be Queen of England. In 
 the five months which had passed since the battle 
 of Lincoln, Sir Alain had fought in sundry other 
 battles, and had given heart to many a knight, 
 who, after the synod of Winchester, had despaired 
 of the cause of King Stephen. He had appeared 
 with a good body of horse, and the standard of 
 Stephen, on the southern side of Thamesis, opposite 
 the city of London, and his appearance had en- 
 couraged the citizens to rise and drive out Ma- 
 tilda. And the day before, appearing in the suburb 
 of London, Sir Alain de Bohun had been at Guild- 
 ford, and had there conferred with Stephen's 
 queen, the good Maud, and also with Stephen's 
 brother, the Bishop of Winchester, who did already 
 repent him of that which he had done in synod. 
 
 e2
 
 80 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. ' 
 
 But that the bishop had met either Queen Maud 
 or Sir Alain was for the present kept secret. 
 
 The Lord of Caversham and his friends had 
 crossed the river, and entered London city -within 
 an hour of Matilda's flight. Having toiled far 
 that same day, the horses of the king's party were 
 weary, and could not give pursuit ; but after short 
 rest they followed the flying queen along the great 
 road which leads to the westernmost parts of our 
 island. Jesu Maria ! had they come unto Eeading 
 a few hours sooner, before the arrival of that bat- 
 talia which the two knights Matilda had sent forth 
 from our abbey had collected, the violent woman 
 miglit have been made prisoner, and our house 
 have been saved from plunder. But now the 
 horses of King Stephen's friends were again 
 aweary, and thougli Sir Alain and the noble 
 barons with him were stronger in foot soldiers, 
 they were much weaker in horse than the host 
 which had left Reading with the countess, Avho, 
 upon these sundry considerations, and for that she 
 had been gone more than two hours, was let go on 
 her road to Oxenford without pursuit. 
 
 The burghers of Reading who had endeavoured 
 to save themselves from plunder and violence by 
 throwing up their caps and shouting for the errant 
 queen, but who had been plundered and beaten all 
 the same (nay, divers of them were wounded by 
 sword and lance, and cruelly maimed), now came 
 to our abbey-gates, making their throats hoarse 
 with shouting for King Steplien and the good and 
 gracious Lord of Caversham ; and some of the 
 richer franklins of the township and neighbour- 
 hood, who had escaped being plundered by Matilda's 
 party, upon learning the sad case in which m'C, the
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 81 
 
 monks, had been left, hastened to bring us meat 
 and drink. 
 
 Sir Alain de Bohiin, who had not seen his wife 
 or his home for many a sad day, was about to ride 
 across tlie fields homeward, when his ladle's page 
 was seen running across the King's Mead towards 
 our abbey. 
 
 " Yonder comes one from Caversham," said Sir 
 Alain ; " and I read by his looks and his hurry 
 that he bringeth no good news !" 
 
 'Tear not," said the abbat, who saw that his 
 nephew's cheek was growing pale, " for the saints 
 have ever defended thy roof-tree, and as I told 
 thee before, the Ladie Alfgiva and the children 
 were as well as well could be at the hour of noon 
 of yesterday, when I did see them." 
 
 Nevertheless, the little page did bring bad news, 
 or tidings which much afflicted Sir Alain and our 
 lord abbat. There had been treachery at Caver- 
 sham, and a fast friend had played loose. That 
 sweet babe, the daughter of Sir Ingelric of Hun- 
 tercombe, who had caused our household so much 
 dismay four years agone, and had sent me and 
 Philip the lay-brother on the night-journey to Sir 
 Alain de Bohun's castle, had dwelt in that castle 
 ever since, and had been nurtured with all delicacy 
 and honour, like a child of the house. For a long 
 season Sir Ingelric, her father, had no safe home 
 unto which he could take her ; for since the begin- 
 ning of these unhappy wars, no house in England 
 could be called safe that was not moated and bat- 
 tlemented, and strongly garrisoned ; and if Sir 
 Ingelric had possessed a castellum, he had no gen- 
 tle dame unto whom he could confide his infant 
 female child. But the Ladie Alfgiva was as ten-
 
 S2 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 der as a mother to this babe, and this tenderness 
 became the greater -when death deprived her of her 
 own little daughter. Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, 
 who had taken vengeance on the destroyer of his 
 wife and home, Sir Jocelyn de Brienne, in the 
 Falbury almost at our abbey gates, seemed engaged 
 for life in a blood-feud with Sir Jocelyn's family 
 and friends, and to be for ever wedded to the 
 party of King Stephen by the strong ties of neces- 
 sity and revenge. Many w^ere the combats he had 
 fought between that time his house and wife were 
 burned, and the time when King Stephen prepared 
 for that campaign which had ended so disastrously 
 at Lincoln. During this long and busy interval 
 he went not often to Caversham, so that his child 
 grew up ^^■ith little knowledge of him. The little 
 Alice was wont to call Sir Alain de Bohun her 
 fe,ther, even as she called the Ladie Alfgiva mother. 
 Once or twice within the last twelve months Sir 
 Ingelric had said, that since his house was well 
 nigh rebuilt, he should have a safe bower for his 
 daughter, and that Alice must soon home with 
 him ; and each time he had said the words the 
 child had run from him to the Ladie Alfgiva, and 
 had clung round her neck, weeping and saying 
 that she would not leave her mother ; and her play- 
 mate and champion, that right gallant boy Arthur 
 de Bohun, the only son, and now the only child, of 
 Sir Alain, who was some four years older than 
 Alice, said that she must not leave him. It was 
 noticed upon these occasions, that although Sir 
 Ingelric began as in a jest, his countenance soon 
 grew dark and his voice harsh, and that he almost 
 shook his child when he took her on his knee and 
 told her that she must love her father, and must
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 83 
 
 not always be a burtlien unto other people. Nay, 
 the last time that he said these words he pressed 
 the little Alice's arm so violently that he left the 
 blackening marks of his fingers upon it. Other 
 things were noted as well by Sir Alain de Bohiin 
 as by the Ladie Alfgiva. It is not every man 
 that is chastened by calamity. Sir Ingelric's great 
 misfortune had made him fierce, proud, and re- 
 bellious to the will of Heaven ; and, in losing his 
 fair young wife, he had lost his best guide and 
 monitor. He became hard of heart, and grasping, 
 and covetous ; and as for more than three years the 
 party of King Stephen had been almost evevj- 
 where victorious, he had abundant opportunities of 
 satisfying his appetite for havoc and booty. But 
 the more he gained the more he Avished to get, 
 and by degrees he gave up his whole soul to ava- 
 rice and ambition. Sir Alain de Bohun, who 
 looked for no advantage unto himself, who adhered 
 to King Steplien out of loyalty and affection, and 
 who kept out of the horrible and unnatural warfare 
 as much as he thought his duty would allow him, 
 entertained apprehensions that his friend Sir In- 
 gelric loved the war for what he gained by it, and 
 would not be very steady to any losing party. Sir 
 Ingelric, however, had fought bravely for King 
 Stephen at Lincoln, and had there been taken 
 prisoner. But he had paid a ransom to his captor, 
 and had been some time at large, busied in putting 
 the finishing hand to the strong castle which he 
 had raised on his lands at Speen. Through the 
 di^tance was so short to Oaversham, he had not 
 gone once thither until the evening oiPthe unhappy 
 day on which the Countess of Anjou had come to 
 our abbey — that is, the evening of yesterday — but
 
 84 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 then he had told the Ladie Alfgiva that as the 
 weather was so fine and the country so tranquil 
 (alack ! the good people at Caversham had not 
 seen the arrival of Matilda and her young Jeze- 
 bels at our abbey), he would take the two children 
 forth for a walk in the meadows by the river side ; 
 and the false knight had gone forth with the 
 children, and neither lienor the children had since 
 been seen or heard of. As the little page came to 
 this point in his dismal story, not only our prior, 
 but several of us less entitled to speak in such a 
 presence, cried out, " That knight in the black 
 mail who kept his vizor down, and that went 
 away with the countess, was none other than Sir 
 Ingelric of Iluntercombe ;" and our abbot said, 
 *' Verily, the voice was that of Sir Ingelric !" 
 
 '' Woe for these changes !" said Sir Alain de 
 Bohun, " woe and shame upon them. If men have 
 no faith even m ith old friends — if men do shift 
 from side to side like the inconstant wind, this war 
 will never know an end, and truth, and honour, and 
 mercy will depart the land ! Sir Ingelric of 
 Iluntercombe ! I aided thee in thy wretchedness, 
 and King Stephen did afterwards hand thee on the 
 road to riches and greatness. I first gave thee 
 money and the labour of my serfs that thou mightest 
 re-edify thy house, but now thou hast built to thy- 
 self a strong castle, wherein thou thinkest thou 
 canst defy me, now thou believest the cause of 
 Stephen to be desperate, and therefore dost thou 
 raise thy hand against me, and steal away, like a 
 thief, not only the child that was thine ov/n, but 
 also mine only son, that the woman of Anjou may 
 have my dearest liostage in her povv-er. May God 
 of his mercy protect my dear boy ! But, oh Sir
 
 A LEGEND OF READIXG ABBEY. 85 
 
 Ingelric, thy treachery is ill-laid and ill-timed, 
 thy cunning is foolishness. Great things have hap- 
 pened since thou hast been castle-building, and 
 thou wilt find that thou hast quitted the stronger 
 for the weaker party. Hereafter Mill I make thee 
 pay, if not for thy black ingratitude to me, for thy 
 disloyalty to thy too bountiful king, and for the 
 tears my ladie wife will slied for her double loss !'* 
 
 Here moisture very like a tear stood in the eyes 
 of the Lord of Caversham : but grief g-ave way to 
 wrath as he said that the felon knight might have 
 taken his own child, which would long since have 
 been in its grave but for the Ladie Alfgiva, without 
 robbing him of his son. 
 
 Oar good abbat, who had his prophetic seasons, 
 said, '' Grieve not, my well-beloved nephew. The 
 two children will do well together, and thou wilt 
 soon have them restored to thy house : they were 
 born to be together and love one another, and so 
 will not be separated. Alice will repay thee here- 
 after for the ingratitude and treasons and other evil 
 doings of her father." 
 
 Here I, Felix the novice, and Philip the lay- 
 brother, who had carried little Alice from the 
 abbey unto Caversham, and who had loved the 
 child ever since, did say '• Amen ! amen I So be 
 it." 
 
 '* The children," said an honest franklin who 
 had stood by all the time of these discourses. '•' be 
 surely gone with the Countess of Anjou for Oxen- 
 ford ; as on the road beyond the town I saw a 
 blue-eyed boy riding before a man-at-arms, and a 
 little girl in the arms of a waiting-woman mIio rode 
 close to the countess on a piebald horse, and both 
 the children were crving piteously." 
 
 E 3
 
 86 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 " Then will we recover them at Oxenford," said 
 one of the knights. 
 
 Sir Alain de Bohun, with a part of the company 
 who had come with him, mounted for Caversham ; 
 and when Sir Alain began to ride, I could see that 
 he rode hotly and impatiently. The rest of the 
 knightly company we entertained in the abbey as 
 best we could, and lodged them for that night, 
 the good franklins having brought us in some clean 
 straw and rushes for that purpose. The commoner 
 sort slept in the open air on the Falbury, with their 
 weapons by their sides. 
 
 But before the troublous day was finished, other 
 dismal tidings and sights of woe were brought to 
 our house. John Appold and Ralph Wain, two 
 franklins whilome of good substance, who farmed 
 some of our outstanding abbey lands beyond Pang- 
 bourne, came to tell us that their houses had been 
 burned, their granaries emptied, and the plough- 
 hinds and shepherds and all the serfs driven away 
 by Matilda's people, w^ho had chained them toge- 
 ther by their iron neck-collars, and had goaded 
 them before them like cattle with the points of their 
 lances. And before these sad tales were well 
 ended. Will Shakeshaft, a faithful steward who 
 dwelt in a house our lord abbat had at Purley, 
 arrived on a maimed horse, and with a ghastly cut 
 across his face, to let us know that violence had 
 been done to his wife, and that that fair house had 
 been burned also. A little later there came three 
 of our poor serfs howling so that it was dreadful 
 to hear, and holding in the air their red and still 
 bleeding stumps. They had been amputated and 
 then liberated, in order that they might go forth 
 and show all the people what they had to expect if
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 87 
 
 ihey opposed or so much as forbore to aid and join 
 the empress-queen. As the night became dark, 
 we could trace the march of the countess by a line 
 of fire and smoke. Such were the things which 
 drove the poor people of England into impiety and 
 blasphemy, making them say that Christ and the 
 saints had fallen asleep ! And these things lasted 
 in the land for fifteen more years.
 
 V. 
 
 When baptized Christian men did steal the chil- 
 dren of other Christian men, yea, and torture and 
 slay them, no marvel was it that the unconverted 
 Israelites, who had been allowed to come into the 
 land in great numbers since the Norman conquest, 
 should do deeds of the like sort. So it was, that 
 in King Stephen's reign the rich Jews of Norwich 
 did buy a Christian child from its poor parents a 
 little before Easter, and on the Long Friday, when 
 the church was mourning for the crucifixion of our 
 Lord, they tortured him after the same manner as 
 our Lord was tortured, and did nail him on a rood 
 in mockery of our Saviour; and afterwards buried 
 him. These sacrilegious and cruel Jews thought 
 that their horrible crime would be concealed, but 
 it was revealed from above, and the people of Nor- 
 wich smote the Jews and tortured them as they 
 merited ; and the Lord showed that the Christian 
 child was a holy martyr : and the monks took him 
 and buried him with all honour and reverence in 
 Norwich Minster ; and he is called Saint William, 
 and through our Lord wonderful miracles are 
 wrought at his tomb even in our own day, and his 
 festival is kept with becoming solemnity on the 
 twenty-fifth of the kalends of March. 
 , Sad and sinful was it for Christian parents to
 
 A LEGEND OF READIXG ABBEY. 89 
 
 sell their children to Jew, or even to Gentile. Tlie 
 evil practice had once been common in England, 
 and in the port of Bristowe children were once sold 
 in great numbers to be carried into Ireland and 
 elsewhere ; but the church had put down the un- 
 natural traffic, and when King Stephen came to 
 the throne no freeman would have sold liis cliild. 
 But want and hunger now severed the natural tie, 
 and starving parents sold their starving children 
 rather than see them die before their eyes and they 
 unable to help them. Yea, frantic mothers would 
 give their infants from their dried-up breasts to 
 any strangers that would promise to nourish them. 
 Horresco repetens I I do shudder in the telling of 
 it, but so it was. Fair English children were 
 again sold to traffickers on the western coast, who 
 carried them into Ireland, and in such numbers 
 that the slave-market of the Irishry was all over- 
 stocked with them. In the happy and plentiful 
 days which now be in the land such things are 
 hard to believe ; but I, as a novice, did often see 
 them with mine own eyes, and the causes that led 
 tliereunto. Yea, have I seen the poor people of 
 England roaming by the wayside and eating gar- 
 bage which scarcely the fox or the foul birds of 
 the air would touch, rambling in the woods and 
 fields in search of roots and berries, ay, grazing 
 on the bank-side like cattle, or that great sinner 
 Nebuchadnezzar ; for flocks and herds were swept 
 away, and slaughtered, and wasted by the armed 
 bands that ever ranged the countiy, or were kept 
 penned up within the castles of the strong men — 
 those pestilent barons and knights that were now 
 for Matilda and now for Stephen, and always for 
 plunder and all crime, living and fattening upon
 
 90 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 great and bloody thievings — magna et sangiiineo- 
 lentia latrocinia : and the fields could not be cul- 
 tivated because of the continual passing and 
 repassing, and burning, and fighting, and slaying 
 of these armed hosts and bands of robbers, who 
 did worse than the heathen had ever done; for 
 after a time they spared neither church nor church- 
 yard, neither a bishop's land nor an abbat's land, 
 and not more the lands of a priest than the fields 
 of a franklin, but plundered both monks and 
 clerks ! And so it came to pass that nearly every 
 man that could, robbed another, and carried away 
 his wife or daughter, and did with her what he list. 
 If two men or three came riding to a town, all the 
 township fled, concluding them to be robbers. 
 Some of our bishops and learned men continually 
 did excommunicate them and curse them ; but the 
 effect thereof was nought, for they were one and 
 all accursed, and forsworn, and abandoned ; and 
 grieves me to say that too many bishops and 
 churchmen were men of violent and unsteady 
 councils and castle-builders themselves, waging 
 war like the lay lords, and being as void as they 
 of steadiness and loyalty, and mercy for the people. 
 Verily I myself have seen prelates clad in armour 
 and mounted on war-horses, even as at the time of 
 the Conquest, and in that guise directing the siege 
 or the attack, or drawing lots with the rest for the 
 booty. The strong men constantly laid gilds on 
 the towns, and called it by a Norman name which 
 signifyeth torture; and when the poor townfolk 
 had no more to give, then they plundered and 
 burned the towns; so that thou mightest go a 
 whole day's journey and never behold a man sit- 
 tinj? in a town or see afield that was tilled. To
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. ' 91 
 
 till the ground was as useless as to plough the sea, 
 for no man could hope to reap that which he 
 sowed. Thus the earth bare little or no corn ; 
 and bread became of a fearful dear price ; and 
 flesh, and cheese, and l^utter Avere there none for 
 the poor. Ay, franklins who had been rich men, 
 and who had kept good house and been bountiful 
 to the poor and to mother church, were seen beg- 
 ging alms on the road. Many of the poorest died 
 of ^hunger on a soil which God had blessed with 
 fertility, but which sinful men had turned into a 
 wilderness ; and many, going distraught, threw 
 themselves into the rivers, or hanged themselves in 
 the woods. This was greater woe than England 
 had witnessed during the long wars of the Norman 
 conquest ; and it was in this abyss of misery that 
 fathers and mothers sold their children. 
 
 On the morning after his going to Caversham 
 Sir Alain de Bohun returned unto our house with 
 the knights who had gone with him ; and before it 
 was time to begin the service of tertia in the 
 church, he and all the company, as well foot as 
 horse, marched away to the north-west. They in- 
 tended for Oxenford, but did not take the direct 
 road ; for they had learned from scouts that Ma- 
 tilda's party had been strengthened by some bands 
 from the eastward, and Sir Alain and his friends 
 hoped to get an increase of strength in the west- 
 ward before they turned round upon the countess. 
 But while the partisans of King Stephen were 
 marching to the westward and gaining great 
 strength on the borders of Wiltshire, the Countess 
 of Anjou suddenly decamped from Oxenford and 
 began a march for AYinchester, for she had at 
 length conceived suspicion and alarm at the con-
 
 92 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 duct of the Bishop of Winchester, the king's 
 brother, and our lord the pope's legate. Intending 
 to pass through Berkshire into Hampshire and unto 
 Winchester, she took her course by Cumnor, 
 Abingdon, and Wallingford. The news of her 
 approach was a death-blow to our good abbat. He 
 liad been for some time past declining. He could 
 not away with the thought of Matilda's evil doings 
 unto our house. Being a man formerly addicted 
 to hospitality, good company, cheerful conversa- 
 tion, music, and innocent mirth, he was observed 
 to forsake all this with much melancholy and pen- 
 siveness. and so to droop and pine away ; but yet 
 w^as it the news of the countess's coming that gave 
 the finishing stroke. Eheu ! and Miserrimus ! A 
 better monk or a nobler lord abbat was never slain 
 by princely violence and the wickedness of excom- 
 municate men. He was at Sir Alain de Bohun's 
 castle, and I and Philip the lay-brother were in 
 attendance upon him when our scouts brought the 
 intelligence that Matilda was at Abingdon with 
 the heads of her columns pointing along the road 
 towards Heading. The good, kindhearted man had 
 gone to Caversham in order to console the Ladie 
 Alfgiva, whom he found, like Rachel, mourning for 
 her children, yet not mourning like one that would 
 not be comforted. But comfortless and sad was 
 the face of our lord abbat when he gave his niece 
 the parting blessing, and warned her to look well 
 to her castle, and bade the warder to keep close 
 the gates, and not admit so much as a strange dog 
 within the walls. There had been a slow fever in 
 his veins ever since the bad visit of the Angevin 
 countess, and now his limbs shook and his eyes 
 seemed to swim in his head, and he had much ado
 
 A LEGEND OF HEADING ABBEY. 95 
 
 to mount the rougli upland horse which had been 
 procured for him in lieu of his gentle-paced palfrey. 
 " Felix, my boy," said he unto me as we descended 
 the slopes of Caversham towards the river, " ride 
 close to my bridle-hand, for I am faint, and a heavy 
 sickness is upon my heart." As he rode across the 
 meads, the breeze, which blew freshly and coolly 
 from the broad river, did somewhat revive him ; 
 but anon he complained of the rough motion of his 
 steed, and gently lamented the loss of his ambling 
 grey, w hich Matilda had stolen from liim so foully. 
 When near to the great gate of the abbey he turned 
 round and looked towards the river and the Caver- 
 sham hills that were^ shining in the setting sun ; 
 and then, as he went under the archway, I saw tears 
 drop from his eyes, and I heard him mutter to 
 himself, " ' Tis a right beauteous sight, but I shall 
 see it no more." And that night, and before the 
 middle watches thereof, praying for the community 
 of Reading and all England besides, and imploring 
 the saints to protect the house at Caversham and 
 the two sweet children, he turned his face to the 
 wall and died, to the unspeakable grief of every 
 honest member of the house. He left this troubled 
 world in such good repute as a virtuous and holy 
 man, that assuredly he merited beatification, if 
 not the higher glories of canonization.^ — In Do' 
 mino moritur. 
 
 Before going to his bed, our good abbat held 
 council with all the obedientiarii and sworn monks 
 of the abbey, and I was of the number of those 
 who thought that this exertion, and his long and 
 anxious speaking, hastened his demise. His opi- 
 nions were, that the monks ought to keep close 
 their gates, and call in their retainers and some of
 
 S4 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 the townfolk of Iveadiiig to help them to defend 
 the house ; that Matilda could not tarry long for a 
 siege or any other object, as Sir Alain de Bohun 
 vand his party would soon retrace their steps ; and 
 that the monks, having made good their house by 
 stanchng on the defensive, should remain neutral in 
 the horrible war, taking no step and raising no 
 voice either for King Stephen or Queen Matilda, 
 until they saw what course was taken by the pope's 
 legate or a synod of the church. All present at 
 this council, whether cloister monks or monks 
 holding office, agTced that this advice was tlie best 
 that could be given, and protested that they would 
 follow it ; and Hildebrand, the sub-prior, was the 
 loudest of any in hisj jDrayers that St. James and 
 St. John the Evangelist, patrons of our house, 
 would long preserve the life of our good old abbat, 
 who had governed the abbey for many years with 
 great wisdom and gentleness ; and, sooth to say, in 
 all that time he had ruled as a fond father rules 
 his own children, and never did he sadden the heart 
 of an honest man and faithful servant of the church, 
 or cause a tear to flow until he died. 
 
 But, woe the while ! the wickedness, the treacher}', 
 and malice of the times, had spread themselves on 
 every side and to everj'^ community ; and some 
 members of our once quiet and loving brotherhood 
 there were that hid Judas hearts under fawning^ 
 countenances ; and before the passing bell ceased to 
 toll for our abbat's death, these unhappy men took 
 secret council with one another, and resolved to 
 act in a manner altogether different from that which 
 had been advised, and that w hich they had promised 
 and vowed to follow. And, lo ! on the second 
 evening after the death of our good abbat, when
 
 A LEGEXD OF READING ABBEY. 95 
 
 the Angevin woman and her host came again unto 
 our house, like a whirlwind, with lances in th^e air, 
 and clouds of dust rolling before their path, the 
 sub-prior and his fautors, including as well some 
 of the franklins and retainers, as monks and no- 
 vices, and lay brothers of the abbey, did drive away 
 the other party, and lower our drawbridge, and 
 throw wide open our great gate, and sing hosan- 
 iias, and cry, '•' Long live the empress-queen ! God 
 bless the sweet face of Queen Matilda, the lawful 
 i^overeign of this realm !" And again Matilda came 
 within the cloisters, and took possession of our house 
 ■with her lawless men of war and her gadabout 
 damsels. This time they could not rob, for we had 
 not the wherewithal, unless they took our gowns, 
 hoods, and sandals, and our flesh and bones ; but 
 they did worse things than steal. Matilda ordered 
 that on the instant the fathers of the house should 
 proceed to elect and appoint a new abbat. 
 
 " Dread ladie," said Reginald, our prior, now the 
 Iiighest in office, '* This cannot be ! It is against 
 the rules of our order ; it is against the canons of 
 holy church ; it is against the feelings of humanity ; 
 it is contrary to common decency ! Our late lord 
 abbat lies as yet unburied within our walls. He 
 must be first interred honorably, and as becometh 
 the dignity of the house ; and before we, the fathers 
 of the house, can open a Chapter, many masses of 
 requiem must be said, and the guidance of the Spirit 
 must be invoked to help us in our election, and 
 notice must be sent unto the head of our order, 
 and alms must be given unto the poor. Albeit, I 
 see not what alms we can give, since our house 
 hath been so " 
 
 " Rebel monk," cried Matilda, '•' reproach not
 
 96 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 thy queen ! But I do perceive that thou art a 
 fautor of Stephen, like the old rebel that hath de- 
 parted. I told him that the mitre was falling from 
 his head, and I now tell thee that it shall never drop 
 upon thine." 
 
 '" Would that it had pleased the saints to keep 
 it on the head which wore it so long, and with so 
 much honour," said our bold prior. " I never 
 aimed at it, or had a wish for it. I would not 
 stoop my body, or stretch out my hand, to pick it 
 up, if it lay at my feet. I would never wear it 
 except forced so to do by canonical election, and 
 the free and strong will of my brothers. Matilda, 
 thou that ransackest houses of religion, and the 
 very tomb of thy father, and tramplest on the monks 
 that live to pray for the soul of thy father, I would 
 not accept the mitre and crozier from thee if thou 
 wert to fall on thy knees and implore me to do it ! 
 I stand here as an humble but faithful servant of this 
 community — as a lowly member of the great family 
 of St. Benedict ; and if I raise my voice, it is only 
 for the sake of our religion and unchangeable rules. 
 Thy men-at-arms need not grind their teeth, and 
 point their lances at me. I fear them not ; and in 
 this cause would face torture and death." 
 
 '•' By the splendour!" cried Matilda, '-we do 
 but waste time in speech with such as thou art. 
 I tell thee, thou traitor and malignant, that the 
 election shall be made forthwith ; and that before I 
 quit this house I will see an honest man put into 
 the abbatial chair, and confirm him therein by our 
 royal deed. Thou wilt not question, oh monk, 
 that the election of a Chapter is nought without 
 the assent and confirmation of the lawful sovereign ; 
 and as I liave weighty matters in hand, and will
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 97 
 
 soon be far away from Reading, there might be 
 great delay in obtaining my confirmation if it were 
 not given now." 
 
 At this passage the sub-prior, bowing before 
 Matilda more lowly than he M'as ever seen to bow 
 before the effigies of our Ladie in the Ladie's chapel, 
 said yea and verily, and that this last was a weighty 
 consideration before which the rule of St. Bene- 
 dict might, in some points, give way ; and that in 
 times of trouble and discord and anarchy like these 
 we were living in, the royal abbey of Reading 
 could not vvith safety be left for a single day with- 
 out a head. 
 
 This discourse of the sub-prior much chafed our 
 fearless and honest prior, Reginald, who well knew 
 the man and his ungodly designs ; but before the 
 prior's wrath allowed him to speak, our sacrist 
 brought forth the book and opened the rules of 
 our order, and read the same with an audible yet 
 gentle voice, and with the same gentleness did 
 show that much time must be allowed for mature 
 deliberation ; that a Chapter could not be assem- 
 bled while the house was full of strangers and 
 armed men, 'for that elections must be free and un- 
 biassed by fear or by any other worldly considera- 
 tion ; and then he did fall to quoting the charters 
 of the Beauclerc, which direct that on the death 
 of a lord abbat possession of the monastery, with 
 all its rights and privileges, shall remain in the 
 prior, and at the disposal of the prior and the 
 monks of the Chapter, and that none shall in any 
 ways meddle in the election of the new abbat : and 
 when the sacrist had thus spoken, the cellarer or 
 bursar, the second father of the convent, who had 
 charge of evervthing relating to the food of the
 
 98 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 monks, and who always knew best, by the eating-^ 
 who were present and who absent, did beg it might 
 be observed that three cloister monks w^ere absent, 
 one disobediently and contumaciously (meaning^ 
 hereby Father Anselm, who had absconded with 
 the countess on her previous visit) ; but two, to 
 wit, the chamberlain and the almoner, on the 
 business of the abbey — and without the votes of 
 these tw^o named fathers no election could be legal 
 or canonical. 
 
 " But my good cellarius," said the sub-prior, in 
 a very dulcet and persuasive tone of voice, " it 
 yet behoves us to think of the dangers of the 
 times, and to provide for the security of this royal 
 abbey and God-fearing community, even though 
 we should depart from the rigid letter of some 
 of our minor rules. Remember, oh cellarius, that 
 these be days of trouble, and that w^e be living in 
 the midst of discord and anarchy, and treachery, 
 and " 
 
 " Treachery, quotha ! I wis there was no treach- 
 ery in this community until thou didst bring It 
 amongst us," cried our prior ; " nor did we know 
 discord or anarchy in our abbey, or iii any part of 
 the manors and hundreds appertaining unto this 
 house until thou, oh Matilda, didst come to our 
 gates ! Troubles there were around us, and for 
 those troubles the good men of our house grieved 
 — not without labouring to alleviate them ; but w^e 
 were a quiet community when thou didst come 
 thundering at our gates, bringing with thee thy 
 subtle maidens and thy violent men of war ! and 
 hadst thou never come we had still been at peace. 
 If thou w^ouldst listen to me now, I would say Get 
 thee gone and cease from troubling us ! But
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 99 
 
 oj'geuil mesprise hon co7iseilj pride despisetli good 
 counsel, and pride and hardness of heart Aviil lead 
 to thy undoing." 
 
 Tradition reporteth that the wrath of William 
 the Conqueror was a thing fearful to behold ; that 
 the rage of the Red King was a consuming fire ; and 
 that the slower and stiller but deeper hate of Henry 
 the Beauclerc was like unto the grim visage of 
 death ; yet do I doubt whether the wrath of all 
 these three preceding kino;^, if put all together^ 
 could be so dreadful as tliat which the choleric 
 daughter of the Beauclerc did now display : and 
 certes the extreme passion of rage in a woman^ 
 even when she hath not a regal and tyrannical 
 power, is fearful to behold. From the redness of 
 the fire she became pale as ashes ; but then she 
 reddened again as she shouted " Ho ! my men-at- 
 arms, gag me that old traitor !" 
 
 " Tyrannous woman, that the sins of the land 
 have brouo^ht into Eno-land, the truth will endure 
 and be the same though I speak it not. Thou 
 hast violated the sanctuary — thou hast dishonoured 
 and plundered the very grave of thy father ! See 
 that he rise not from the grave to rebuke thee." 
 
 '' Drag the traitor hence ; put chains upon him ; 
 cast him into the dungeon," cried the unfaithful 
 wife of the Angevin count ; and the men-at-arms 
 who had laid their rude hands upon the prior to 
 gag him, did drag the prior out of the Aula Magna. 
 And when he was gone, Matilda swore oaths too 
 terrible to be repeated, that, seeing she must her- 
 self away on the morrow, she would leave a gar- 
 rison of her fiercest fighting men in the abbey, and 
 devastate all the abbey lands that lay on her march, 
 if our fathers did not forthwith elect and appoint
 
 iOO A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 a lord abbat true to her party and obedient to her 
 will. Most of the officials and cloister monks held 
 down their heads and were sore afeard. Is ot so 
 the sacrist and cellarer, who cried " Charter ! 
 Charter !" and repeated that such election could 
 not be, and who were thereupon dragged forth 
 and put in duresse with the bold prior. And now 
 the sub-prior, who never doubted that the choice 
 Avas to fall upon him, did entreat those who had 
 the right of voting to submit to the will of God 
 and the commandment of the queen, and so save 
 the house from ruin : and some he did terrify, and 
 some cajole, talking apart with them, and telling 
 them that he would be good lord and indulgent 
 abbat unto them all. At last the timid gave way, 
 and the monks of delicate conscience would resist 
 no longer ; and the sub-prior, with a smile upon 
 his countenance, said to Matilda, in his blandest 
 voice, that the community was ready to elect 
 xvhomsoever her grace might be pleased to name. 
 
 " 'Tis prudent and wise in the community," said 
 Matilda ; and then she clapped her hands thrice, as 
 great lords or ladies use to do when they would 
 summon a menial or call in their fool to make them 
 sport ; and as she clapped her hands she said, 
 *' Come in, my Lord Abbat elect !" 
 
 And then, from an inner apartment, where he 
 had been listening all tlie while, there glided into 
 the great hall, and stood before us, with an un- 
 blusliing and complacent countenance, that rule- 
 breaker and deserter — Father Anselm. 
 
 I did think that our sub-prior would have fallen 
 to the ground in a swoon, for his legs trembled 
 beneath him, and his face became as ashy with 
 grief and disappointment as that of the countess
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 101 
 
 had lately been \vith rage : liis eye. fixed immove- 
 ably on Father Anselm, became glazed and dull. 
 like the eye of a dead fish, and instead of a cry of 
 wonderment; I heard a rattling in his throat. But 
 in a while the sub-prior recovered, and ventured to 
 say that the Chapter could by no means elect one 
 wlio had broken his vow of obedience, and who 
 was thereby under censure and interdict. 
 
 " In absenting myself from the house, I did but 
 obey the command laid on me by the queen's grace," 
 said Father Anselm. 
 
 " Not the sovereign ladie, nay, nor the sovereign 
 lord of the land, can give such command without 
 the foreknowledge and consent of the Lord Abbat, 
 or of the prior in the abbat's absence," said the 
 sub-prior, whose voice was growing bolder ; '• and 
 dread ladie, I tell thee again, that the chapter 
 cannot elect this monk — I tell thee that I myself 
 will protest against such choice, and defeat ouch 
 election." 
 
 '•' Ha !" cried Matilda, '•' say est thou so ? Then 
 shalt thou join the other rebel monks. Men-at- 
 arms, away with him ! He but wanted the mitre 
 for his own ugly head ; but my dear mass-priest, 
 thou shalt have it, and none but thee, for I can rely 
 on thy faith and love, and thou art the handsomest 
 monk that ever shaved a crown or wore a hood." 
 And as she spake the last words, she looked so 
 lovingly at him that it was a shame to see. 
 
 ^Vell ! our false and double-dealing sub-prior 
 was whirled away to the dungeon, and the remaining 
 officials and cloister monks were commanded by 
 Matilda to begin the election of Father Anselm 
 and finish it off hand, the countess vowing by the 
 
 F
 
 102 A LEGEND OF READING ABBET. 
 
 visage of St. Luke that she would not take food 
 again until the thing Avas done. 
 
 The terrible threats of the countess and the 
 subtle arguments -which Father Hildebrand, the 
 sub-prior, had made use of, in the belief that he 
 was to be our abbat, had such weight with the 
 fathers that they kissed the jewelled hand of Matilda, 
 and went into the chapter-house ; and there, in lessF 
 time than had been wont to be spent in deliberation 
 on the slightest business of the house (mailed knights 
 and fierce men-at-arms standing by tlie chapter-door 
 the while), they did name and elect the runagate 
 Anselm to be our lord abbat, the monks of tender 
 conscience merely holding up their hands in assent, 
 and saying no word, but uttering in their secret 
 souls that they acted under fear and violence, and 
 that all this was uncanonical work and foul, and 
 against the rule of St. Benedict. And then they 
 all came forth from the chapter-house, singing 
 Senedictiis JDominus ; and the countess and her 
 painted damsels looked out from the windows of 
 the abbat's house and laughed, and the armed and 
 ungodly multitude set up a shout, as though they 
 had gained a great victory. I will not tell how, 
 in Father Anselm's inauguration in the church, 
 the rules of our order, the canons, the decretals of 
 councils, and the bulls of the pope, were all trans- 
 gressed, or turned into a jest and mockery : these 
 things are not to be forgotten, but I will not relate 
 them. Instead of a godly bishop, it was the 
 countess herself that placed the mitre on the head, 
 and the ring on the finger of Father Anselm, and 
 that gave him the first kiss and accolade — Oscw 
 lum Pacisj while Te Deum laudamus was being
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 103 
 
 sung in the choir ; but verily was it sung in so 
 faint and plaintive a manner, that it sounded 
 more like a Miserere Domine. But when it was 
 over, the intrusive abbat was kissed by all the 
 convent, accordino: to rule ; and Benedicite having- 
 been said, Father Anselm gave thanks to the 
 monks for that they had chosen him, the least of 
 them all, to be their lord and shepherd, not on ac- 
 count of his own merits, but solely by the will of 
 God, O ! sinful and sacrilegious Anselm, better 
 had it been for thee that thou hadst never been 
 born ! 
 
 The will of the wicked woman was thus accom- 
 plished, but it brought her neither future worldly 
 success nor present peace. That same night as I, 
 Felix the Novice, lay in my cell unable to sleep, 
 mourning for the loss of our good lord abbat, and 
 ruminating on all which had since befallen us, I 
 heard a cry, a piercing shriek, which rang through 
 our cloisters and corridors, and through every part 
 of our great abbey. Yea, as I afterxAards learned, 
 it was heard by the prior and by thoi>e that were 
 with him in the prison underground. Cardiff castle 
 did not ring and echo with so shrill a shriek of 
 agony when the red-hot copper basin was held over 
 the face of the Beauclerc's unhappy brother Duke 
 Robert to sear his eyes and destroy his sight, as 
 did now the abbey of Reading, which was mainly 
 built in expiation of that great crime of Henricus. 
 It was followed by a loud call for lights — lights in 
 the queen's sleeping chamber. And lights were 
 carried thitlier, and Matilda slept no more that 
 night ; and before the dawn of day preparations 
 were made for her departure. The shriek was 
 from her, the vision was hers. beate virgine ! 
 
 F 2
 
 104 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 save US from ill deeds and an ill conscience, and 
 the dreams they do bring. The vision of the 
 Beauclerc's daughter, as it afterwards came to my 
 knowledge, was this : — her father appeared before 
 her, holding in his right hand his heart, which had 
 not been brought to our abbey with his body, but 
 which had been deposited in the cluirch of St. 
 Mary at Rouen, which his mother had founded ; 
 and this heart did distil great gouts of blood, as if 
 in agony for the wrong which had been done our 
 abbey, and the insults which had been heaped upon 
 his grave ; and the face of the spectrum was 
 menacing and awful, and the visionaiy voice full 
 of dread — the words so terrible that the countess 
 would never repeat them save to her confessor. 
 
 In the same watches of the night there were 
 moans and groans in the prison underground. 
 Nor was it only the upbraiding of an evil con- 
 science that caused Hildebrand, our sub-prior, so 
 to lament and cry out. For our bellicose and 
 choleric prior Reginald did beat him, and tweak 
 him by the nose, reviling him as a Judas Iscariot ; 
 and, peradventure, he would have slain him out- 
 right, or have done him some great bodily harm, 
 if the gentler and more circumspect sacrist and 
 cellarer had not been there to intercede and inter- 
 vene. Our prior was the strongest man tliat then 
 lived in all these parts. A terrible man in his 
 Avrath was our prior ! But his wrath was never 
 kindled except against evil-doers, and the swinkers 
 and oppressors of the poor. With all others he 
 was as gentle as a lamb, and he was ever indulgent 
 to error and all minor offences, as I, who lived 
 long under his rule, can w^ell testify — requiem 
 
 iETERNAM.
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 105 
 
 I, Felix, having in the bye-gone times had much 
 familiarity and friendship with our two backslid- 
 ing novices, Urswick the Whiteheaded from Pang- 
 bourne, and John-a-Blount from Maple-Durham, 
 did much marvel how it fared with them since 
 their apostacy, and did diligently seek them out in 
 the great press which came with the countess, to 
 the end that I might talk gently with them upon 
 their transgressions, and obtain from them some 
 knowledge of what had become of the little Alice 
 and my prime friend young Arthur de Bohun, 
 hoping hereby to gain tidings grateful and cheer- 
 ful to the ear of the good and bountiful Ladie 
 Alfgiva. But neither in the evening nor in the 
 morning could I see Urswick or John among the 
 people of the countess. Yet in the morning, just 
 before the departure, I gave a bowman my only 
 piece of money, and learned from him that a part 
 of Matilda's host with sundry wains and horse- 
 litters had not come with her unto Reading, but 
 had taken a shorter road for Winchester ; and so I 
 did conclude that my two quondam comrades had 
 gone with that company, and I did comfort myself 
 wdth thinking that they had yet so much grace left 
 in them as to have been averse to come back and 
 witness our exceeding great misery. Yet did the 
 archer spoil this my comfort by telling me that 
 two black-eyed damsels had gone with that divi- 
 sion, riding like men upon big war-horses. Of 
 children the man knew nought ; nor he nor any 
 man of the meaner sort had been allowed to look 
 into the wains or to approach the litters. There 
 might be children, he said, among this moveable and 
 vagrant host, but he had seen none. Here again did 
 I grieve, for I loved Alice and Arthur right well,
 
 106 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 and would have laid down an untold treasure in gold 
 to have it in my power to speak comfortably unto 
 the Ladie Alfgiva. 
 
 At the command of Father Anselm the monks 
 of the house, and we the novices likewise, did form 
 in processional order, and accompany Matilda from, 
 our gates even unto the Hallowed Brook, that branch 
 of the swift and clear Kennet which floweth by the 
 township ; and halting on the bank of that holy 
 and peaceful water, which ought not to have heard 
 such notes, Father Anselm made us chaunt Hosanna 
 and Jubilate, and promised to the Angevin countess 
 a bloody and complete victory over all her 
 enemies. And hence, upon famam vulgi, the 
 trifling and ungrounded talk of the common 
 people, who, in parts remote from Reading, knew 
 not the violence which had been used, it was pro- 
 claimed to the world that the abbat and monks of 
 Eeading, in this unhappy year eleven hundred and 
 forty-one, had received the empress-queen with 
 the highest honours, and had made themselves her 
 servants and beadsmen. Pater de Ccelis, Deus, 
 miserere nobis I
 
 ( lOT ) 
 
 VI, 
 
 While she was yet at Oxenford, Matilda had 
 rudely summoned the Bishop of Winchester, legate 
 to the pope and brother to King Stephen, to ap- 
 pear in her presence and give an account of his 
 actions and intentions. The bishop had replied 
 that he was getting ready for her ; and this was 
 true enough, for he was manning and victualling 
 the castles which he had built within his diocese as 
 at "Waltham, Farnhara, and divers other places. 
 Upon quitting our house at Reading, Matilda hoped, 
 by a rapid march, to surprise the bishop within 
 Winchester, and to make hhn captive, and to send 
 him loaded with chains to join the king his brother 
 in Bristowe Castle, in despite of his legatine and 
 episcopal character and the authority of the holy 
 see. But the lord bishop was ever wary and well 
 advised, and before the countess could reach Win- 
 chester he withdrew from that most royal city, 
 having first fortified his episcopal residence therein, 
 and set up his brother's standard on the roof. 
 Matilda was treacherously admitted into the royal 
 castle at Winchester, whither she summoned her 
 half-brother the great Earl of Gloucester, and her 
 uncle David, king of Scots, who had been for some 
 time in England vainly endeavouring to make her 
 follow mild and wise counsels. The Scots king-
 
 108 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 and Gloucester, and the Earls of Hereford and 
 Chester, went straight to Winchester and abided 
 with the queen and her court in the castle. But 
 the bishop had made his palace as strong as the 
 castle, and when the party of Matilda laid siege to 
 it, the bishop's garrison, being resolved not to 
 yield, did many valorous and some very sinful 
 deeds. They sallied more than once against the 
 people of Matilda, and put them to the rout ; and 
 they hurled combustibles from the palace, and set 
 fire to the houses of the town that stood nearest to 
 the palace in order to drive thence the enemy's 
 archers ; but by their thus doing, the abbey of 
 nuns within the town, and the monastery called 
 the Hide without the town walls were consumed, 
 to their great sin and shame. Here was a crucifix 
 made of gold and silver and precious stones, the 
 gift of King Canute, the Dane ; and it was seized 
 by the ravenous flames, and was thrown from the 
 rood-loft to the ground, and was afterwards stripped 
 of its ornaments by order of the bishop-legate him- 
 self, and more than five hundred marks of silver 
 and thirty marks of gold were found in it, and 
 given as largesse to the soldiers ; for, whether they 
 stood for Stephen or for Matilda, or whether they 
 did battle with the sanction of the church or warred 
 against its authority, these fighting men did mainly 
 look to pay and plunder. And at a later season 
 the abbey of nuns at ATarewell was also burned by 
 William de Ypres, an abandoned man, who feared 
 neither God nor men, and who did change sides as 
 often as any one ; but at this season he Mas for 
 King Stephen, and he set fire to the religious house 
 for that some of jNIatilda's people had secured them- 
 selves within it.
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 109 
 
 Having made a ruin all round the episcopal 
 palace, tiie bishop's garrison, being confident of 
 succour, waited the event. The legate did not 
 make them wait long. Being reinforced by Queen 
 Maud and the stout citizens of London, who to the 
 number of two thousand took the field for King 
 Stephen, clad in coats of mail, and wearing steel 
 casques on their heads, like noble men of war 
 (more money, I wis, had they in their pouches 
 than most of our noble knights or pseudo proceres), 
 he turned rapidly back upon Winchester, and be- 
 sieged the besiegers there. By the first day of the 
 Kalends of August, or nigh upon the festival of 
 Saint Afra, saint and martyr, the bishop did gird 
 with a close siege the royal castle of Winchester. 
 Herein were Matilda, the King of vScots, the Earls 
 of Gloucester, Hereford, and Ciiester, and many 
 others of note ; and of all tliese not one would have 
 escaped if it had not been for the respect paid by 
 the bishop and the party of King Stephen for the 
 festivals of the church, which verily ouglit to be 
 held by all parties as Truces of God, neither party 
 doing anything while such truce lasts. But when 
 the siege had endured the space of forty and two 
 days, and when those within the royal castle had 
 eaten up all their victual, the 14th day of Sep- 
 tember arrived, which blessed day was the festival 
 of the Holy Rood, and a sabbath-day besides ; and 
 lo I at a very early hour in the morning of that 
 day — Festa duplex^ \Ahile my lord bishop's host 
 were hearing mass, or confessing their sins — which 
 alas I were but too numerous — Slatilda mounted a 
 swift horse, and, attended by a strong and well- 
 mounted escort, crept secretly and quietly out of 
 the castle. Her half-brother the Earl of Glouces- 
 
 F 3
 
 110 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 ter follo^^'ed her at a short distance of time, with a 
 number of knights, English, Angevins and Bra- 
 ban9ons, who had all engaged to keep between the 
 countess and her pursuers, and to risk their own 
 liberty for the sake of securing hers. They all 
 got a good way upon the Devizes road before the 
 beleaguerers knew that they were gone. But so 
 soon as it was known that they had broken the 
 Truce of God, the bishop's people were to horse, 
 and began a hot pursuit ; and at Stourbridge the 
 Earl of Gloucester and his band of knights were 
 overtaken, and, after a fierce battle, were for the 
 most part made prisoners. But while the long 
 fight lasted, the countess, still pressing on her swift 
 steed, reached Devizes, the work of, and the cause 
 of so much woe unto, the magnificent castle-build- 
 ing Roger, late bishop of Sarum. But the strong 
 castle of Devizes was not furnished with victual, so 
 that the countess could not tarry there ; and being 
 in a great fear as to what might befal her on the 
 road, she put herself upon a feretrum or death-bier, 
 as if she were dead, and caused herself to be drawn 
 in a hearse from Devizes unto Gloucester, whereat 
 she arrived in that guise, not without the wonder- 
 ment of men and the anger of the saints. Of all 
 who had formed her strong rearxAard guard on her 
 flight from Winchester castle, the Earl of Hereford 
 alone reached Gloucester castle, and he arrived in 
 a wretched state, being wounded and almost naked. 
 The other barons and knights who escaped from 
 the fight of Stourbridge threw away their arms and 
 essayed to escape in the disguise of peasants ; but 
 some of them, betrayed by their foreign speech, 
 were seized by the English serfs, who bound them 
 with cords and drove them before them with whips
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. Ill 
 
 to deliver them up to their enemies. Yea some of 
 the churls did cruelly maltreat and maim these 
 proud knights from beyond sea, thereby taking 
 veng-eance for the great wrongs and cruelties which 
 by them had been committed. Nay men of pre- 
 latical dignity were not respected, for they had had 
 no bowels for the people, who now stripped them 
 naked and scourged them. The King of Scots, 
 Matilda's uncle, got safe back to his own kingdom ; 
 but her half-brother, the most important prisoner 
 that could l)e taken, was conveyed to Stephen's 
 queen Maud, w ho laid him fast in Rochester castle, 
 but without loading him with chains as Matilda 
 had done unto Stephen, for Queen Maud was mer- 
 ciful and generous of heart. 
 
 Sir Alain de Bohun, who had joined the legate 
 with a good force before the siege of Winchester 
 Castle was begun, made haste to enter into tiiat 
 cattle when it was abandoned by Matilda and given 
 up by the few soldiers that remained in it. It was 
 no tliirst for blood and no appetite for plunder that 
 made our good Caversham lord enter into the fort- 
 alice ; but it was his fatherly love for his only boy, 
 and his tenderness for the little Alice, who had 
 grown up as his daughter. He thought that in so 
 hurried and rough a departure the children whom 
 he had traced to Winchester Castle must have been 
 left therein ; but although he searched every part 
 of the castle, as well below ground as above, he 
 could not find the children, or any trace of them, 
 nor could he from the prisoners taken learn more 
 than that a fine young boy and a beautiful little 
 girl, together with sundry foreign damsels, had 
 been sent from Winchester a day or twain before 
 the legate commenced the siege of the castle. Sir
 
 112 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 Alain, albeit sorely disappointed, thanked Heaven 
 that the children had not been separated. A little 
 later in this year's terrible war, when Sir Alain de 
 Bohiin had discomfited a force commanded by Sir 
 Ingelric of Huntercombe, his once cherished friend, 
 but now his deadliest foe, and had well nigh taken 
 Sir Ingelric prisoner, a writing was in secret de- 
 livered unto the good lord of Caversham by one 
 who wore pilgrim's weeds, but who was a wolf in 
 sheep's clothing, and, in verity, a fautor and spy of 
 the countess. Sir Alain being competently learned, 
 and well able to read without the assistance of his 
 mass-priest, who was not there to aid him, did 
 peruse the secret missive, which did tell him in the 
 name of Matilda that she had his son in sure-keep- 
 ing, and would never deliver him up or permit the 
 eye of father or mother to be blessed with the sight 
 of him until Sir Alain should have abandoned the 
 traitor Stephen and have joined the rightful queen 
 of England ; and that if he long failed so to do, 
 the boy would be sent beyond sea and immured in 
 an Angevin castle, where all traces of him would 
 be for ever lost, and where, doubtlessly, he would 
 soon perish. " But if," said the letter, " Sir Alain 
 de Bohun will follow the loyal and wise example 
 of his once friend Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe and 
 come join the queen, her grace will receive him 
 with honour, and Sir Ino-elric will fors-et that which 
 is passed, and the boy shall be restored, and the 
 little maiden likewise, and they shall be contracted 
 in marriage, and the queen will give a rich dower 
 to Alice out of her own royal domains, and Sir In- 
 gelric and Sir Alain may live neighbourly and 
 happily together as aforetime." 
 
 Sir Alain, who could write as well as read, re-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 113 
 
 plied in few words that his conscience forbade his 
 breaking oaths to King- Stephen ; that he could 
 not change sides either through fear or through 
 interest ; that he could not subject his lance to the 
 distaff, or believe that the warlike baronage of Eng- 
 land would ever live quietly under the rule of a 
 woman ; that he must trust to God and his saints 
 for the protection of his only child, as also for the 
 well-being of his not less than daughter ; and that 
 if it were the will of Heaven that the children, who 
 had been brought up so lovingly together, should 
 be conjoined at some future day in holy matrimony 
 (of which in happier days there had been some talk 
 between him and the little maiden's father), it 
 would not be in the power of empress or queen to 
 prevent it. ''If," said Sir Alain de Bolmn in 
 terminating his epistle, " if, oh Matilda ! thou 
 shouldest so far fororet the tender feelins-s of a 
 woman and mother as to do harm to mine only son, 
 and thereby bring my wife with soitow to the 
 grave, God will so strengthen mine arm in battle 
 as to enable me to take a fearful vengeance upon, 
 thy party and upon some that are nearest to thee. 
 But thou wilt not do that which thou sayest. So 
 let me have no more secret, tampering missives. 
 When Thamesis flows backward from Caversham 
 to Oxenford instead of pursuing its course to the 
 everlasting sea, then, but not until then, will Sir 
 Alain de Bolum prove false to his oath and traitor 
 to King Stephen." 
 
 Circa id tempus, or nigh upon the time that Sir 
 Alain sent this response unto Matilda, Sir Ingelric 
 of Huntercombe, having composed his feud with 
 that family and kindred, espoused the rich widow 
 of that vSir Jocelvn who liad burned his wife, the
 
 114 A LEGEND OP READING ABBEY. 
 
 mother of the little Alice, in his house, and who 
 had been by him slain in the Falbury of Reading, 
 almost at our gates. The ladie of Sir Jocelyn had 
 acquired an ill-fame during her widowhood, for 
 she was greedy of other people's goods and avari- 
 cious of her own, faithless unto her friends, merci- 
 less to her foes, and to her vassals and serfs haughty 
 and cruel. It was as much from the darkness of 
 her deeds as from her foreign and dark complexion, 
 that she had gotten all through the country the 
 name of The Dark Ladie. But she was rich, pass- 
 ing rich, and aspiring, and allied with some of our 
 greatest men, and Sir Ingelric had given up his 
 whole soul to ambition and gold. This unseemly 
 matrimony was mainly brought about by the coun- 
 tess, and there were others of the like sort, which 
 all terminated in misery and woe, and in visible 
 manifestations of God's wrath and vengeance. 
 
 The Dark Ladie, who had done much mischief 
 in the land in her widowed condition, became 
 still more terrible as the Mife of Sir Ingelric, and 
 that lost knight became all the worse for his union 
 with her. They crammed their castle at Speen 
 with a most ungodly garrison, and with prisoners 
 they kept and tortured for ransom. 
 
 King Stephen being a close prisoner in the castle 
 of Bristowe, and the Earl of Gloucester being well 
 guarded in Rochester Castle, each of the contending 
 parties was, in a manner, without a head, for Ste- 
 phen's brother, the bishop-legate, was, after all, 
 but a priest, and the woman Matilda was nothing 
 without her half-brother. A negociation was there- 
 fore set on foot for a mutual release of prisoners. 
 This was several times interrupted, and at each in- 
 terruption the party of King Stephen threatened to
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 115 
 
 send the Earl of Gloucester out of the land unto 
 Boulogne, there to be buried in a castle-prison 
 deep under the ground, and the party of Matilda 
 threatened to send King Stephen over to Ireland 
 and consign him to the wild Irishry ; but at last, 
 on the first of the kalends of November, it was 
 agreed between them that the great Earl of Glou- 
 cester should be exchanged for King Stephen ; and 
 the earl and the king being both liberated, each 
 betook himself to the head-quarters of his friends 
 and partisans. Both factions now stood much as 
 they did previously to the battle of Lincoln ; but 
 fearfully had the people of England suffered in the 
 interim. And yet, after all these sufferings, neither 
 faction did turn its thoughts ad regnum tranquil- 
 landuni ; but both did prepare for more' battles and 
 sieges, sending forth their bands of foreigners and 
 leaving the cruel castle-holders to seize, torture, 
 plunder and kill. While the land was thus weeping 
 tears of blood, the king and his brother, the bishop, 
 made repair unto Loridon, where the king had his 
 best friends, and where the legate did summon a 
 great ecclesiastical council to meet at Westminster 
 on the 7th of the kalends of December, ad pacem 
 componendam^ for the composing of peace unto the 
 church and kingdom. When this council met on 
 the appointed day, which was in the octaves of 
 Saint Andrew, King Stephen addressed the pre- 
 lates : he mildly and briefly complained of the 
 wrongs and hardships he had suffered from his 
 vassals, unto whom he had never denied justice 
 when asked for it ; he said that if it would please 
 the nobles and bishops of the realm to aid him with 
 men and money, he trusted so to work as to relieve 
 them from the fear of a shameful submission to the
 
 116 A LEGEND OF EEADING ABBEY. 
 
 yoke of a ^voman, and so to succeed in his enter- 
 prises as to put an end to intestine war and havoc, 
 and establish his throne in peace. "W^hen the king 
 had done speaking, the legate his brother, who only 
 nine months before had in the synod held at Win- 
 chester declared for Matilda, rose and proclaimed 
 that the pope had ordered him to release and restore 
 his brother, that Matilda had observed nothing of 
 what she had sworn to him ; that the great barons 
 of England had performed their eng-agements to- 
 wards her, and that she, not knowing how to use 
 her prosperity with moderation, had violated all 
 her engagements and oaths ; that she had even made 
 attempts against his, the legate's, liberty and life ; 
 and that this freed him from the obligations of the 
 oaths he had taken to the Countess of Anjou, for 
 he would not longer call her queen. The legate 
 further said that the judgment of Heaven was 
 visible in the prompt punishment of her perfidy, 
 and that God himself now restored his brother the 
 ris:htful King Stephen to the throne. Albeit there 
 were some among them Mho had but lately quit- 
 ted the party of Matilda, the prelates and great 
 men at AVestminster assembled did agree that all 
 loyal men ought forthwith to arm for King Stephen, 
 and that the adherents of the countess should be 
 everywhere stripped of their usurped authority, 
 whether in church or civil government ; that forced 
 elections should be all annulled, and tliat sentence 
 of excommunication should go forth against all the 
 obstinate and irreclaimable partisans of the coun- 
 tess. And the Bishop of AYinchester, as legatus a 
 latere, did stand up witli a new bull of the pope in 
 his right hand, and pronounced the dread sentence 
 against all such as should disturb the peace in
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 117 
 
 favour of the Countess of Anjou, or should build new 
 castles in the land, or invade the rights and privileges 
 of the church, or wrong the poor and defenceless. 
 
 Judge ye if the news of these high proceedings 
 at Westminster did not bring with them joy and 
 comfort unto the friends of the late Lord Abbot 
 Edward and all the honest monks of Reading 
 abbey ! Besides the sin and shame of his forced 
 election, we had suffered many things at the hands 
 of Anselm during the few months that he had held 
 rule over us. In all that time he had kept the 
 stout-hearted prior Reginald in the prison under- 
 ground, and had maliciously devised penances and 
 punishments for all such members of the com- 
 munity as had pitied the prisoner. He had alien- 
 ated and sold some of the abbey lands to furnish 
 out men-at-arms for his countess. He had half- 
 starved the brotherhood, and no hospitality had he 
 exercised unto strangers except to some Angevin 
 marauders ; and when he went away to see the 
 countess, which more than once he did, he left in 
 the abbey some of these outlandish men to keep us 
 in submission and dread. But now his evil reign 
 Mas over, for so soon as they had learned what had 
 passed at Westminster, and had gotten a rescript 
 from the legate, the elders of our house took 
 counsel too'ether and resolved to liberate Reg^inald 
 the prior, and offer him the mitre, and to throw 
 Father Anselm into the prison instead of the prior. 
 And the thing was easy to do, for by this time 
 Anselm had given offence to every cloister monk, 
 novice, and lay-brother, and the warier sort did all 
 opine that now that King Stephen Mas liberated, 
 and his enemies excommunicated by the legate, the 
 cause of the countess must be altogether desperate.
 
 lis A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 And so with one voice and one will Anselm was 
 jseized and thrown into the underground cell, and 
 the prior was brought forth, and conducted in 
 triumph to the abbat's house, and there told that 
 he must be our lord abbat. Most true it was that 
 he had never wished for this post of eminence, 
 and now prayed the brotherhood to elect the 
 chamberlain or the sacrist or any experienced 
 cloister-monk rather than him ; but the universal 
 will and voice of the community would not be 
 gainsayed, and in the course of a few days the 
 prior was unanimously elected, by those who had 
 the right of voting in the Chapter, to be our abbat ; 
 and then we all carried him into the church in 
 procession, sang Te Deum laudarnus, with loud 
 and jubilant voices, rang the bells until they well 
 nigh cracked, and set him on the abbat's throne, 
 and did him all the homage that is due unto the 
 mitred abbat of a royal abbey ; and then brought 
 up Father Anselm, and drove him out of our gates 
 with many kicks behind, for our new lord abbat 
 would not have him linger and pine in that cold 
 dark cell underground, saying that he knew to his 
 cost how sad a thing it was, and that to hold any 
 captive therein would be to make the wholesome 
 air of the house infaust and insalubrious. 
 
 As he was crossing the Holy Brook tlie townfolk 
 of Reading, who no more loved Anselm than did 
 we the monks, caught him by the girdle and threw 
 him into the stream, so that he was nearly drowned 
 at the place where he had forced us against our 
 conscience to psalmodize for Matilda. He took 
 these things so much to heart that he got him back 
 into Normandie. It was said by some that he 
 falsified his history and his very name, -and so
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 119 
 
 gained admission into the abbey of Bee, but from 
 the volatile nature of the man, I did rather give my 
 belief to another report — to wit, that he turned 
 himself into a jongleur or trouvere, and went about 
 France with women and menestrels and other lewd 
 people. 
 
 vSundry times he promised, and did in his heart 
 intend, to visit our house, and force the restitution 
 of the lands which the usurping Anselm had alien- 
 ated to ungodly men ; yet King Stephen came not 
 to Reading for many a year, and when he came he 
 could not tarry with us. But the king sent Sir 
 Alain de Bohun to build up and restore the ruinous 
 castle of Reading ; and when this had been done, 
 and when, by the vassals and serfs of the abbey, the 
 walls of the township had been strengthened, we 
 entered upon the enjoyment of such peace and 
 tranquillity as we had not known during five long 
 years ; for the Philistines could not come suddenly 
 upon us, or easily break through our defences. 
 At Reading, indeed, we did live as in a little 
 Goshen, while war was raging all round about ; 
 and albeit we could not always defend our out- 
 lying manors and houses from fire and sword, but 
 suffered many and grievous losses in serfs, cattle, 
 corn, hay, farm-houses, and granges ; we yet suf- 
 fered less than other communities, and nothing at 
 all in comparison with the abbat and monks of 
 Abingdon, our neighbours, but not always friends. 
 Driven from their once quiet seat at Oxenford, or 
 too sorely troubled in their residence there by the 
 people of the countess, and the constant coming 
 and going of warlike and plundering bands, many 
 of the professors and pupils, doctores et alumni, 
 did come unto Reading, and under the shadow of
 
 120 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 our secure and peaceful walls, pursue those studies 
 which were destined to give to England a learned 
 priesthood and a universal increase of civility. Our 
 brotherhood too did attend to that learning and to 
 the making of many good books which had done 
 honour to the Benedictines ever since their first 
 foundation and in whatsoever country their order 
 was established. Our scribes and copyists once more 
 worked amain in their quiet cells, multiplying with 
 a slow but correct pen the precious works of an- 
 tiquity', and the holy books, and the lives of saints ; 
 and need there was for this labour, since other re- 
 ligious houses had no peace or leisure, and great 
 and fearful was the destruction of books and codices 
 in the conflagrations and stormings of this long in- 
 testine war. But for the labours of the Bene- 
 dictines and some few learned monks of other 
 orders in England, and but for the blessed saints, 
 who kept alive their love of letters and books, and 
 gave them heart and strength to work even in a 
 season of horror and despair, the land would have 
 been plunged back into utter barbarism, and would 
 have been void of learning and of books as when 
 the great Alfred came to the throne. In the tran- 
 quil easy days in which I now write, for the solace 
 of my lonely hours and for the preservation of the 
 fading memon,' of the times of trouble, and for no 
 fame or vain glor}^, the sense of these things hath 
 already become faint in men's minds, and mayhap, 
 in after ages, when the world shall have made great 
 strides in learning and all civility, these labours of 
 the Benedictines will be altogether forgotten, or be 
 treated as nought. Yet was it they that did mainly 
 save the land from a great retrograde step ; and I, 
 Felix, servus servorion, the humblest or least
 
 A liEGEXD OF READING ABBEY, 121 
 
 worthy member of the order (^^ho have so often 
 seen shining in our western turret the midnight 
 lamp which lighted our copyists and makers of 
 books at their solitary labours, and who have seen 
 those labours steadily pursued when the countiy 
 was ringing with the din of arms, and was blazing 
 with midnight hres, and when no earthly honour 
 or reward whatsoever seemed to attend their toil), 
 Avould fain put upon record some faint notice of 
 that which Mas done in the evil times by our house 
 and order : but not unto us the praise, but unto thee, 
 oh Lord ! They, themselves, sought for no ap- 
 plause — Ce-Za^tt virhts — their virtue is all hidden : 
 not so much as the name is preserved of these good 
 and laborious monks who did so much for learning 
 and religion. 
 
 It was about the time in which Sir Alain de 
 Bohun did re-edify Reading Castle, that I, Felix, 
 recovering from my early podagra, under the in- 
 struction and guidance of old father Ambrosius 
 (he hath now been many years at rest in the 
 chancel of our church, and I in gratitude do say 
 a daily prayer over his grave), did first addict 
 myself to the use of the pen, beginning with a 
 missal, which our Pisan limner did richly illumi- 
 nate ; and when this my first essay was finished, I 
 did present it unto the Ladie Alfgiva in her house 
 at Caversham, and that bountiful and right noble 
 ladie did acknowledge the gift by sending unto the 
 abbey five milch cows and a goodly stock of Caen 
 fowls, which our community at that time much 
 needed, for there had been a murrain among cattle, 
 and the spoilers had again swept bare our best 
 farms. 
 
 Many were the tears slied by me, and many the
 
 122 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 masses and prayers said by our house for the said 
 Ladie Alfgiva and the two missing- children. 
 Grief and anxiety for her son and foster daughter 
 did at times almost bow that noble dame to the 
 earth, and her grief was the greater because of 
 her frequent loneliness and the hazards her lord 
 ■was running in the many sieges and battles of the 
 times ; but although her health declined and her 
 cheek became wan, hope and trust in heaven's 
 goodness did not forsake her. A pious dame was 
 Ladie Alfgiva, and of a nature high and noble in 
 all things. Though thinking day and night of her 
 only son and her only living child, she never once 
 implored Sir Alain to purchase the boy's release 
 and his restoration to her arms by proving false to 
 his oath and untrue to the king, and every time 
 that her lord came to his home she dried her tears 
 and did all that she could to conceal her great 
 grief so long as he tarried with her. The virtuous 
 Avoman is a crown unto her husband, and verily 
 there be wives as well as virgins that merit the 
 crown the church awards to saints and martyrs. 
 Saint Catherine on the wheel, or Saint Agatha at 
 the fiery stake, suffered not pangs so acute as those 
 of this bereaved mother ; and their torture was 
 soon over, and while they suffered they saw from 
 the wheel and stake the heavens opening to the 
 eye, and they heard heavenly music in the air 
 which made them deaf to the shouts of the infidel 
 rabble that were slaying them. So much bliss 
 and so great a foretaste of celestial joy was not 
 vouchsafed unto the secular Ladie Alfgiva, and 
 could not be expected by her: nevertheless had 
 she her happy visions and sweet soothing sounds 
 during her long bereavement. More than once.
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 123 
 
 in her great loneliness, when her lord was away- 
 fighting for King Stephen, as she stood on the 
 battlements of her castle at eventide, she saw her 
 boy and his playmate Alice sitting on the flowery- 
 bank which slopes down to the river, as they used 
 often to sit before Sir Ingelric did steal them 
 away ; and she heard their merry little voices on 
 the breeze, and their frolicsome laugh. Some 
 would say that she but took two stray lambs for 
 the lost ciiildren, and that the sounds she heard 
 were only made by tlie evening breeze among the 
 tall growing grass and the leafy coppices ; but I, 
 Felix, could never so interpret it unto her. But 
 constantly did I strive to give her comfort, 
 and to conceal from her the cruelties that were 
 daily committed in the land, and to stop the 
 thougljtless indiscreet tongue of her people who 
 would have filled her ears with horrible tales of 
 murdered children and babes, for not the massacre 
 of the Innocents in Judea was so fierce as the 
 slaughter that raged in England.
 
 ( 124 ) 
 
 VII. 
 
 AYhex our good lord abbat Edward had been 
 dead well nigh a year, to wit, in the summer 
 season of eleven hundred and forty-two, King 
 Stephen, from great fatigue of body and uneasiness 
 of mind, fell sore sick, and lay for a long while 
 like one that was dying. AVhile this lasted the 
 barons of his party did many evil deeds, there 
 being no authority strong enough to check their 
 lawlessness ; and, at the same troublous season, 
 the partisans of Matilda and the foreign merce- 
 naries in her pay did ravage all the western parts ; 
 and more robbers came over from Anjou, Xor- 
 mandie, and Picardie, asking no pay, but only free 
 quarters, and the right of plundering the poor 
 English. It was a Benedictine from Rome that 
 had studied medicine in the school of Salerno, that 
 brought a healing potion to the king, and snatched 
 him back to life from the jaws of the grave. 
 
 So soon as Stephen could mount his war-horse 
 he marched with a great force unto Oxenford, 
 where the countess had fixed her court ; and he 
 invested that unhappy city with a firm resolution 
 never to move thence until he had gotten his 
 troublesome rival into his hands. After some 
 fighting, in which many lives were lost by both 
 parties, Stephen burst into the town, and having
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 125 
 
 set fire to a large part thereof, he laid siege unto 
 the castle into which Matilda and her people had 
 retired. Now the castle of Oxenford, standing in 
 the midst of waters, was very strong. From St. 
 Michael's mass well nigh unto Christ's mass, a 
 festo 3Iichceelis usque ad 7iatali Do?nini, did King 
 Stephen persevere in the siege, telling all men 
 that complained of the hard service that he must 
 have the castle, and in it the countess, and that 
 then there would be peace in England. 
 
 In the mid siege, our new lord abbat, who had 
 had much correspondence with the lord abbat of 
 Abingdon, with tlie prior and monks at Hurley, 
 and with other Benedictine houses, for the good 
 purpose of saving the remnant of the Christian 
 people in those parts, and putting an end to the 
 cruelties and many deadly sins which were daily 
 committed, received from the Abingdon cell at 
 Cumnor, nigh unto Oxenford, a missive from the 
 abbat of that community, who entreated him, now 
 that the country was clear of Matilda's people, to 
 repair unto Cumnor that they might take council 
 together, and together confer with King Stephen, 
 who seemed at that moment to be in a heavenly 
 disposition, and to have an exceeding great desire 
 to tranquillize the land, and to consult with the 
 loyal abbat of Reading. Now albeit Stephen had, 
 by means of Sir Alain de Bohun, expressed his 
 great contentment at the expulsion of Father 
 Anselm, and at all that had been done by our 
 community since the great meeting of the synod 
 at Westminster, the election of the prior to be our 
 lord abbat had not yet been formally confirmed by 
 the king ; and therefore Dominus Reginaldus did 
 make haste to accept the invitation of the abbat of 
 
 G
 
 126 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 Abingdon, and to get him unto Cumnor. Not for 
 any merit of mine own, but through the kind 
 favour he was ever pleased to show me, I was 
 chosen to be of the travelling party. Philip the 
 lay-brother went likewise ; but Philip was a brave 
 and ready man, quick-witted, and well-trained 
 aforetime in the use of arms, and in the riding of 
 the great horse. Although the nerve of the 
 Angevin faction was shut up in Oxenford Castle, 
 my Lord Reginald was too wise a man to put 
 himself on the road with a weak escort ; for he well 
 knew that there were many barons and knights, 
 calling themselves King Stephen's friends and the 
 friends of mother church, that would not scruple 
 to plunder an abbat, or to keep him in their 
 donjons for the sake of a great ransom ; and well 
 nigh every castle between Reading and Oxenford, 
 and between Oxenford and Bristowe, was a den of 
 thieves, and worse ; and Lord Reginald had not 
 lost his bellicose humour by being promoted to the 
 highest dignity. " By the head of Saint John the 
 Baptist," said he, as we were about to take our 
 departure, " not a robber of them all shall lay me 
 in his crucet house without having a hard fight for 
 it ! Before I bear the weight of their sachenteges, 
 I will make them taste the sharpness of my lance, 
 and the weight of my mace." And so was it that 
 we went forth from Reading forty and one strong, 
 and every man of us armed cap-a-pie, and most of 
 us well mounted. The lord abbat wore a steel 
 cap under his hood, and a coat of mail and steel 
 hose under his robes ; and he had a two-edged 
 sword at his side and a heavy mace at the pommel 
 of his saddle, and a good lance resting on stirrup- 
 iron ; yea, and I, Felix the novice, wore ringed
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 127 
 
 armour and a steel casque, and had my sword and 
 lance : Englehard de Cicomaco, that famed and 
 well-judging knight, who was one of the retainers 
 of our abbey, doing military service for the abbey 
 lands he held near Hurley Common, did say that I 
 looked a very proper man-at-arms, and did bestride 
 my steed like a knight — but these are vanities, 
 and I by my vows did renounce all vanity. Yet 
 can I but mark that when we came to Cumnor a 
 great baron asked who was that gallant well-fa- 
 vored young soldier that rode in the van, near to 
 the lord abbat of Reading. 
 
 On our way we tarried for a night at Berecourt 
 by Pangbourne, where we had a goodly house 
 among the hills which had wont to be a summer 
 residence of our abbats. But this goodly house 
 had been robbed and spoiled, and our vassals and 
 serfs had not yet been enabled to restore it. We 
 were therefore roughly lodged and not over well 
 fed ; but that which affected me more grievously 
 than this was the sad condition of the poor people 
 of Pangbourne, who had been so prosperous and 
 happy before these accursed wars began. Sad 
 were the tales they told, and not the least sad of 
 them all was this : my quondam friend and brother 
 novice, Urswick the Whiteheaded, had been in the 
 spring season of this year at Pangbourne with a 
 great band of English and foreign robbers, ran- 
 sacking the place of his birth and maltreating the 
 friends among whom he had been born and bred ; 
 and his aged father had to his face pronounced a 
 curse upon him ; and in a quarrel with some savage 
 men from Anjou touching the division of spoil, 
 Urswick had been slain on the bank of Thamesis, 
 before he could recross the river or sret out of sight 
 
 g2
 
 128 A LEGEND OF BEADING ABBEY. 
 
 of his native village : and, since that black morn- 
 ing, or so our serfs did say, his well-known voice 
 had been heard at midnight, and he had been seen 
 by the light of the moon, now habited as a monk, 
 and wringing his hands by the river side where he 
 fell, looking piteously towards the abbey of Read- 
 ing, from which he had fled, and now equipped as 
 a man-at-arms, and galloping on a great black 
 horse, across the country and up the steep hills 
 and down the precipices — fire flashing from the 
 eyes and nostrils of the infernal steed, and from 
 the burning heart of the lost novice. 
 
 On our march from Pangbourne we shunned the 
 townships and castles as much as we could, and 
 took especial heed not to get near unto \Yalling- 
 ford ; for the strong castle there was held by Brian 
 Fitzcount, the most terrible of all Matilda's parti- 
 sans, and the greatest robber of them all ; and the 
 castle at this very time ^vs^s known to be full of 
 unfortunate prisoners whom he kept and daily tor- 
 tured in order to make them disclose their sup- 
 posed hidden treasures, or to pay a heavier ransom 
 than any they had the means of paying. Christian 
 burghers and franklins, noble knights who had 
 warred against the heathen in Palestine, nay 
 churchmen, the higliest in the hierarchy, were 
 known to be in his foul prison, pent up with Jew- 
 ish traffickers and money-dealers ; the noblest and 
 the purest with the vilest and foulest of the earth : 
 and the gaolers and torturers of Brian Fitzcount 
 treated the Christians no whit better than the 
 Israelites tliat were chained at their sides, con- 
 taminating them with their touch and poisoning 
 the air they breathed. Isight after night, such of 
 the poor townfolk as had contrived to live in the
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 129 
 
 midst of these horrors without deserting "Walling- 
 ford, were startled in their sleep by the cries and 
 shrieks which came from the grim castle ; and 
 when in the morning they adventured to ask 
 what had been toward in the night watches, the 
 Count's people would tell them jestingly from the 
 battlements that it was nothing, or that Brian Fitz- 
 count had only been coining a little more money, 
 or that a Jew had had his teeth drawn, or that a 
 traitor to the empress-queen had been questioned 
 about his treason and treasure. 
 
 The great prison in this castle of "Wallingford 
 was called Brian's Hell, and it was deserving of 
 the name. But the fiends were abroad, as well as 
 within those abominable walls — the spirit of the 
 arch-fiend was everywhere. The village churches 
 and the chapels and hospitia in solitary places had 
 been destroyed or turned into fortalices ; deep 
 trenches were cut in the churchyards among the 
 consecrated abodes of the dead ; the sweet sound- 
 ing church bells had been thrown down, and en- 
 gines of war had been set up on the church towers. 
 Yea ! the resting places which the church and the 
 piety of the faithful had built and stocked for the 
 poor and hungry wayfarers in the desert had been 
 plundered and destroyed — the last holy resting- 
 places had been profaned ! The temple of peace 
 and mercy had been turned into a place of arms ! 
 
 As we came near to Hanney mead and the river 
 Ock — that pleasant little river that wells from the 
 ground near Uffington and drops into Thamesis by 
 Abingdon, and that has the most savoury pike that 
 be fished in these parts — we came suddenly upon 
 a castellum which we could by no means avoid ; 
 for it had been lately built, and we knew not of
 
 130 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 it, and it lay so low among marshes that -we saw it 
 not until we were close upon it. It lay close to 
 the only road that led to the ford across the river. 
 To a trumpet which sounded a challenge from the 
 walls our party replied with sound of trumpet, and 
 then at the abbat's commandment proceeded delibe- 
 rately onward. As we came nearer, the warder of 
 the castle shouted " For whom be ye ?" 
 
 " "What if I say for King Stephen?" quoth our 
 lord abbat, rising in his stirrups and waving his 
 lance over his head. 
 
 " Long live King Stephen ! an thou wilt," said 
 the warder, " bat thou must pay toll ere thou 
 mayest pass the river." 
 
 '' The lord abbat of Reading pays not even 
 bridge toll, and here there is no bridge," said our 
 lord abbat, " and fords be ever free. Go read 
 our charter ; In terris et aquis, i?i tra7isitibics pmi- 
 tium, by land and by water, and in the passing of 
 bridges, we be free from all tolls or consuetudinary 
 payments. If thou wilt have toll from me, i'faith, 
 thou must come forth and take it." 
 
 ^' Thou art but a traitor," cried the warder. 
 " Long live the empress-queen !" shouted divers 
 armed men who ran to the battlement, and as they 
 did shout did also bend their cross-bows. But by 
 this time we had all put spurs to our horses, and 
 we dashed past the ugly castellum and across the 
 ford without receiving any hurl, albeit a quarrel 
 did hit the lord abbat's steed near unto the tail and 
 make him caper. Had our party been less nume- 
 rous and warlike, doubtless we had been lodged 
 that night among Brian Fitzcount's prisoners. 
 
 The town and abbey of Abingdon we did also 
 avoid, keeping a little to the westward thereof; for
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 131 
 
 another tyrant and man destroyer had built him- 
 self a great castle in that vicinage, and there had 
 been many feuds and factions and changing of sides 
 among the monks of Abingdon, while the best and 
 most trusty of that community were known to be 
 at the house at Cumnor with their abbat. The 
 roads were deep and miry, the way was long, the 
 days were short, ^nd the weather of the saddest ; 
 but on the third evening after our departure from 
 Reading we arrived at the Cell of Cumnor, where 
 our lord abbat was hospitably received by the 
 abbat of Abingdon, and where we of less note 
 found good lodging and entertainment, to wit, a 
 blazing wood fire whereat to dry our clothes, clean 
 straw to sleep upon, and salted meats and manchets 
 to eat, and good Oxenford ale to drink. 
 
 On the morrow, when it wanted but two days of 
 the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, King Stephen 
 with a few lords and knights rode from the be- 
 leaguer of Oxenford Castle to Cumnor, and did 
 there confer with the two abbats and other eccle- 
 siastics. AYhat passed in the council chamber I 
 cannot tell ; but it was seen by all of us that the 
 king wore a cheerful aspect, and it was told unto 
 us all that the castle was reduced to extremity, 
 and that, there being no escape thence, the countess 
 must soon surrender or die of starvation. When 
 the conference was over, and when the king had 
 been entertained as royally as the abbat of Abing- 
 don could do it in that place and at that time — and 
 when Stephen had laid his offering upon the altar 
 in the church, he rode back to the siege, and our 
 lord abbat of Reading, and all of us who had come 
 with him, attended the king to Oxenford, intend- 
 ing there to tarry until the surrender of Matilda.
 
 132 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. ' 
 
 " With the saints to my aid," said our abbat, 
 *' I may prevail upon this perverse daughter of 
 the Beauclerc to deliver herself quietly up, and 
 upon King- Stephen to be merciful unto her in her 
 captivity. If the Angevin countess should still 
 persevere in the wickedness of her ways, and attempt 
 to escape again on a bier instead of putting an end 
 to the w^oes of the land by a surrender, forty good 
 swords the more may do service for the king. My 
 children, my friends, ye w ill all be vigilant in this 
 matter, and do duty like good soldiers, if it should 
 be required of ye !" And as the good lord Regi- 
 nald went into Oxenford town and saw the palace 
 which the Beauclerc king had there builded, and 
 saw the engines of war, and heard the horrid noise 
 of war all about, he heaved a sigh and said, " Eheu I 
 quantum mutatur ! Plow be all things changed I 
 Here in the days of Henricus Primus, that peace- 
 loving king, liex pads, have I seen nothing but 
 quiet scholars and learned men, and the court of a 
 king that was an academe and a sanctuary of let- 
 ters. Wot ye, my boy Felix, w^hy it was that Hen- 
 ricus did build him a palace here ?" And I hav- 
 ing confessed my ignorance as became me, our 
 abbat went on to say, " Felix, my son, the Beau- 
 clerc had collected in his most royal park at 
 Woodstock many wild beasts from foreign parts, 
 such as lions and bears, leopards and lynxes, and 
 porcupines, and of these he had a wonderful great 
 liking, and here at Oxenford learned men w^ere 
 collecting every year in greater numbers, and in 
 the company of these scholars his grace did take 
 marvellous delight ; in truth it were not easy to 
 say whether he liked the beasts better than tlie 
 bookish men, or the bookish men better than the
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 133 
 
 beasts ; but, to have the enjoyment of both, he oft- 
 times fixed his residence between them ; and there- 
 fore was it, my son, that Henricus Primus raised 
 this royal dwelling, and preferred it above his 
 other houses." That very night, albeit I knew it 
 not then, there came to King Stephen the very 
 unfavourable news that the countess's half-brother, 
 the great Earl of Gloucester, who for some months 
 had been absent, had returned into England with 
 a great body of Angevin and Norman troops, and 
 had brought with him Henry Fitz-empress, Ma- 
 tilda's young son and heir, had stormed and taken 
 the castle of Wareham, had been joined by many 
 traitorous barons who had but lately given fresh 
 oaths of fidelity to Stephen, and was marching 
 through the land to relieve his sister in Oxenford 
 Castle and fall upon her besiegers. Maugre the 
 pains that were taken to conceal this intelligence, 
 it got abroad, and was by some double-dealer con- 
 veyed to Matilda within the castle. 
 
 That night there fell a great fall of snow, and 
 after the snow a sharp and most sudden frost did 
 set in, which in less than twenty-four hours did 
 cover the river Isis and the moat of the castle and 
 the circumjacent marshes with thick ice. The 
 beleaguerers made themselves great fires, and 
 f?eemed not to remit in their watchfulness. T, Fe- 
 lix, with Philip the lay-brother, and Sir Engleiiard 
 de Cicomaco, did mount guard and stand wakeful 
 all that bitter night, opposite to a postern gate of 
 the castle. From time to time some great officer 
 of King Stephen went from watch to watch, and 
 all round the lines to see that the people did their 
 jduty and slept not. Joy came to my heart, and 
 the deadening cold seemed to quit my body, when 
 
 G 3
 
 134 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 I saw Sir Alain de Bohun come to the place where 
 I stood. 
 
 " Watch well to-night, oh Felix," said that 
 brave and always courteous lord ; " watch well to- 
 night, and to-morrow will we have our enemy in 
 our hands-— and dear friends, too. Felix ! I have 
 had assurance that my son and thy little friend is 
 within those walls ! To-morrow Matilda must 
 yield ; so watch well that postern." 
 
 I kissed Sir Alain's hand, and vowed that not so 
 much as a famished cat or rat should come forth of 
 that gate, nor did there while my watch lasted. 
 
 On the next day, the vigil of St. Thomas, as 
 soon as it was light, a white flag was raised in the 
 camp in token of peace or truce, and our lord 
 abbat, with a goodly train of ecclesiastics, bearing 
 church banners and elevated crucifixes, came down 
 to the very edge of the castle moat, and demanded 
 speech of the countess ; and Matilda ascended to 
 the battlements, but rather to rebuke them than to 
 hear them. I, Felix, being relieved from my night 
 watch, did see that stern woman of many adven- 
 tures and indomitable pride stand on the castle top 
 in that cold, grey, leaden air. Thin was she, and 
 gaunt and pale, like one that had suffered long 
 fasting and sickness ; but she had the same flashing 
 eye and resolute look as at the time when she dic- 
 tated her will to our house at Reading ; and if her 
 voice was more hollow, it was not less imperious 
 and awe-commanding now than it was then. The 
 lord abbat entreated her to give up the castle, pro- 
 mising, in the name of King Stephen, that no harm 
 should be done to her or to any that were with her; 
 that she should be honorably escorted to the coast, 
 and there embarked for Anjou ; that lands and
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 135 
 
 money should be given to her and her adherents 
 \vith a liberal hand ; and that the king would take 
 all her partisans into his peace, if they would but 
 be true to treaty, and give up a war which had 
 already lasted so many years to the reproach of 
 Christendom, and to the utter undoing of the people 
 of England. The abbat told her that her famish- 
 ing state was known, and that hope of escape there 
 was none. 
 
 '• And who told thee, oh meddling monk, that I 
 ever thought of escape? Dost not know that the 
 Earl of Gloucester is at hand, to do the thing which 
 he did aforetime at Lincoln ? "We have meat and 
 meal yet, and will abide the earl's coming, I will 
 not throw open these gates, or quit these walls, 
 until I see the false recreant Stephen in chains at 
 my feet, praying again for that life which I ought 
 to have rid him of long since." 
 
 As the proud woman said these words, I could 
 see that many of our bystanders looked at one 
 another with perplexity and alarm, and that divers 
 even of the churchmen put on very thoughtful 
 countenances, and did nothing and said nothing to 
 aid our lord abbat, or to rebuke the countess, who 
 in a great passion of wrath threatened to have him 
 hanged for a felon under the archway of his own 
 abbey. 
 
 Some there were that would have counselled an 
 immediate assault upon the fortress ; for albeit no 
 breach had been made in those formidable walls, 
 the moat was so frozen that it would bear any 
 weight, and scaling ladders and other needful ma- 
 terials were not wanting. But the more cautious 
 sort said that the famishing garrison were very 
 numerous and ven,' desperate ; that it would be
 
 136 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 better to wait a day or two, and have the castle 
 upon composition ; that the Earl of Gloucester had 
 yet sundry days of march to perform ; and that if 
 he came with ever so great a host, he would find it 
 no easy work to break through our barricades and 
 defences, and get into the town. Some of the 
 churchmen, moreover, did say that no enterprise 
 of war would prosper during the festivals of the 
 church ; and, certes, the major part of King Ste- 
 phen's soldiers did seem fully determined to keep 
 this the vigil, and to-morrow the festival of St. 
 Thomas the Apostle, according to the rubric, whe- 
 ther the king would have it so or not. Hence there 
 was a very visible relaxation of vigilance. Re- 
 freshed by a short sleep in the day, I did watch 
 again that night with the beleaguerers ; but my 
 post was not where it had been the night before, 
 and in the morning, before I could be relieved, I 
 learned that the countess had escaped through the 
 postern which I had watched so well. Marvellous, 
 truly, was the skill and fortune of the Beauclerc's 
 daughter ! She had escaped from Devizes by putting" 
 on the semblance and trappings of the dead, and 
 now she had escaped from Oxenford like a sheeted 
 ghost ! A little after the midnight hour she had 
 dressed herself all in white, and had thrown white 
 sheets over Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, and three 
 others of her knights ; and she and these four 
 sheeted warriors had stolen out of the castle by the 
 postern gate, and had crossed the moat on the ice 
 and traversed the ice-bound Isis, and creeping on 
 their hands and knees over the deep white snow, 
 they had escaped detection, and got safely through 
 our Ihies and all our outposts. On foot, in the 
 deep snow, Matilda with her attendant spectres tra-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 137 
 
 veiled to Abingdon ; but there they found friends 
 and horses, for the news of the coming of the Earl 
 of Gloucester had reached the place, and had been 
 very fatal to men's loyalty unto Stephen. From 
 Abingdon, without resting there, the countess rode 
 through that cold nigiit to Wallingford Castle, 
 ■where Brian Fitzcount received her very joyfully. 
 But these things came to my knowledge afterwards ; 
 and when it was first heard that the countess was 
 gone, none could tell how she was gone, or whither 
 she had betaken herself. The notice was not given 
 until more than seven hours after her departure, 
 when, as the day began to dawn, a starving man- 
 at-arms cried out from the battlements tliat the 
 garnison were ready to throw open tlie gates unto 
 King Stephen, and so save themselves from death 
 by hunger, as the queen had fled thence, and was 
 no lon*2rer in anv dans^er. At first the news was 
 not credited by any of the king's people ; but soon 
 the governor of the castle sounded trumpets for a 
 parley, and held out a flag of truce, and offered to 
 deliver up the castle upon condition that his life 
 and the lives of his people should be spared. King 
 Stephen himself came rushing to the post opposite 
 the castle gate to learn the trutli, and settle the 
 conditions of surrender ; and with him came Sir 
 Alain de Bohun, mortified yet rejoiced, a much 
 perplexed yet a happy man ; for though it should 
 be found that the scourge of England had escaped, 
 he had a confident hope that she could not have 
 carried away his son with her. 
 
 King Stephen spoke aloud to the castellan, and 
 said, " This is but a fabulous rumour 1 The countess 
 of Anjou is where she hath been these last three 
 months ! Unsay what hath been said ! Tell me
 
 138 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 that she is within those walls, and, starving as thou 
 art, I will give thee more than the conditions thou 
 ask est — I will give thee wealth and honours ! Only- 
 say that she hath not escaped." 
 
 ''Earl of Moriton and Boulogne !" shouted the 
 proud castellan, " if the empress queen were within 
 these walls I would starve and die, but never open 
 these gates unto thee ! Let mine offer to surrender 
 be a proof that she is gone hence. I swear, by the 
 holy rood, that she hath been gone ever since mid- 
 night." 
 
 " Whither hath she gone?" cried Stephen. 
 
 '' I know not, and would not tell thee if I did 
 know ; but 'tis likely she will soon tell thee where 
 she is." 
 
 While the castellan was talking in this guise on 
 the outer walls, many of our lords and knights, with 
 their men-at-arms, got them to horse, and, dividing 
 into different parties, went scouring over the 
 country in all directions, some along the road that 
 leads to Woodstock, some on the Abingdon road, 
 some down the river towards Newnham, some 
 towards Forest Hill, and some across the hills 
 towards Islip and Weston-on-Green. 
 
 Many slips and falls had they on the frozen ice 
 and slippery roads ; yet was it all but a bootless 
 chace. The party that went along the Abingdon 
 road, and that came back even faster than they 
 w^ent, as Sir Brian Fitzcount had advanced a body 
 of horse to the township of Abingdon, had met on 
 their advance an aged shepherd who had been out 
 in the night in search of some sheep that had 
 been lost in the snow drifts ; and this aged man 
 had told them that about the midnight hour he had 
 seen gliding along the road between Oxenford and
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 139 
 
 Abingdon five ghosts or revenants all in white, 
 which he took to be the uneasy spirits of some who 
 had perished in our diurnal slaughters ; and this 
 was all that Avas learned by our too late pursuing 
 companies. 
 
 In the first heat of his wrath and bitterness of 
 his disappointment the king refused to admit the 
 garnison to capitulation, and threatened to hang 
 them all, together with many of his own watch ; 
 but our lord abbat moderated his wrath. Sir Alain 
 de Bohun, eager for sight of his boy, and always 
 averse to bloodshed, did recommend mercy and 
 moderation ; and so, about mid-day, terms were 
 granted, and the castle was given up to Stephen. 
 I was among the first that entered with our good 
 Lord of Caversham. Sir Alain found many friends 
 among those who had been kept as prisoners by 
 the Countess ; but for some time he could not find 
 his son, or hear anything concerning him, save that 
 the boy had been seen in the castle a few days 
 agone. Fearful thoughts agitated the loving 
 father, and made him turn ghastly pale. Had the 
 Countess in her rough nocturnal flight carried the 
 boy with her? No, there was a knight who 
 opened the postern-gate for her, and who swore 
 upon his cross that none had gone forth but the 
 empress-queen, Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, and 
 the three other knights. Had the desperate woman 
 in her fury against one of the most constant of her 
 enemies taken the life of the dear boy ? None 
 would confess to the atrocious deed, yet none 
 seemed to know what had befallen Sir Alain's son. 
 In truth they were all ravenous and stupified with 
 their excess of hunger, and were only eager to get
 
 140 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 had been mercifully promised them ; and for many 
 a day few of them had taken any note of wliat was 
 doing within the castle or in the lodging of Ma- 
 tilda. But the Lord of Caversham and the best 
 of his own people, and I, Felix, and Philip, the 
 lay-brother, did rush into the apartment of the 
 Countess and ransack it well ; and while we were 
 in an inner room in the tower that looks upon 
 Isis, we heard a feeble voice as of one lamenting, 
 and pulling aside some hangings on the wall, we 
 discovered a small low door under an arch, and 
 thereupon Sir Alain, all of a tremble, cried out in 
 a voice that went unto the hearts of all of us, 
 *' Who lieth within? Is it thou, mine only son?" 
 and the faint voice said '' My father," and said no 
 more. The iron-bound door was locked, and the 
 key was gone; but spite of its thickness and 
 strength, we soon burst the door open with a 
 mighty crash. I did enter that foul hole in the 
 wall with Sir Alain, and did see and hear that 
 Avhich passed Avhen he raised liis boy from the dirty 
 straw upon whicli he had fainted ; but I have not 
 the power to narrate that which I saw and heard. 
 Nay, to speak more soothly, I did see but faintly, 
 for the light that came into the cell through a 
 narrow loophole was but scant, and my gushing 
 tears did almost blind me. But we soon carried 
 the boy out into wholesome air, and put wine to 
 his lips ; and he recovered and knew his father. 
 And when he had eaten and gained strength, he told 
 his sire, who had never before been seen so wrath- 
 ful, that he had not tasted meat or drink for two 
 Avhole days and nights. Verily it did seem that 
 tlie Countess had destined him to die of starvation, 
 and that she had herself secreted him in that
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBET. 141 
 
 hideous hole in the castle-wall, for none of lier 
 attendants would confess any knowledge of the 
 thing. But Sir Alain would not give credit to 
 these protestations of ignorance, saying that some 
 of the Countess's people must have known what 
 was done in her own apartment, and sorely did he 
 beat with the flat of his sword an old foreig-n ha^ 
 that had been the Countess's chamber-woman, and 
 two Angevins that had been in constant attendance 
 upon her ; and he swore more oaths than had ever 
 come from his lips, that were it not for the love of 
 the king his master, and for the king's honour, and 
 for his own religious respect for compacts and 
 treaties and capitulations of war, he would hang 
 them all three on the top of that accursed tower. 
 
 So soon as I saw that the hope of the house of 
 Caversham was restored to some of his strength 
 (and he gave me a proof thereof by saluting me 
 and taking me by the hand as an old friend), I 
 went forth to try if I could gain some intelligence 
 of the little Alice, who was not born to live se- 
 parated from Arthur, and likewise of my whilom 
 friend and companion John-a-Blount from Maple- 
 Durham, who had fled from our house at lieading 
 with the novice Urswick, of unhappy memory. I 
 soon learned from some retainers of Sir Ingelric of 
 Huntercombe that the little maiden, before the 
 coming of King Stephen to Oxenford, had been 
 bestowed with her step-mother in the strong castle 
 at Old Speen, which Sir Ingelric had rebuilded ; 
 but the fellows knew not, or pretended not to know, 
 anything touching our fugitive novice John-a- 
 Blount. Therefore did I put ray soul and body in 
 peril by going into the very midst of the Countess 
 Matilda's black-eyed damsels ; for I thought in the
 
 142 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 nature of things that he should be among those 
 young Jezebels who had first led him astray. Al- 
 beit the merciful terms of capitulation were faith- 
 fully observed, and knights of good repute were 
 stationed in the castle to see that no harm was done 
 to those that had surrendered ; the interior of the 
 fortress was still a scene of unspeakable confusion 
 and alarm. Fierce knights that had not prayed 
 for many a day, and rough outlandish soldiers who 
 knew not how to say a credo or an ave, were mut- 
 tering orisons and telling their beads, or holding 
 their crucifixes in their hands, crying ever and 
 anon to the more truculent visaged of the king's 
 people, " We have all rendered upon paction — We 
 be all in the king's mercy and honour — Touch 
 not our lives or limbs, or eyes, but give us to eat, 
 or we perish !" 
 
 The women of the countess, whose eyes were 
 much less bright and dangerous than when I last 
 saw them in their pride and insolency at our abbey, 
 lay all huddled and crouching together in a corner 
 of the castle-yard, where divers clerks of Oxenford, 
 \vith the marshal of King Stephen's camp, were 
 making lists of the names and qualities of the pri- 
 soners. Many men, as well English as foreign, 
 were standing near these affrighted and more than 
 half-famished women ; and a few young knights 
 and esquires seemed to be speaking words of com- 
 fort to divers of them ; but among these men I 
 could not see John-a-Blount, from Maple-Durham, 
 nor any young man that resembled him ; and when 
 I asked of many, they all told me that they knew 
 nothing of the said John : which was grievous 
 unto my soul, for I had hoped to find him there, 
 and to reclaim him, and thereby save him from the
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 143 
 
 fate of the unhappy Urswick. As I was about to 
 turn from that company of women, I was brought 
 to a pause by a pair of eyes, swimming in tears, that 
 did bind me to the spot, like one spell-bound. 
 They were the large black eyes of that damsel in 
 the short green kirtle, and of the incomparably 
 small feet and ankles that had come salting and 
 dancing up to me in the garden of our house at 
 Reading; but alack, she danced not now, and 
 seemed scarcely able to stand, and instead of the 
 laughingest she had the saddest face ; and she was 
 all thin and haggard as the poorest of the wander- 
 ing houseless beggars we had met on our march 
 from Reading to Oxenford. I had the remnant of 
 a manchet in the sleeve of my monastic gown, and 
 though many eyes were upon me, and others might 
 be as hungry as she was, I took forth the blessed 
 piece of bread, and thrust it into her skinny hands, 
 and then hurried away to Sir Alain de Bohun, who 
 did forthwith order some meat and drink to be 
 given to those poor outlandish starvelings. 
 
 On the day next after the surrender of the castle, 
 the foreign women — praise and thanks to the Lord 
 for that same ! — were all sent away under a strong 
 and reliable escort for the city of London, there to 
 be kept by Stephen's good queen Maud until they 
 should be ransomed or exchanged for other pri- 
 soners. And in the current of that same day we 
 did hear but too surely what the escaped countess 
 was a-doing. She had gone forth from Walling- 
 ford Castle with Brian Fitzcount and a great host 
 of foreign mercenaries, and was marching to the 
 westward to meet the Earl of Gloucester, who w£is 
 not so near to Oxenford as had been reported, and 
 she was again marking her evil path with blood
 
 144 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. ' 
 
 and flames. King Stephen resolved to follow her 
 and bring the great earl to battle ; but the countess 
 and her half-brother having met in Wiltshire, re- 
 treated rapidly to the west, where lay their great 
 strength in partisans and castles, and they threw 
 themselves into the castle of Bristowe, which was 
 their strongest hold all through the war. The king 
 would have turned back to lay siege to Wallingford 
 Castle, in the absence of its terrible lord the mer- 
 ciless Brian Fitzcount ; but a plot broke out in the 
 vicinage of London, and sundry barons raised the 
 banner of Matilda in Essex, thereby obliging 
 Stephen to march with all speed to the eastward. 
 So Wallingford Castle remained in the hands of 
 the robbers, to be a curse to the country and a den 
 of torture : but we, the monks of Reading, with 
 little aid but what the saints sent us, and with no 
 loss of life to our party, did prevail over another 
 band of thieves and destroy their den, to the ines- 
 timable relief and comfort of that country side.
 
 ( 14-5 ) 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The day before King Stephen marched from Oxen- 
 ford 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 Glou- 
 cester 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 
 liis 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 maneged 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 In- 
 gelric had carried away from him his little play- 
 mate 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
 
 146 A LEGEND OF HEADING ABBEY. 
 
 half of them. A shrewd brave boy was the young 
 Lord Arthur, and for his age marvellously ad- 
 vanced 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 with- 
 out 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 trjung 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 147 
 
 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-a-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 con- 
 fessed 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 ac- 
 count 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-a-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-a-Blount !" said I, " these foreign 
 women be worse than painted sepulchres. I 
 doubt not that Urswick was entreated in like 
 manner by his leman."
 
 148 A LEGEND OF HEADING ABBEY. 
 
 *' 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 in- 
 fernal steed ! By all the saints that preside over 
 our house at Reading, I was penitent before ; but 
 the tale of these nightly visltings 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-a-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 
 tlmt 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 assu- 
 rance 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.
 
 A LEGEND OF READIXG ABBEY. 149 
 
 ^' But we lose time," said John ; " the deed ia 
 Jmnd must be done to-niglit, 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 
 Iiim 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 Regi- 
 nald, was the most indulgent of men, and Sir Alain 
 the most generous, but lie would not be comforted. 
 While walking back to the porch of the Pang- 
 bourne 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 re- 
 turn, and I, upon the report of those espials, and 
 upon a feigned sliow 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 bag- 
 gage." 
 
 " May the foul fiend reward that same un- 
 womanly 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."
 
 150 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 When we came near unto the porch, the hearf 
 of my sad companion failed him, and he said that 
 lie 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 
 liis 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 de- 
 stroying a nest of robbers ; and Sir Alain gave 
 thanks for the same, and for so fair a hope of re- 
 covering 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 
 vvould 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-a-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 under-
 
 A LEGEND OF KEADIXG ABBEY. 151 
 
 gone no compulsory fast, the face of that black- 
 eyed damsel that wore a green kirtle was not more 
 changed than that of John-a-Bloimt : 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 tlieir 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-a-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 vainest thine 
 own life, or the future health of thy repentant soul, 
 have a care of tlie 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 maj^est fail in thine enterprise, 
 and if thou art but suspected thou wilt be mur- 
 thered by that bloody Wolf. Bethink thee, my son I 
 Perad venture it may be better that thou stay est in 
 
 H 2
 
 152 A LEGEXD OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 mis- 
 carriage. 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-a-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-a-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 exhorta- 
 tions might spare unnecessar}^ bloodshed ; yet vrhile 
 lie was saying the words he was feeling the point
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 153 
 
 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 Ino^elric'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 
 ratlier 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 tliere, 
 for I had prayed unto the saint that hath controul 
 over coughs and colds. For a space that seemed 
 to us very long Me heard no sound, and in that 
 wooded hollovr' and night-darkness we could see 
 but a very little way. I began to think that the 
 good strategem had miscarried, and to moan in- 
 wardly for John-a-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
 
 154 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 the hollow, and between us ; but so soon as they 
 were there as in a trap, Sir Alain shouted " Now 
 for tlie 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 rob- 
 bers 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- 
 M'arrants. 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 
 M'intry 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 155 
 
 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 dis- 
 covered broken columns and fragments of walls, 
 standing up from the gr(mnd 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 Caesars had built them a city at Spinse which 
 men do now call Speen, and these dark and fantas- 
 tically 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 Spinee as though it had been 
 a common quarrj\ Such fate befalls towns in de- 
 cay ; 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 CUSTO- 
 DIANT MUIiOS EI US. 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 jjensive thought ; 
 but it was only to think of John-a-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
 
 156 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 ourselves behind the mill and blew three blast's 
 upon a trumpet, for this was the only signal which 
 John-a-Blount had asked for. " And now," said 
 our lord abbat, telling his beads, " maj' 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 ex- 
 peditious mass-priest might have said a camp-mass, 
 nought was heard but the plash and ripple of the 
 ever sweet and clear Kennet, and tlie faint moan- 
 ing of some trees whose bare branches were shaken 
 by the fresh gale Avhich 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 donfe ; 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 
 (Irawbricige was down, the gate Mas open, and 
 under the archway, in the midst of a company of 
 men who had still chains and fetters on their legs.
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 157 
 
 but who held flaming torches in their hands, stood 
 John-a- Blount with tlie g-ashful, 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 tliem 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 qua- 
 drangle of the castle with the little Alice in her 
 arms. " She is there, the true and wortliy child 
 of her gentle and martyred mother, and may she 
 long live to make compensation to the world for 
 
 h3
 
 158 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 the many cruelties and crimes of her imnatural 
 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 com- 
 panion 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 
 wdiere 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 159 
 
 foul siirprisal of a loyal castle. These her Mords, 
 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 com- 
 pany 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 coun- 
 tess to turn thy castle into a den of robbers and 
 torturers, to waste the country round about it un- 
 til 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 parti- 
 sans of King Stephen, as well the poor and lowly 
 as the rich and great, and as well the quiet frank- 
 lins 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 ? Ho- 
 nourable 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
 
 160 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 in a lonely cell, where thou may est 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 trea- 
 sures, and some list or knowledge of those who 
 have been robbed by thee, to the end that we may 
 make restitution." 
 
 Ko 'vvays humbled or abashed, the dark ladie of 
 the castle called my lord abbat robber and house- 
 breaker, 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 owm 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 161 
 
 the whole secret, having watched her mistress with 
 feminine curiosity, and could so point out every 
 recess and hiding-place ; and at the hearing o£ 
 these words the dark v.'oman 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 tliem- 
 selves 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 lier quail, nor had 
 the mention of the crucet- house caused her to 
 tremble ; but the tliought of losing all lier 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 ladle's bower (places so invisible and recon- 
 dite that of ourselves vre 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 lisrht 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 
 cruciiix to the door-post, and threatened with ex- 
 communication all such as should approach the door
 
 162 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 until ordered hj 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 liis own use. It is all the propert}^ 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 re- 
 stored to its rightful owners. So now, my children 
 all, follow me down these flinty stairs to refresh 
 yourselves Avith 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- 
 heartedjravenous 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 Eng;-land a^'ain." 
 
 It was a marvellous and a provoking thing to see 
 how v>ell 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 M'ith 
 the best of horses. Rarely have I seen so sump- 
 tuous a feast as that to which we did sit down in 
 the castle hall, with our sharp winter-morning ap- 
 petites.
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 163 
 
 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 destroy- 
 ing 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 witli those that repaired to 
 the house of captiWty and torture, and one who 
 had been released overnight 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 liead 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 nar- 
 row that the bats could scarce have crept throug?i 
 them. The noisome air, never fanned by the sweet 
 breath of heaven, was made more foul and poi- 
 sonous 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 tlie 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,
 
 164 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 pro- 
 cesses 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 tliat 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 ! tliese 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, '• tiiat there be still worse prison-houses tlian
 
 A LEGE^-D OF READING ABBEY, 165 
 
 this, and that there be manv scores of them in the 
 hind/' 
 
 '• May they all down I" 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 Ivennet- 
 w ater, 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 "svalk nor crawl), and so soon as 
 everything was taken up we began to demolish the 
 abominable walls. Many poor men who lived in 
 tliat neighbourhood came to our assistance, and 
 being first refreshed by meat and drink, they la- 
 boured Avith 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 wa^ 
 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
 
 166 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 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 
 ^aw 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 M'ho 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-a-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 w^as 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 
 w^as 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 fo- 
 reign 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 flasliing 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
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 167 
 
 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 meet- 
 ing 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 repeat- 
 ing 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 
 Heading Abbey and the castle of Caversham the 
 night before, and now we despatched another to 
 bid the stay-at-home monks prepare a Te Deura, 
 and a feast for us on the morrow.
 
 ( 1C8 ) 
 
 IX. 
 
 By times in the morning, the treasure, which filled 
 six coffers of the largest, was put into boats to 
 be floated down Thamesis unto our abbey; and 
 some of us going by water and some by land, we 
 all proceeded thitherward, amidst the rejoicings and 
 blessings of all the people. Right glad were they 
 all for the destruction of Sir Ingelric's stronghold ! 
 Had it been the fitting season they would have 
 carried palm-branches before us, as was used at that 
 blessed entrance into Jerusalem ; but it was dead 
 winter, and the morning, though bright and clear, 
 w^as nipping cold. The first time it was I did see 
 our hardy lord abbat muflBe his chin, in a skin or 
 fur brought from foreign parts. A glorious recep- 
 tion, I ween, was that which awaited us ! Our 
 brotherhood, to the number of one hundred and 
 fifty, formed in goodly order of procession witli the 
 banners of our church displayed, and with the prior 
 at their head bearing our richest rood, met us at 
 the edge of the Falbury, all singing — '' Beati qui 
 veniant," — " Blessed are those that come in the 
 name of the Lord ; blessed are those that come from 
 the doing of good." And our good vassals of the 
 township, and the franklins of Reading and the 
 vicinage, were all there in their holiday clothes, 
 and our near-dwelling serfs in their cleanest sheep-
 
 A LEGEXD OF READING ABBEY. 169 
 
 skill jackets, shouting and throwing up their caps ; 
 our abbey bells ringing out lustily and mevrily the 
 while. Xeeds not to say that we sang our best in 
 the choir at that Te Deum, or that the feast which 
 was ready by the hour of noon was sumptuous and 
 mirthful. Nor was the joy less that evening in the 
 castle at Caversham, whither I and some few others 
 went with Sir Alain and the abbat ; for the lord of 
 Caversham being ever of a pleasant humour and 
 ofttimes jocose, did say that forasmuch as I, Felix 
 the novice, and Philip the merry lay-brother, did 
 first carry Alice by night in the little basket unto 
 the castle, to the scandal of some and to the amaze- 
 ment of all, so ought we now to carry back and 
 present to the ladie Alfgiva the restored damsel ; 
 and hereat the young Lord Arthur had clapped his 
 hands, and said so it ought to be. 
 
 And from this happy evening the bountiful ladie 
 of Caversham grew well and strong, and the chil- 
 dren grew up together in all love and loveliness. 
 Somewhat squalid were they both when they were 
 first brought home, but in a brief space of time they 
 were plump and ruddy with health. The little 
 maiden was then in her sixth year ; the little lord, 
 as hath been said, only in his tenth. Truly it is 
 wondrous to think how soon they grew up into 
 womanhood and manhood ! And I the while was 
 passing from blooming manliood to sober age ; yet 
 did I not grieve with Horatius — Eheu ! fugaces. 
 
 When at our leisure we did examine the great 
 treasure brought from the evil castellum at Speen, 
 we found much money that bore the impress of the 
 mint of our house, and divers pieces of plate which 
 had been stolen by the countess's people out of our 
 church. These things, a^ of right, we did keep ;
 
 170 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 but the rest of the plate we restored to the lawful 
 owners thereof when we could discover them, which, 
 sooth to say, did not happen on every occasion. 
 Of the money which was not thought to be our own 
 we did make two portions, and gave one to the- 
 poor and sent the other to King Stephen, who ever 
 needed more money than he could get. But let men 
 do ever so right and be ever so just and holy, they 
 will still be exposed to evil constructions, and the 
 sharp malice of evil tongues ; and therefore no mar- 
 vel was it that many did say we made a great profit 
 unto ourselves out of the sacking of Sir Ingelric's 
 castle. 
 
 And now, toucliing Sir Ingelric's dark wife ; she 
 was shut up for a short season in Heading Castle, and 
 was then carried away to the eastern parts, and was 
 there confined in a solitary and very strong house 
 of religion that stood on the sea-shore. Of the 
 other prisoners, some, being foreigners, were 
 shipped and sent beyond sea, and the rest of them, 
 being native, were sent unto King Stephen's- 
 army. 
 
 By the time we had returned unto our abbey, 
 from Oxenford, it was hard upon the feast of the 
 Epiphany, of the year of grace eleven hundred and 
 forty -three. At the first coming of spring the king, 
 who had been to London and the eastern parts ta 
 collect a great force, marched through Reading and 
 tarried a few hours at our house, without doing- 
 any notable damage thereunto, excepting always 
 that he did boi^roiv from us all the coined money in 
 our mint, which he did intend to repay so soon as 
 the country should be settled. But it grieved us 
 much to learn that he, too, had hired and brought 
 into England great tumultuary companies of Fie-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. I7l 
 
 mings and Bourguignons and other half-baptized, 
 unlioly, ungodly men, who had no bowels of com- 
 passion for the people of England, no respect for 
 our holy places, but an insatiate appetite for plun- 
 der. And these black bands, on marching away to- 
 the westward, brake open divers nunneries and 
 burned sundry towns and churches, maugre all that 
 the legate bishop of AYinchester, who was with his 
 brother the king, could say or do to prevent thera^ 
 This sacrilege brouglit down vengeance and dis- 
 comfiture upon the king's cause, and did drive 
 away from his banner for that time our good Lord 
 of Caversham. Matilda and her princely boy 
 Henr}" remained in Bristowe Castle, or about that 
 fair western country by the shores of the broad 
 Severn, or on the banks of the Avon ; but some of 
 her partisans had made themselves formidable at 
 Sarum ; and to check the incursions of these the 
 king turned the nunnery at "Wilton into a castle, 
 driving out the chaste sisterhood and girding their 
 once quiet abode with bulwarks and battlements. 
 But while he was upon this ill-judged work the 
 great Robert, Earl of Gloucester, on the first of the 
 kalends of July, fell suddenly upon his encamped 
 army, and by surprise and superiority of force did 
 gain a great victory over King Stephen. The king- 
 M'ith his brother the bishop fled with shame, and 
 the earl's men took the king's people and his plate 
 and money -chest, and other things. Among the 
 men of name that were taken at Wilton was Wil- 
 liam Martell, the great favourite and sewer to the 
 king, who was sent to Wallingford Castle, that 
 terrible stronghold of Brian Fitzcount, which few 
 men could mention without turning pale. Thus 
 sundry more years passed with variable successes,
 
 172 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 and every year heaped on each side fresh calamities, 
 to the great ruin of the whole land. And still 
 both parties brought over their hungry bands of 
 adventurers, and still many of our great men, caring 
 neither for one party nor for the other, continued 
 their castle-building and their plundering for their 
 own account, and still the poor and despairing 
 people of England said that Christ and his saints 
 were asleep. Villages and hamlets were fast dis- 
 appearing, and that our towns were not all sacked 
 and burned in these nineteen years of war, and that 
 the substance of every man was not taken from him, 
 was owing to the prayers of the church, and to the 
 leagues and confederations which the franklins and 
 free burG;-hers did make amonof themselves, bindino: 
 themselves by a solemn covenant each to assist the 
 others. At first those who were men of war did 
 laugli at these leagues, but after they had sustained 
 many a check and defeat they were taught to respect 
 the valour of our free men. I have known the 
 weaver quit his shuttle and go forth to battle with 
 sword and spear, and bring back captive from the 
 field a knight and great lord ; and when numerous 
 deeds of the like sort had been done by the honest 
 folk who took up arms only for the defence of their 
 own houses and properties and lives, the great lords 
 and powerful men did either avoid these townships, 
 or treat them with more gentleness and justice. 
 
 It was in this year, at the fall of the leaf, that 
 John-a-Blount died at Maple-Durham, and was 
 buried there. After that our indulgent abbat had 
 confessed him and shrieved him (upon penances 
 duly performed by the said John), and had quitted 
 and fully released him from the cucullus, the poor 
 youth again put on the steel cap, and went to
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEr. 173 
 
 Oaversham to serve as one of the garnison of that 
 good house. Good ^vere the lord and the happy- 
 little lordling unto John, and I ween the Ladie 
 Alfgiva had a great care taken of him when she 
 saw how sad he was, and how fast wasting. But 
 neither cook nor leach, neither generous wine nor 
 comfortable words, could restore strength, or infuse 
 hope, or induce a composure and tranquillity of 
 mind, or keep poor John any long season among 
 us. His heart seemed broken within him ; and 
 there was a flush on his wasted cheek, and then a 
 terrible coughing. So at last my whilome compa- 
 nion being able to do nothing, quitted Caversliani 
 and went to Maple-Durham, that he might die there 
 among some of his kindred, and be buried under the 
 sward by the wattled hillock which marked the 
 grave of his father. That young Angevin Herodias 
 was as much John's murtheress as she could have 
 been if she had put poison in his meat, or a dagger 
 into his heart. May his soul find peace, and her 
 great sin forgiveness ! We did most of vis weep as 
 well as pray for poor John-a-Blount. 
 
 In the year next after the battle at Yv^ilton, 
 King Stephen gained a great victory^ in the 
 meadows which lie near to the abbey of Saint 
 Albans, and our Lord Abbat Reginald did plant a 
 goodly vineyard on the slopes by the side of our 
 house at Reading, and did make an orchard a 
 little beyond Kennet. Many other battles were 
 there in this same year of woe ; and that great par- 
 tisan of the countess, Robert Marmion, was slain 
 in a fierce fight at Coventry ; and Geoffrey Mande- 
 ville. Earl of Essex, was slain at Burwell ; and 
 Ernulphus, Earl Mandeville's son, was taken after 
 his father's death and banished the land. There 
 
 I
 
 174 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 seemed no end to these slayings and banisbings 
 and imprisonings in foul prisons. Verily those 
 Avho made the mischief did not escape from its 
 effects ! The cup of -woe they mixed for the 
 nation was put to their own lips ; turn and turn 
 about they nearly all perished or suffered the ex- 
 tremities of evil fortune ! Kone gained, all lost in 
 tlie end, by this intestine and unnatural war. 
 
 In the year of grace eleven hundred and forty- 
 five King Stephen again passed by Reading, and 
 went and laid close siege to Wallingford Castle ; 
 but he could not prevail against that mighty robber 
 and spoiler Brian Fitzcount ; and on the feast of 
 St. Benedict, at the close of this same year, I, with 
 the saints' aid, having completed my noviciate, 
 took the great vows and became a cloister-monk, 
 with much credit and applause from the whole com- 
 munity, the sweetmeats and all delicate cates being 
 furnished for that feast by the bountiful Ladie 
 Alfgiva, and both Sir Alain de Bohun and his 
 son Arthur being present at the feast. That night 
 there came from the plashy margent of Thamesis 
 a meteor of rare size and brightness, and it stopped 
 for the space of an Ave Maria over our house, and 
 shined in all its brightness upon the tower ; as was 
 noted by all the brotherhood, who did please to 
 say that it was a good omen, portending that I 
 should rise high iu office, and be an ornament and 
 shining light to the house : and truly since then 
 I have passed through offices of trust and honour, 
 and my name hath been made known unto some of 
 our order in foreign parts, and I am now by the 
 grace of our ladie sub-prior of this royal abbey of 
 Reading. Also is it to be noted that in this im- 
 portant year we, the monks of Reading, were
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. iTo 
 
 enabled to keep our great fair in the Falbury. on 
 the day of St. Lawrence and the three days next 
 following, according to the particular charter of 
 privilege granted by our founder Henricus Primus, 
 who commanded in the aforesaid charter that no 
 people should be hindered or troubled either in 
 their coming to the fair or in their going from it, 
 under heavy penalties to be paid in fine silver. 
 And the wise Beauclerc had thus ordered, for that 
 the men of iSTewbury having a fair of their own 
 about the same season, for the sale of cattle and 
 much cheese, were likely to waylay and stop such 
 as were coming to our fair, as in verity they after- 
 wards did, despite of our charter and to the peril 
 of their own souls. But the castle-builders and 
 the robbers that were liege-men unto them, had 
 done the Fair-wending franklins much more harm 
 than had been done them by the wicked men of 
 Newbury ; and in this sort our fair of St. Lawrence 
 had been thinly attended for some years, and had 
 not brought to our house in tolls, fees, and droits, 
 one-half so mucli as the value of the alms we dis- 
 tributed upon that saint's day. 
 
 In the year which followed upon my vows, the 
 husband of Matilda, the Count of Anjou, much 
 grieving for the long absence of his son Henry, 
 and seeing that the presence of one so young did 
 no good to his mother's cause in England, en- 
 treated that he might be sent back into Anjou, 
 and young Henry was sent thither accordingly. 
 It had been well for England if the count had 
 gotten back his wife also, but he was too glad to 
 leave Matilda Mhere she was, for there had not 
 been for many a year any love between them, and 
 from the day of his marriasre with her until Ma- 
 
 i2
 
 176 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 tilda's return to her own country to wage war in 
 it, the count was said never to have known a day's 
 peace. During his long abode in Bristovve Castle 
 the boy Henry had been carefully nurtured and 
 instructed by his uncle the Earl of Gloucester, 
 and by some teachers gathered in England and in 
 foreign parts ; and, to speak the truth of all men, 
 the said earl was well nigh as learned as his father 
 the Beauclerc, and a great encourager of human- 
 izing letters. That great earl was also much com- 
 mended by his friends for his constancy to the 
 cause of his half-sister Matilda, and for his per- 
 severance in all manner of fortunes, and for the 
 equanimity with which he bore defeat and cala- 
 mity ; but, certes, it had been better for us if his 
 perseverance had been less, and if his equanimity 
 had been disturbed by the woes and unutterable 
 anguishes the people of England did suffer from 
 his so long perseverance. But the hand of death 
 was now upon him, and the great earl died soon 
 after the departure of Henrj'^ Fitz-empress, and was 
 buried at Bristowe in the choir of the church of 
 St. James, which he had founded. And no long 
 while after the departure of her son and the death 
 of her valorous half-brother, the countess, to the 
 great trouble of her husband, quitted England and 
 went into Anjou ; and King Stephen, surprising 
 and vanquishing his enemy the Earl of Chester, 
 who had gotten possession of Lincoln town, did tri- 
 vimphantly enter into that town and abide there, 
 which no king durst do before him, for that 
 certain wizards had prophesied evil luck to any 
 king that went into Lincoln town. Being thus 
 within Lincoln, and somewhat elated with the 
 smiles of capricious fortune. King Stephen sura-
 
 A LEGE^'D OF HEADING ABBEY. 177 
 
 moned tlie great barons and magnates of the land 
 unto bim, and at the solemnization of the Nativity 
 of our Lord, he wore the regal crown upon his 
 head, or, as others have it, he was re-crowned 
 and consecrated anew in the mother church at 
 Lincoln : and having the crown of England, to 
 all seeming-, firmly fixed on his brow, he caused 
 the magnates all to swear allegiance to his son 
 Prince Eustace as his lawful successor in the 
 realm. Xo great man gainsayed the king, ])ut all 
 present made a great show of loyalty and affection 
 as well to the son as to the father. Many there 
 were of them who had no truth or steadiness in 
 their hearts; but Sir Alain, our good Lord of Ca- 
 versham, was there, and likewise the young Lord 
 Arthur, and it was with a faith as pure and entire 
 as that of a primiti^■e Christian that the nobles 
 twain placed their hands within the hands of Prince 
 Eustace and vowed to be his true men for aye. 
 And as it was now time that Arthur should enter 
 upon a more active life, and put himself in training 
 for the honours of knighthood, and as Prince 
 Eustace conceived much affection for him, as did 
 all who ever knew the hopeful youth, Arthur was 
 left in the family of the prince to serve him as pag-e 
 and esquire. Yet was the young lord's absence 
 from among us very short, for Prince Eustace 
 came nigh unto Reading to prepare for the laying 
 of another siege to Wallingford Castle, which still 
 lay upon the fair bosom of the countr}^ like a 
 hugeous and hideous nightmare, and whensoever it 
 was not beleaguered the wicked garnison went 
 forth to do that which for so many years they had 
 been doing. Brian Fitzcount, the lord of Walling- 
 ford, Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, and others not
 
 178 A LEGEND OF READING ABBES'. 
 
 a few, had gone beyond sea with the countess ; but 
 they meditated a speedy return with more bands of 
 foreign marauders, and many of their similars and 
 fautors shut themselves up in their home-castles, 
 which were spread all over the country. These 
 things prevented the entire blessing of peace ; yet 
 was England more tranquil than she had been 
 since the Beauclerc's death, and by a succession 
 of sieges Stephen would have gotten the men 
 of anarchy within his power if other accidents had 
 not happened. 
 
 As the king (who had long and grievously 
 mourned for the license and castle-building he had 
 permitted at the beginning of his reign, in the hopes 
 of attaching the great lords to his interest) openly 
 showed his resolution to curb the excessive power 
 and fierce lawlessness of the feudal lords, a great 
 outcry was raised against him, and divers of the 
 lords of his own party began to plot and make 
 league with the barons of Matilda's faction. Others 
 fell from his side because he could give them no 
 money or fiefs, unless he robbed other men or 
 laid heavy tallages upon the poor people. As these 
 selfish men deserted him, Stephen exclaimed, as he 
 had done before, " False lords, why did ye make 
 me king to betray me thus ! But, by the glory of 
 God, 1 will not live a discrowned king !" And so 
 much was granted to him in the end, that Stephen 
 did die with the crown upon his head. Peradven- 
 ture might the king have had the better of his 
 secular foes if in the midst of these troubles he had 
 not quarrelled with the clergy and braved the 
 wrath of the holy see. By the death of one pope 
 and the election of another, the king's brother, the 
 Bishop of AYinchester, had ceased to be legatus a
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 179 
 
 latere, and the legatine office had passed into the 
 hands of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, who 
 had ever leaned to the Angevin party. I'he said 
 lord archbishop was no friend to our Lord Abbat 
 Reginald, or to any of our community, but it becomes 
 not me to rake up the ashes of the dead, or to disturb 
 with a reproachful voice the grave of the primate of 
 England ; and it needs must be said tliat the king 
 was over violent in his regard, and undutifid to our 
 father the pope. For it must ever be acknow- 
 ledged that the triple crown of Rome is more than 
 the crown of England, and tliat the head of the 
 holy Roman Apostolic and Catholic cliurch hath a 
 power supreme in spiritualities over all the kings 
 of Christendom. Nevertheless did King Stephen 
 in an ill hour give a doom of exile against the Lord 
 Archbishop of Canterbur}', for that he had attended 
 at the bidding of the pope, but without consent of 
 the king, a great council of the church in the city 
 of Rheims, in France. Instead of submitting to 
 this sentence, the archbishop went and put himself 
 under the protection of Hugh Bigod, the powerful 
 Earl of Norfolk, who was of the Angevin faction, 
 and then put forth a sentence of interdict against 
 King Stephen, and all that part of the kingdom 
 which obeyed the usurper. In the west country, 
 and in some parts of the east and north, tlie priests 
 shut up their churches and refused to perform any 
 of the offices of religion. Good men went between 
 the king and the primate, and after two years a 
 reconciliation was brought about, Stephen agreeing 
 to be the most bountiful king and the best friend 
 of the church that the church had ever yet known 
 in tliis land. Yet when Archbishop Theobald was 
 called upon to recognise and anoint Prince Eustace
 
 180 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 as heir to the throne, he refused to do it, saying- 
 that he was forbidden by our lord the pope, and 
 that Stephen, being a usurper, could not, like a 
 legitimate sovereign, transmit his crown to his- 
 posterity. The king, unto whom the archbishop 
 had taken the" oath of allegiance, waxed wroth, and 
 threatened the archbishop with a punishment sharper 
 than banishment ; but, when the first passion of 
 anger was over, he did nothing. Men censured the 
 archbishop at the time, but they afterwards thought 
 he had taken the wisest course for putting an end 
 to this long war. In the interim Henry Fitz- 
 empress had been again in our island. In the year 
 eleven Imndred and forty-nine, having attained the 
 military age of sixteen, Henry Plantagenet came 
 over to Scotland with a splendid retinue, to be 
 made a knight by his mother's uncle, King David. 
 The ceremony was performed with much mag- 
 nificence in the city of Carlisle, where the old 
 Scottish king did then keep his court ; and most of 
 the nobles of Scotland and many of our great 
 English barons were present at the celebration, and 
 did then and there make note of the many high 
 qualities of the truly great and ever to be remem- 
 bered son of the Countess Matilda. All manner of 
 honours and power alighted on the head of Henry 
 Plantagenet soon after his being knighted at Car- 
 lisle. The death of his father Geoffrey left him 
 in full possession of the dukedom of Normandie, 
 which he had governed for him, and of the earldom 
 of Anjou, which was his own birthright ; and in 
 that lucky year for the house of Plantagenet, the 
 year of our redemption eleven hundred and fifty- 
 two, by espousing Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry ac- 
 quired that great dame's rights to the earldom of
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 181 
 
 Poictoii and the great clucliy of Aqiiitaine. Henry 
 was thus the greatest and richest prince in all the 
 main land of Europe, and albeit he was only in his 
 twentieth year, he already knew the arts of govern- 
 ment and of war better than any of liis neighbours. 
 A great prince was he from his cradle : he was born 
 to command. 
 
 Et interim, Eustace, the son of Stephen, being 
 nearly of the same age as the son of Matilda, had 
 become a very worthy soldier, and our young Lord 
 of Caversham had grown up with him, and im- 
 proved under him. They had miscarried in the 
 siege of Wallingford Castle, because that house of 
 the devil was so exceeding strong, and because they 
 were called off to another more urgent enterprise ; 
 but in other quarters they had been more success- 
 ful, beating divers of the castle-builders in the 
 field, or taking them in their dens. Ever}" castle 
 that they took was burned and destroyed, like Sir 
 Ingelric's castellum at Speen. They brought many 
 offerings to our shrines, for they were much in our 
 part of the countr}", to keep in check the Angevin 
 party to the westward ; and whenever he was not 
 engaged in these duties of war, the young Lord 
 Arthur came to his home. The winter season al- 
 lowed him the longest repose, and thus it befel that 
 the Ladle Alfgiva and tliat little maiden which I 
 and Philip, the lay-brother, did first convey to 
 Caversham, became sad instead of gay at the ad- 
 vance of spring. But Alice was no longer the little 
 maiden that could lie perdue in a basket, and there 
 had already been many discourses and conjectures 
 as to the day when she and the young Lord Arthur 
 would be made one by holy church; for the 
 great love that had been between them from the 
 
 1 3
 
 182 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 daj^s of their childhood was known to all the 
 country side. Strange it was, but still most true, 
 that Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe never had made 
 any attempt to recover his fair and good daughter. 
 Great endeavours he made to get back that dark 
 ladie of the castle, his wicked and impenitent second 
 wife, and he had at last, by means, it was said, of 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, obtained her release 
 from the nunnery on the eastern coast ; but he had 
 never set on foot any treaty, nor, as far as could be 
 learned, had ever made any inquiry touching the 
 gentle Alice, who in her heart could not think 
 without trembling and turning pale of her dark, 
 stern step-mother, and the days she had passed with, 
 her in that foul donjon at Speen. 
 
 Though his hair had grown grey and scant under 
 the cap of steel, and his soul panted for peace as 
 the hunted hart doth for running waters, Sir Alain 
 de Bohun kept the field almost as constantly as his 
 son ; and his constancy to King Stephen knew no 
 abatement. So mucli virtue and steadiness could 
 not be understood in those changeable and trea- 
 cherous times ; and as it was thought that he put a 
 monstrously high price upon his services, and was 
 true to one side because he had not been sufficiently 
 tempted by the other, in the course of the year 
 eleven hundred and fifty-two there came a secret 
 emissary to offer him one of the greatest earldoms 
 in England, and one of the richest and noblest 
 damsels in Anjou as a bride for his son. Sir Alain 
 bound the emissary with cords, like a felon spy, 
 and sent him and his papers and credential signets 
 unto King Stephen. No mind was ruflBed in 
 Caversham Castle upon this occurrence except the 
 tender mind of Alice, who bethought her that she
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 183 
 
 was but a poor portionless maiden, the daughter of 
 a proscribed man whose estates had long been con- 
 fiscated and held by the king ; but Arthur saw 
 and soon chased away these vain grievings. His 
 father had manors and lands enow, and he wished 
 never to be greater or richer than his father, and 
 Alice was rich in herself, and she was his own 
 Alice, and a greater treasure than any that dukes 
 or kings or emperors could bestow. Let there be 
 peace ; let there only be peace in the land for the 
 herdsman and the tiller of the soil, and the in- 
 dustrious vassals, and what earthly luxury or com- 
 fort M ould be wanting in the house at Caversham ? 
 Fools might contend for more, and barter their 
 souls away to get it, but his father's son would 
 never be this fool. 
 
 I was myself at Caversham at the time of these 
 occurrences, and it was not long after that I be- 
 came sub-sacrist in our abbey, and did build at 
 mine own cost a new rood-loft in the cliurch. 
 
 Also in this year deceased, to King Stephen's 
 great grief, the good Queen Maud, and she was 
 buried at Feversham in Kent.
 
 ( 18-1 ) 
 
 X, 
 
 Befoee the swallows made their next return to our 
 meads and river sides, the flames of war were again 
 kindled in our near neighbourhood. When that I 
 heard Sir Ingelric had stolen back into the island 
 with an Angevin band, and that Brian Fitzcount, 
 through the treachery of some of King Stephen's 
 people, had been allowed to win his way into his 
 inexpugnable castle at Wallingford with great 
 supply of munitions of war, I did foresee that the 
 year eleven hundred and fifty-three would be a year 
 of storm and trouble to Reading Abbey, and to all 
 the country besides. Sir Ingelric's return Avas soon 
 notified to us by the burning of divers villages be- 
 tween Reading and Speen, and by the sudden plun- 
 der and devastation of some of our ov/n outlying 
 manors ; and while we were grieving at these things, 
 nev/s was brought to us that Brian Fitzcount had 
 called upon all the castle holders in the west to take 
 up arms, not for the Countess Matilda, but for her 
 son Henry ; and that the said Sir Brian had ravaged 
 well nigh all the country from Wallingford to 
 Oxenford, making a great prey of men and cattle. 
 
 Sir Alain de Bohun and our stout-hearted Abbat 
 Reginald collected such force as they could, and 
 marched in quest of Sir Ingelric ; but that cruel 
 knight fled at their apjDroach, and then retreated
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 185 
 
 into the far west. King Stephen made an apjDeal 
 to the wealth}' and warlike citizens of London, who 
 were ever truer to him than were his great barons, 
 and being well furnished with arms and men, and 
 the great machines proper for the sieges of strong 
 places, the king went straight to Wallingford with 
 a determination not to remove thence until he 
 had reduced that terrible castle. This time he 
 came not unto our abbey, but the lord abbat sent 
 some of our retainers to assist in the gTcat siege ; 
 and as all the lords that were true to the king 
 marched with the best of their vassals to TTalling- 
 ford, a great army was collected there. Of the 
 people of that vicinage, ever}- free man that ^YSis 
 at all able to work repaired to the king's camp, and 
 offered his labour for the capture and destruction 
 of Brian Fitzcount's den. A deep trench was 
 speedily cut all round the castle, and such bul- 
 warks and palisadoes were made that none could 
 come out of the place or enter therein ; and cata- 
 pults were in readiness to batter the \valls, and 
 mines were digging that would have caused the 
 keep to totter and fall. Certes, the emprise was 
 close to a successful issue, when tidings were 
 brought that Heniy Plantagenet had landed in the 
 south-west with one hundred and forty knights, and 
 three tliousand foreign foot soldiers, that all the 
 great barons of the west were proclaiming him to 
 be the lawful king of England, and were joining 
 his standard, and that he was moving with a mighty 
 force to lay siege to Malmesbun,'. King Stephen 
 had found no more faith abroad than he had found 
 at home. Ludovicus, the French king, having 
 many weighty reasons to mislike and fear Henry 
 Plantagenet, had made a treaty of alliance with
 
 186 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 Stephen, had affianced his daughter Constance to 
 Prince Eustace the son of Stephen, and had en- 
 gaged to keep the powerful Ans^evin at home by 
 threatening Anjou and Kormandie with the inva- 
 sion of a great French army ; but, instead of a 
 great army, the French king sent but a few ill- 
 governed bands ; and when these had been dis- 
 •comnted in a few encounters, Ludovicus listened to 
 proposals of peace, and abandoned the ijiterests of 
 Stephen. And that great Englisli earl, Ranulph, 
 €arl of Chester, whom King Stephen had driven 
 out of Lincoln, went over to Anjou to invite Henry 
 into England, and to engage soul and body in his 
 ■service ; first taking care to obtain from that young 
 prince a deed of charter conveying to him, the said 
 Earl Ranulph, in foede et heriditate, the lands of 
 William de Feveril, and many fiefs and broad ma- 
 nors in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, and 
 -elsewhere, together with sundry strong castles which 
 the said earl hoped to keep — but did not. Forced 
 was King Stephen to raise his siege of Wallingford 
 •Castle, and to evacuate and destroy the wooden 
 oastle of Cranmerse which he had raised close to 
 Brian Fitzcount's gates. He had scarcely drawn off 
 his people, and begun a march along the left bank 
 of Tiiamesis above Wallingford, ere Henry Planta- 
 genet, having gotten possession of Malmesbury and 
 of many strong castles, which the castle-builders, 
 not foreseeing that which was to happen, had given 
 up to him, appeared on the right bank of the river 
 with his great army of horse and foot. The Plan- 
 tagenet was of an heroical temper ; and Stephen, who 
 had fought in so many battles, was yet as brave as 
 his young rival, and was transported with Mrath at 
 seeing how many barons who had repeatedly sworn
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBET. 187 
 
 allegiance to him were in array against liim ; more- 
 over, Prince Eustace was with his father, and, like 
 a valorous and passionate youth, was eager for the 
 fight ; and of a certainty there would have been a 
 terrible and bloody battle, if battle could have been 
 joined at the first confronting of these two forces ; 
 but a heavy and long-continuing rain had swollen 
 all the rivers and brooks, and had poured such a 
 volume of water into Thamesis that there was no 
 crossing it. Therefore lay the two mighty armies 
 opposite to each other for the space of several days ; 
 and during that interval certain of our prelates be- 
 stirred themselves as peace-makers, and sundry great 
 lords on either side said that verily it was time this 
 unnatural war should have an end. But lienry Plan- 
 tagenet did want for his immediate v.earing the 
 kingly crown of England, and Stephen had vowed 
 by the glory of God to keep that crown on his head 
 until his death, and none durst speak to him of a 
 present surrender of it. Y\ hen the waters some- 
 what abated the king marshalled his host, as if de- 
 termined to come at his foe by crossing the river 
 at a ford not far off; but upon mounting his war-^ 
 horse, which had carried him in many battles, the 
 steed stumbled and fell, not without peril to his 
 rider. The king mounted again, laughing as at a 
 trifling accident ; but when the horse fell a second 
 time under him, his countenance became troubled. 
 Nevertheless he essayed a third time, and for a 
 third time the steed fell flat to the earth as though 
 he had been pierced through poitrail and heart by 
 an arrow. Then did the king turn pale, and his 
 nobles 'gan whisper that this was a fearful omen. 
 
 *• By our Ladie St. Mary," quoth Prince Eustace, 
 " the steed hath grown old, and distemper hath
 
 188 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 seized him during his days of inactivity in this 
 swampy and overtlooded country ! This is all the 
 omen, and the death of the poor horse will be all 
 our loss." 
 
 And the resolute young prince \yould have 
 mounted his father on another steed, and have 
 marched on to the ford, and then straight to battle. 
 But the Earl of Arundel, being much inclined to 
 peace, and a bold and eloquent man, took advantage 
 of the consternation which the omen or horse-sick- 
 ness had created in the king's army, and going up 
 to Stephen, he did advise him to make a present 
 convention and truce with Henry Plantagenet, 
 affirming that the title of Duke Henry to the 
 crovv n of England was held to be just by a large 
 part of the nation, and by some who had never 
 been willing to admit his mother to the throne ; 
 that the country was all too weary of these wars, 
 and that the king ought by experience to know the 
 little trust that was to be put in many of his pre- 
 sent followers. " But I will not die a discrowned 
 king," said Stephen. ^' Nor shalt thou," replied 
 the great Earl of Arundel. 
 
 After many entreaties and prayers, the kingly 
 mind of Stephen yielded so far as to allow a parley 
 for a truce ; and Henry Plantagenet, not being less 
 politic than warlike, entered upon a convention, 
 and then agreed to confer with Stephen. 
 
 The place for conference was so appointed that 
 the river Thamesis, where it narrows a little above 
 Wallingford, parted the two princes and the great 
 lords that \vere with them ; so that from either 
 bank King Stephen and Duke Henry saluted each 
 other, and afterwards conversed together. The con- 
 ference ended in a truce, during which neither party
 
 A LEGEND OF KEADIXG ABBEY. 189 
 
 was to attempt any enterprise of war, but both were 
 to discuss and amicably settle the question of Duke 
 Henry's right to the crown upon the demise of 
 Stephen. 
 
 Prince Eustace had not been a prince if he had 
 quietly submitted to an arrangement which went to 
 deprive him of the succession to a great kingdom : 
 he burst suddenly away from the king's camp, 
 calling upon those who had taken the oaths to hiia 
 to follow him to the east. Xot many rode off with 
 him ; but our j'oung Lord Arthur, feeling the obli- 
 gations of his replicated vows and the ties of duty 
 and friendship, would not quit his master ; nor did 
 his father Sir Alain, who had placed him in the 
 prince's service, make any effort to restrain him. 
 As for the good lord of Caversham himself, he re- 
 turned to his home with the double determination 
 of observing the truce, and of not giving up his 
 allegiance to King Stephen, unless the king should 
 voluntarily release him therefrom ; for, much as- 
 he sighed for the return of peace. Sir Alain prized 
 his honour, and did never think that a good settle- 
 ment of the kin2:dom could be obtained throuo^h 
 falsehood and perjury. But woful apprehensions 
 and sadness did again fall upon the house at Caver- 
 sham, for the course taken by Prince Eustace was 
 full of danger to him and his few adherents, and 
 it was reported that his great anger and desperation 
 had driven him mad. But short was the career of 
 that liapless youns^ prince, who, though born to a 
 kingdom, lived not to see anything but the ca- 
 lamities thereof. I wis those men who had most 
 flattered him, and had taken oaths to him as to the 
 lawful heir to this glorious crown of England, did 
 speak most evil of him in the days of his adversity.
 
 190 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 and after his death. I, who knew him and con- 
 versed with liim oft times, did ever find him a 
 youth of a right noble nature, valorous and merci- 
 ful like iiis father, and as devout and friendly unto 
 the church as his motlier Queen Maud. Yet may 
 I not deny that in his last despair he did some 
 wicked deeds which sorely grieved our young Lord 
 Arthur, who could not prevent them, and who yet 
 would not abandon him in this extremity of his 
 fortune. Coming into the countries of the east, and 
 finding few to join him, he burst into the liberties 
 of St. Edmund, and into the very abbey of St. 
 Edmund, king and martyr, and demanded from the 
 Lord Abbat Ording, and the monks of that holy 
 house, money and other means for the carrying on of 
 his heady designs ; and when that brotherhood, as in 
 duty bound, and like men that were unwilling to 
 be wagers of new wars, did refuse his request and 
 point out the unreasonableness and ungodliness of 
 them, he ordered his hungry and desperate soldiers 
 to seize all the corn that was in the abbey, and 
 carry it into a castle which he held hard by, and 
 then to go forth and plunder and waste the lord 
 ab bat's manors. The corn was carried to the 
 castle, but before further mischief could be done 
 the soul of Prince Eustace was required of him ; 
 for that very day, as he sat at dinner in his castle, 
 lie dropped down in a deadly fit, and was dead 
 before the kind Arthur could get a monk to shrive 
 him. The Countess Matilda, I ween, had done 
 worse deeds at Reading than Eustace did at St. 
 Edmund's Bury, and, certes, the patrons and pro- 
 tectors of our house, our Ladie theJYirgin, and St. 
 James, and St, John the evangelist, were not less 
 powerful to punish than St. Edmund the king and
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 191 
 
 martyr ; iievertheless Matilda was let live, and the 
 young Kustace perished in his prime. But these 
 things are not to be scanned by mortal eye, and 
 the judgments of heaven are not always immediate, 
 and it might not have been so much in vengeance 
 for Eustace's great sin in robbing the monks of 
 vSt. Edmund's Bury of their corn, as in mercy to 
 the suflering people of England, that the son of 
 King Stephen was so suddenly smitten and re- 
 moved. The monks of St. Edmund did, however, 
 give out that it was their saint who slew him for 
 his sin, causing the first morsel of the stolen victual 
 he put into his mouth to drive him into a frenzy, 
 whereof he died. Others there were who ac- 
 counted for his opportune death by alleging that 
 some subtile poison had been administered to him ; 
 but of this was there never any proof. Our young 
 Lord Arthur, without denying the great provoca- 
 tion he had given unto St. Edmund, did always 
 think that his brain had been touched ever since 
 his father held the conference above AVallingford 
 with Duke Henry, and tliat a great gust of passion 
 killed him. But whatever was the cause of his 
 deatl), and however sad was that event in itself, he 
 was surely dead, and it was just as sure that the 
 kingdom would be the better for it. If few had 
 followed him while he was alive, still fewer stayed 
 to do honour to his remains ; but Arthur, with a 
 ver)' sincere grief, and with all respect and piety, 
 carried the body of his master to the sea-side, and 
 thence by water into Kent, and saw it interred at 
 Fe\ersham by the side of Queen Maud, with all 
 the rites and obsequies of holy church. Fidelity 
 could not go beyond this ; the great arbiter. Death, 
 had freed him from liis allegiance and aows to the
 
 192 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY, 
 
 prince, and so from the honoured grave in Fever- 
 sham Abbey, Arthur de Bohun rode with all pos- 
 sible speed unto Caversham. So true was it, that 
 nothing that man could do could keep Alice and 
 him long asunder. 
 
 Many of our wicked castle builders, who had 
 not always respected the truce of God, would not 
 now be bound by the truce concluded between two 
 mortal princes ; and when the term of that suspen- 
 sion had expired, some of the barons on either side 
 would have renewed the war on a grand scale, and 
 have carried it into all parts of the kingdom. Some 
 few sieges M-ere commenced, and some hostile move- 
 ments made in the field, by King Stephen and Duke 
 Henry ; but since the unhappy death of Prince 
 Eustace, the king cared not much about keeping- 
 the crown in his family, for he had but one other 
 lawful son, and this son, the gentle-tempered Wil- 
 liam, was only a boy, and was without ambition ; 
 for his eyes had not been dazzled by any near pros- 
 pect of the crown, and none of the baronage had 
 ever sworn fealty to him. And tlius, when the 
 peace-makers renewed their blessed endeavours. 
 King Stephen was easily induced to agree that 
 Duke Henry should be his successor in this king- 
 dom, provided that he left him a peaceable posses- 
 sion of the disputed throne for the term of his 
 natural life, and bound himself to fulfil a few other 
 engagements. The king's brother, the Bishop of 
 Winchester, did now join with his old enemy, 
 Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, in urging 
 this accord, and on either side the great barons 
 recommended the adjustment ; for all were weary 
 of the war except a few desperate robbers, whose 
 crimes had been so numerous that they could not
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 193 
 
 hope to escape punishment at the return of peace. 
 Another great council of barons and prelates was, 
 therefore, called together at Winchester ; and in 
 that royal and episcopal city, on the seventh of the 
 Kalends of November, in this the last year of our 
 woe, eleven hundred and fifty -three, the agreement 
 was finished, and a charter naming Henry heir to 
 the throne was granted by Stephen, and witnessed 
 by Theobald the archbishop, the Bishop of Win- 
 chester, eleven other bishops, the prior of Ber- 
 mondsey, the head of the knights Templars, and 
 eighteen great lay lords. And a short season after 
 this, the king and the duke travelled lovingly toge- 
 ther to Oxenford, where the earls and barons, by 
 the king's commandment, did swear fealty to the 
 duke, saving the king's honour, so long as he lived; 
 and the Plantagenet did pledge himself to behave 
 to Stephen of Blois as a duteous and aflfectionate 
 son, and to gi'ant to him, all the days of his life, 
 the name and seat of the kingly pre-eminence. In 
 the presence of the best of our baronage, the king 
 and duke did then confer about other state matters, 
 and did fully agree and concur in this — that there 
 must be an end of castle-building and castle- 
 builders, that the donjons which remained must all 
 down, and that the vengeance of the law must fall 
 upon the robbers, whether they had been, or had 
 pretended to be, followers of Matilda, or Stephen, 
 or Duke Henry himself; for, being now acknow- 
 ledged heir to the crown, Henry wished not to come 
 into a wasted and impoverished land, and well he 
 knew, at all times, that the prosperity of the people 
 maketh the wealth, and power, and glory of the 
 ruler. Those castles in the west, which had been 
 given up to him by their builders, were presently
 
 194 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 levelled with the earth ; and even Brian Fitzcount 
 was warned that he must quit his strong house at 
 "Wallingford, or abide the most fearful conse- 
 quences. Some of the cruel oppressors of their 
 country came in of their own will, and submitted 
 to King Stephen and the law ; but others held out 
 stiffly, denying all allegiance whether to the king 
 regnant or to Duke Henry as his successor ; and in 
 this sort the poor people in divers parts continued 
 to be harrowed, and plundered, and captured, and 
 tortured, as in the foregone time. Nay, some of 
 our wicked barons, making league with therapinous 
 princes and wild chiefs of the Welsh mountains, did 
 continue to keep the open fields in the western parts, 
 and to desolate the land from the river Severn even 
 unto the river Mersey. 
 
 Many were the private discourses which King 
 Stephen held with the hopeful Plantagenet, for 
 Stephen's heart was all for the commonalty of 
 England, and he trusted that he could give such 
 instruction and advice to Henry as would aid that 
 prince in making his future government firm, and, 
 at home, pacific, and in that sort a blessing to the 
 people. But the Plantagenet had solemnly pledged 
 his faith by treaty and by oath to leave unto 
 Stephen, so long as he should live, the full exercise 
 of the authority royal, and this could hardly have 
 been if Henry had tarried in England ; and, more- 
 over, matters of high concernment called for the re- 
 turn of the duke to Anjou and Normandie. So, in the 
 spring season of the year of grace eleven hundred and 
 fifty-four, after some long consultations held at Dun- 
 stable to treat of the future state and peace of the 
 kingdom, the king accompanied the duke to the sea- 
 coast, and, Mith a loving leave-taking of Stephen,
 
 A I.EGE^'D OF READING ABBEY. 195 
 
 Henry embarked and sailed over to Xormandie. 
 Foul rumours there were, as that Stephen's young 
 son with a party of Flemings ^^•ould have waylaid 
 the duke on Barham downs, and have there slaugh- 
 tered him ; but I wis all this was but a fable, for 
 the boy William was too young for such matters, 
 and being of a gentle and unambitious nature, and 
 too well knowing that the crown of England had 
 been a crown of thorns to his father, he was more 
 than content with the 'lands and honours secured 
 unto him by the Charta Conventionum. 
 
 Also was it nigh upon the time that William, 
 archbishop of York, a kinsman of King Stephen, 
 who had been deprived by the pope in the year 
 eleven hundred and forty-seven, and who had been 
 reinstated after the truce concluded at Wallingford, 
 suddenly departed this life at York, and was buried 
 with great haste and little ceremony in that minster. 
 And here too there were evil reports spread through 
 the land as that Archbishop William had been 
 poisoned. Having no light wherewith to penetrate 
 the darkness of this mystery, I will not affirm that 
 King Stephen's kinsman was so disposed of; but 
 verily the malice of men's hearts was great, and 
 there was much secret poisoning in these times ! 
 
 Stephen being thus left to govern by himself, 
 sundry of our great men, having from that which 
 they had seen and heard of Prince Henry come to 
 the conclusion that if he should be king he would 
 keep a bit in their mouths and keep a strong rein 
 in his own hands, did repair to the king who had 
 so often been betrayed by them, and did strongly 
 urge him to break the treaty and trust to war and 
 the valour and faith of his vassals for the continu- 
 faniily on the throne. But Stephen
 
 196 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 having a respect for his oaths (v.hich mayhap was 
 the greater by reason of a sickness that was upon 
 him), and knowing the trust that was to be put in 
 the faith and steadiness of these men, said, " There 
 bath been war enough, and too much woe!" and 
 he would not give his ear unto them, but did com- 
 mand forces to be gathered for putting down the 
 castle-builders and the robbers that had allied 
 themselves with the Welsh. 
 
 And of a surety in these his last days King 
 Stephen betook himself wholly to repair the ruins 
 of the state, and heal the great alflictions of the 
 church. He made a progress into most parts of 
 the kingdom to reform the monstrous irregularities 
 whicli had arisen by long war, to curb the too great 
 baronial power, to get back to our abbeys and 
 churches tlie things whereof they had been de- 
 spoiled, and to speak and deal comfortably with all 
 manner of peace-loving men. Some castles he re- 
 duced by force, others he terrified into submission, 
 and others were taken by a few good lords like Sir 
 Alain de Bohun. In all these occurrents nothing 
 was heard of our impenitent neighbour Sir Ingelric, 
 save that his wife the dark ladie of the castle had 
 died, and that he himself was thought to have gone 
 into the west. Of that greater and far more ter- 
 rible chief, Brian Fitzcount, we did hear enough 
 and more than enough, for in despite of the joint 
 commandment of King Stephen and Duke Henry, 
 he kept possession of his castle at Wallingford and 
 continued his evil courses in all things. Yea, at a 
 season when we did apprehend no such doing, one 
 of his excommunicated companies, stealing by 
 night down the vale of Thamesis, did set fire to our 
 srrauaries at Pangbourne, and maim our cattle, and
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEF. 197 
 
 SO sweep our basse-eoiirt tliat we had not left so 
 much as one a-oose \\ herewith to celebrate the feast 
 of St. Michael. The better to put down these 
 atrocious doings. King Stephen called together 
 within the city of London a great and godly meet- 
 ing of barons and prelates and head men of towns ; 
 and sooth to say the spirit of peace and love presided 
 over that great council, and many proper methods 
 w^ere taken by it and good laws passed. I, who 
 went unto London city with our lord abbat. did see 
 with mine own eyes the respect which was now paid 
 unto the eldermen of great towns and boroughs, 
 and likewise to the franklins, whether mixed by 
 the marriages of their fathers or grandfathers with 
 Korman women, or whether of the old and unmixed 
 Saxon stock, the number of these last being as a score 
 to one ; and then did I say to myself that if these 
 things continued, the day might arrive when the 
 burghers and free plebeians of England might be 
 something in the state. Nay, I did even dream 
 that in process of time the collar might be taken 
 from the neck of our serf, and the cultivator of the 
 soil be no longer a villein, but a free man. But I 
 concealed this my bright vision, lest it should ex- 
 pose me to censure and mockery. 
 
 When this great council at London was broken up 
 King Stephen made repair unto Dover to meet and 
 confer with his ancient ally and friend the Earl of 
 Flanders. The king was Mell attended, and among 
 the best lords of England that went with him was 
 our neighbour Sir Alain de Bohun. We, the monks 
 of Reading, or such of us as had gone to the great 
 city, journeyed back to our abbey, in a great fall of 
 autumnal rain ; and when, at the end of three days, 
 
 K
 
 198 A LEGE-^D OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 we in uncomfortable case did reach the abbey, we 
 found tliat the swollen river had swept away good 
 part of the mill wliich we had built on the Kennet, 
 at a short space from our house, and had otherwise 
 done us much mischief. Also was there seen a 
 gi'eat falling star, and there were heard in the hea- 
 vens, on one veiy dark and gusty night, some dolor- 
 ous sounds, as of men wailing and lamenting. In 
 a few days more some sad but uncertain rumoui-s 
 did begin to reach our house ; but it was not until 
 one stormy night in the early part of November, 
 when Sir Alain de Bohun on his way homewa.yd 
 stopped at our gates, that we knew of a certainty 
 that which had befallen. Ah, well-a-day. King 
 Stephen was dead ! He who for well nigh nine- 
 teen years had not known one day's perfect peace 
 was now, inasmuch as the world and mortal man 
 could affect him, at peace for ever ! And may 
 God have mercy on his soul in the world to come I 
 After the politic conferences with the Earl of 
 Flanders, and the departure of the said earl for his 
 own domimions, the king was all of a sudden seized 
 with the great pain of the Iliac passion, and witli 
 an old disease which liad more than once brought 
 him to the brink of the grave ; and so, after shoit 
 but acute sufiering, he laid him down to die, anil 
 did die in the house of the monks of Canterbury, 
 on the five and twentieth day of the kalends of 
 October. Sic mors rapit om)ie genus. And our 
 true-hearted lord of Caversham, vvho was true unto 
 death, and who had tenderly nursed the dying king, 
 conveyed the body to Feversliam, and placed it in 
 the same grave with his beloved wife Maud, and 
 his son Stephen, in the goodly abbey which he and
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. ] 99 
 
 his queen liad built and endowed in that Kentish 
 township ; and having in this guise done the last 
 duty to his liege lord and king, and being by death 
 liberated from the oaths of fealty and allegiance, 
 which he had never broken by word or deed. Sir 
 Alain, caring for none of the honours and advance- 
 ments which other lords were ready to struggle for 
 at the coming in of a new king, came quietly home, 
 only hoping and praying that his country would be 
 happy under Henry Plantagenet. 
 
 King Stephen being gone, much evil was said of 
 him on all sides and by all parties : yea, his own 
 partisans, in the expectation that such m ords would 
 be grateful to the ear of the new king, did affect to 
 murmur and lament that he should so long have 
 kept the great Henricus from the throne ; and, 
 generaliter, the great men did burthen the memory 
 of Stephen with the past miseries of the people of 
 England, of which they themselves had been the 
 promoters. I have said it : the defunct king, iti 
 the straits and troubles into which he had been 
 driven by the greed, ambition, and faithlessness of 
 the baronage, had ofttimes done amiss, and, spe- 
 cialiter, had much travailed churchmen : yet be it 
 remembered that he built more royal abbeys than 
 any king that went before him ; that he founded 
 hospitals for the poor sick ; and that during the 
 whole of his troublous reign he laid no new tax or 
 tallage upon the people ; and that he was of a na- 
 ture so mild and merciful that notwithstanding the 
 many revolts and rebellions and treasons practised 
 against him, he did never put any great man to 
 death. I, Felix, who had seen how large he was of 
 heart and how open of hand, and who had tasted of 
 
 k2
 
 200 A I.EGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 his bount}'^ and condescension, could not forget 
 these things when, in a few days, after saying a mass 
 of Requiem for his soul, we chanted in our church a 
 Te Deum laudamus for his successor.
 
 ( 201 ) 
 
 XL 
 
 I HAVE said that we heard all too much of our 
 powerful and wicked neiglibour Brian Fitzcount. 
 But now that he knew Henry Plantagenet was 
 coming, and was one that would have power to 
 destroy him and to put an end to all plundering 
 and castle-building, a sudden repentance seized his 
 time-hardened conscience. Some did much praise 
 him for this, and greatly admired the seeming se- 
 verity of his penance ; but it is to be feared that 
 he, like many others among our castle-builders and 
 depredators, did only repent when he found that 
 he could sin no more. So great had been his 
 crimes, and so noted was Duke Henry for his strict 
 execution of justice, that, notwithstanding his long 
 adherence to Henry's mother. Sir Brian could not 
 hope to escape a severe punishment, with forfeiture 
 of the broad lands which had become his by mar- 
 riage, and with deprivation of the great riches he 
 had accumulated by plundering the country. In 
 this wise no secure asylum was open to him except 
 in the cloisters or in taking the cross. And before 
 the Plantao-enet returned into Enofland Sir Brian 
 Fitzcount did take upon him the cross, and giving 
 up his terrible castle at Wallingford with all his 
 fiefs, and abandoning all his riches — relictis for- 
 tunis omnibus — he joined other crusaders and took
 
 202 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 his departure for Palestine. His wife Maud, the 
 rich daughter of Sir Robert d'Oyley, had before 
 this time retired into a convent in Normandie, and 
 there, being awakened to a sense of the wickedness 
 of her past life, she did soon take the veil. As 
 they had no issue, and left no knight near of kin, 
 King Henry, soon after his coronation, took pos- 
 session of Wallingford Castle and of the honour of 
 Wallingford ; and from that happy moment the 
 troubles of the country and of our good house 
 ceased. Such was the fate of our worst enemy ; 
 but of the scarcely less wicked Sir Ingelric of 
 Huntercombe we still could learn nothing of cer- 
 tain, and the rumours which reached us were very 
 contradictory, some saying that he had been slain 
 by Welsh thieves, some that he had fled beyond 
 sea, some that he had entered into religion under 
 a feigned name, and was preparing to take the mo- 
 nastic vows in the AYelsh house at Bangor, and 
 some asserting that he had gone with a desperate 
 band into Scotland to take service with that king 
 and aid him in subjugating the wild mountaineers 
 of the north. Nay, there was still another report 
 common among the poor country folk that dwelt 
 upon Kennet near Speen, and it was to the eifect 
 that Satan had carried him away bodily. In short, 
 none knew what had become of him, but all prayed 
 that they might never see his face again. 
 
 Henry Plantagenet was busied in reducing the 
 castles of some of his turbulent barons in Nor- 
 mandie when he received the news of King Ste- 
 phen's demise. Being well assured that none in 
 England would dare question his right to the va- 
 cant throne, and being moreover a wise prince, 
 who always finished that which he had in hand be-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 203 
 
 fore beginning any new thing, he prosecuted his 
 sieges, and ceased not until he had reduced all the 
 castles. Thus it was good six weeks after the 
 death of Stephen, and hard upon the most solemn 
 festival of the Nativity, when Henry came into 
 England with his wife Eleanor and a mighty com- 
 pany of great men. He was received as a deli- 
 verer, and there was joy and exultation in the 
 heart of every true Englishman at his coming. 
 A wondrously handsome and strong prince he was, 
 albeit his hair inclined to that colour which got 
 for his great-uncle the name of Rufus or Red 
 King. His forehead was broad and lofty, as if it 
 were the seat of great wisdom, and a sanctuary of 
 high schemes of government. His eyes were round 
 and large, and while he was in a quiet mood, they 
 were calm, and soft, and dovelike ; but when he was 
 angered, those eyas flashed fire and were like unto 
 lightning. His voice ! — it made the heart of the 
 boldest quake wlien he raised it in wrath, or in 
 peremptory command ; but it melted the soul like 
 soft music when he was in the gentle mood that was 
 more common to him, and it even won men's hearts 
 tlirough their ears : it was by turns a trumpet or a 
 lute. Great, and for a prince miraculous, was his 
 learning, his grandfather, the Beauclerc, not having 
 been a finer scholar : wonderful was his eloquence, 
 admirable his steadiness, straightforwardness and 
 sagacity in the despatch of all business. He 
 breathed a new life, and put a new soul into the 
 much worn and distracted body of England. 
 There shall be peace in this land, said he; and 
 peace sprang up as quick as the gourd of the pro- 
 phet : there shall be justice among men of all de- 
 grees; and there was justice. Having taken the oaths
 
 204 A LEGEND OF EEADIA^G ABBEY, 
 
 to be good king and lord — to respect mother church 
 and the ancient liberties of the people, the great 
 Plantagenet was solemnly crowned and anointed in 
 the royal city of Winchester on the 19th of the 
 kalends of December, by Theobald, archbishop of 
 Canterbuiy ; and Eleanor, his wife, was crowned 
 with him. In the speech which he did then de- 
 liver, he boasted of the Saxon blood which he in- 
 herited from his grandmotlier, Queen Maud, of 
 happy memory, who descended in riglit line from Al- 
 fredus Magnus : and these his royal words did much 
 gratify the English people, without giving offence 
 to the lords and knights of foreign origin, who, 
 by frequent intermarriages, had themselves become 
 more than half Savons, and who had long since 
 prided themselves in the name of Englishmen, and 
 would, in truth, be called by none other name. 
 And full soon did Henricus Secundus make it a 
 name of terror to Kormandie, to the whole of 
 France, and all circumjacent nations ; and now that 
 I write, in his happy time, hath he not filled the 
 highest offices in church and state with men of 
 English birth, and with many of the unmixed Saxon 
 race ? From his first entrance into the government 
 of this realm, he was principally directed in matters 
 of law and justice by our great lord archbishop, 
 Thomas a Eecket, then only archdeacon of Can- 
 terbury, provost of Beverley, and prebendary of 
 Lincoln, and St. Paul's, London ; and our Lord 
 Thomas, as all men do know, is the son of Gilbert 
 a Becket, merchant of the city of London. 
 
 King Henry kept his Christmas at Bermondsey ; 
 and it w^as from that place that he issued his royal 
 mandate, that all the foreign mercenaries and com- 
 panies of adventure that had done such terrible
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 205 
 
 mischief in the wars between King- Stephen and 
 Matilda should depart the land within a given time, 
 and without carrying with them the plunder they 
 had made. Divers of these men had been created 
 earls and barons, and still kept possession of fiefs 
 and castles, but they nearly all yielded for the great 
 dread they had of the new king, and so got them 
 out of England by the appointed day, as naked and 
 poor as they were when, for our sins, they first came 
 among us ; and many a Fleming and Brabanter, 
 Angevin and Breton, from being a baron and castle- 
 builder, returned to the plough-tail in his own 
 country. As the spring season approached, our 
 great king repaired unto Wallingford Castle, and 
 there convened a great council of earls, bishops, 
 abbats, and some few citizens of note and wealthy 
 franklins. It was a pleasant and right joyous 
 journey that which I had with our Lord Abbat 
 Reginald, and Sir Alain de Bohun, and my young 
 Lord Arthur. Already the hamlets which had 
 been burned began to rear again their yellow- 
 thatched roofs in the bright sun ; the wasted and 
 dispeopled towns were afready under repair ; the 
 shepherd, with his snowy flock and skipping lambs, 
 was again whistling on the hill sides like one that 
 had nought to fear ; the hind was singing at his 
 labours in the fertile fields ; the farmer and the 
 trader were travelling with their wains and pack- 
 horses, from grano-e to market and from town to 
 town, without dread of being robbed, and seized, 
 and castle-bound ; skiffs and barks were ascending 
 and descending the river with good cargaisons, and 
 without having a single lance or sword among their 
 crews ; the trenches cut in the churchyards were 
 filled up, the unseemly engines of war were taken 
 
 K 3
 
 206 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 down from the church towers, and the church bells, 
 being replaced, again filled the air with their holy 
 and sanctifying sounds. Even the wilderness and the 
 solitary place partook of the spirit of this universal 
 peace and gladness ; there was sunshine in every 
 man's face, whether bond or free. In summa, it 
 seemed, in truth, a time when the wolf dwelt with 
 the lamb, and the leopard lay down with the kid, 
 and the lion with the fatted calf; when the iron of 
 tiie great engines of war was turned into a plough- 
 share, the sword into a pruning-hook, and the 
 lance into a pastoral crook. I, who did well re- 
 member the sad state of things only a few months 
 agone, did much marvel that a country could so 
 soon recover from the horrors of war, and the 
 depth of a universal anarchy and havoc ; and did, 
 with a melting heart and moistened eye, offer up 
 my thanks to the Giver of all good things that it 
 should be so. 
 
 It was at Wallingford that I did see, for the first 
 time, our far-renowned Thomas a Becket. There 
 was no seeing him without discerning the great 
 heights to which he was destined to rise, even more 
 by his natural gifts than by the king's favour. At this 
 time he numbered some thirty-six or thirty-seven 
 years ; and from his childhood those years had been 
 years of study or of active business, as well of a secu- 
 lar as of an ecclesiastical kind. A handsome man Avas 
 he at that season, and blith^e and debonnaire, and, 
 mayhap, a trifle too much given to state affairs, and 
 the pomps and vanities of this world, for a church- 
 man : but, oh, John the Evangelist, what a mind 
 was his ! what readiness of wit and reach of 
 thought ! And what an eagerness was in him to 
 raise his countrymen to honour, to make his country
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 207 
 
 happy and full of glorj'^, and to raise the church in 
 power and dignity ! " Aiigli sumus, we be Eng- 
 lishmen," said he to our lord abbat, "and we must 
 gee to raise the value of that name." Great and 
 long experienced statesmen there were in this great 
 council at AVallingford, men that had travailed in 
 negotiation at home and abroad, and that had 
 grown grey and bald in state offices ; but verily 
 they all seemed children compared with the son of 
 our London merchant, and they one and all sub- 
 mitted their judgment to that of Thomas a Becket, 
 who had barely passed the middle space of human 
 life. Numerous were the wise and healing reso- 
 lutions adopted in that great council, the most valu- 
 able of all being, that the crown lands which King 
 Stephen had alienated, in order to satisfy his rapa- 
 cious barons, should be resumed and re-annexed to 
 the crown ; and that not one of the eleven hundred 
 and more castles, which the wicked castle-builders 
 had made in Stephen's time, should be allowed to 
 stand as a place of arms. Some few were to re- 
 main to curb the Welsh and Scots, or to guard the 
 coast ; but these were to be intrusted to the keeping 
 of the king's own castellans : of the rest, not a 
 stone was to be left upon another. This had been 
 decreed before, but time had not been allowed 
 King Stephen to do the work ; and so easy and 
 over indulgent was he, that it is possible the work 
 would not have been done for many a year if he 
 had continued to live and reign. 
 
 Even in these sun- shining days there M-ere some 
 slight clouds raised by the jealousies and ambitions 
 and craving appetites of certain of our great men, 
 u ho soug-ht to raise themselves at the cost of others.
 
 20S A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 Certain magnates whose names shall not soil this 
 pure parchment — certain self-seeking men who had 
 been allied with Brian Fitzcount and Sir Ingelric 
 of Huntercombe, and who, like Sir Ingelric, had 
 shifted from side to side, tried hard to fill the ears 
 of King Henry and his secretarius Thomas a Becket 
 with tales unfavourable to Sir Alain de Bohun and 
 his son Arthur ; as that tliey had made war against 
 the king's mother, and had oppressed and plundered 
 the lords that were favourable to her cause, and 
 had ever been the steadiest and most devoted of all 
 the partisans of the usurper Stephen. But neither 
 the king nor a- Becket was to be moved by these evil 
 reports. '' I do see," said the sharp and short-deal- 
 ing secretarius, " that all the good and quiet people 
 of his country bear testimony in favour of the Lord 
 of Caversham and his brave son : I do further see 
 (and here a-Becket, with a light and quick thumb, 
 turned over great scrolls of parchment which had 
 affixed to them the name and seal of King Stephen) 
 that in the nineteen years he so faithfully served 
 the late king, the said Sir Alain de Bohim hath 
 not added a single manor, nay, nor a single rood 
 of land, to the estates bequeathed unto him by his 
 father or inherited through his wife ; and also do 
 I see that he hath aspired after no new rank, or 
 title, or office, or honour whatsoever, but is now, 
 save in the passage of time and the wear of nine- 
 teen years' faithful and at times very hard service, 
 that which he was at the demise of Henricus 
 Primus ; and having all these things in considera- 
 tion, I do opine that the Lord of Caversham hath 
 ever followed the dictates of a pure conscience, 
 and hath ever been and still is a man to be trusted
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 209 
 
 and honoured by our Lord the King Henricus Se- 
 cundus." 
 
 " And I," quoth the right royal Plantagenet, 
 " I who am come hither to make up differences, to 
 reconcile factions, to heal the wounds which are 
 yet bleeding, and to give peace to this good and 
 patient and generous English people, will give 
 heed to no tales told about the bygone times. The 
 faith and affection which Sir Alain de Bohun did 
 bear unto my unliappy predecessor, in bad fortune 
 as well as in good, are proofs of the fidelity he will 
 bear unto me when I have once his oath. My 
 lords, there be some among ye that cannot show 
 so clean a scutcheon ! AVliat with the turnings 
 from this side to that and from that to this, and 
 the castle-building-s and other doing's of some of 
 ye, I should have had a wilderness for a kingdom 1 
 But these things will I bury in oblivion, and this 
 present mentipn of them is only provoked by ill- 
 advised discourses, and the whisperings and mur- 
 murings of a few. But let that faction look to 
 this — I am Henry Plantagenet, and not Stephen of 
 Blois ! With the laws to my aid I will be sole 
 king in this land, and be obeyed as such ! The 
 reign of the eleven hundred kings is over ! Let 
 me hear no more of this. By all the saints in 
 heaven and all their shrines on earth I I will liold 
 that man mine enemy, and an enemy to the peace 
 of this kingdom, that saith another word against 
 Sir Alain de Bohun, or his son, or any lord or 
 knight that hath done as they have done in the 
 times that be past." 
 
 And so it was that our good Lord of Caversham 
 was received by the king, not as an old enemy but 
 as an old friend, and was admitted to sit with the
 
 210 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 •greatest of the lords in consultation in Wallingford 
 Castle, and there to give his advice as to the best 
 means of improving the condition of his country. 
 And a few days after this, wlien Sir Alain and his 
 son Arthur had taken the oaths of allegiance and 
 fidelity unto King Henr)^ and his infant son, the 
 king with his ov/n hands made our young Lord 
 Arthur knight, giving him on that great occasion 
 the sword which he had worn at his own side, and 
 a s}3lendid horse which had been brought for his 
 own use from Apulia in Italic, out of the stables 
 of the great Count of Conversano, who hath long 
 bred the best horses in all Christendom, to his no 
 small profit and glorj-. 
 
 Upon the breaking up of the council of Wal- 
 lingford our great Plantagenet prepared to march 
 into the west with a Mell furnished army, in order 
 to reduce by siege the castles of Hugh Mortimer 
 and a few other arrogant barons who had the mad- 
 ness to defy him. Before quitting Brian Fitz- 
 count's great house, the king said to Sir Alain de 
 Bohun, " For forty days, and not longer, I may 
 have my young knight Sir Arthur with me. Unto 
 thee, in the meantimCy I give commission to level 
 every castle whatsoever that hath been left stand- 
 ing in this fair country of Berkshire. 
 
 Seeing our lord abbat start a little at these words, 
 the king said, in his sweetest voice, *' Aye, my 
 lord abbat, even Reading Castle must down with 
 the rest ; but ye will not feel the want of it, for 
 with God's help none shall trouble thy house, or 
 cause the least mischief to thy lands or vassals 
 while I am king of England ; and as a slight token 
 of my trust and esteem, thy good and near neigh- 
 bour Sir Alain shall keep his battlements standing.
 
 A LEGEND OF READIXG ABBEY. 211 
 
 It were a task worthy of thee, good ray lord, that 
 thou shouldest even go with Sir Alain on his pre- 
 sent mission, and sprinkle some holy water on the 
 ground where these accursed castles have stood, 
 and build here and there a chapel upon the 
 spots." 
 
 Our abbat, who ever much affected the society 
 of Sir Alain, and wlio loved the good work in hand, 
 said he would perform this task ; and for this the 
 king gave him thanks. 
 
 " Before I go hcDce," said the king to the Lord 
 of Caversham, ^'' is there no grace or guerdon that 
 thou wouldest ask of me ?" 
 
 Sir Alain responded that he and his son had had 
 grace and guerdon enow. 
 
 " By our Ladie of Fontevraud," quoth the king, 
 " I have given thee nothing, and have only given 
 thy son a horse and a sword and his knighthood. 
 Bethink thee, good Sir Alain, is there no tiling that 
 thou canst ask, and that I ought to give? " 
 
 Sir Alain smiled and shook his head, and said 
 that there was nothing he could ask for. 
 
 •• By the bones of my grandfather," quoth the 
 king, " thou art the first man I ever found in 
 Anjou, Normandie, or England, of this temper of 
 mind ! But I have a wiih to give if thou hast none 
 to take ; I charge thee with a service that is im- 
 portant to me and the people, and that must cost 
 thee somewhat ere thou shalt have finished it ; and, 
 therefore, would I give thee beforehand some suit- 
 able reward What, still dumb and want- 
 less ? " 
 
 Here our lord abbat, bethinking himself of sun- 
 dry things, whispered to his neighbour, •' Sir Alain., 
 say a word for Sir Arthur's marriage with the
 
 212 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 gentle Alice, and ask the king's grace for a free 
 gift of the forfeited lands which once appertained 
 to Sir Ingelric." 
 
 " Beshrew me," quoth the Lord of Caversham, 
 " I never thought of the king's consent being ne- 
 cessary to my son's marriage. I thank thee, lord 
 abbat, and will speak to that point/' Yet when he 
 spake, all that he told was the simple story of the 
 nurture which had been given in his own house by 
 his sweet wife to the fair daughter of Sir Ingelric, 
 and of the long and constant love which had been 
 between that maiden and his only son, and all that 
 he asked was that the king, as natural guardian of 
 all noble orphans, would allow the marriage. 
 
 The eyebrows of the Plantagenet kept arching 
 and rising in amazement, until Abbat Reginald 
 thought that they would get to the top of his fore- 
 head, high as it was. When he spake again^ which 
 he did not do for a space, he said, " And is this 
 formula, that costs me nothing, all that thou hast to 
 ask from the King of England, Duke ofNormandie, 
 and Earl of Anjou, Poictou, and Aquitaine?" 
 
 *' Verily," replied Sir Alain, " 'tis all that I can 
 think of, and for that one favour I will ever be 
 your bedesman." 
 
 " Sir Alain," said our abbat, tugging him by the 
 skirt, " thou hast said no one word touching the 
 lands of Sir Ingelric." 
 
 *' We need them not," said the high-minded 
 old knight, " we be rich enow without. If Sir 
 Ingelric were alive and penitent, I might, in this 
 happy time of reconciliation and oblivion of past 
 wrongs, ask the fiefs for him ; but as it is, let them 
 go, or let the king keep them — he may need them 
 more than I."
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 213 
 
 " Well !" quoth the Plantagenet, " I see thou 
 hast taken counsel. So now, my trusty Sir Alain, 
 tell me what guerdon I shall give thee for the ser- 
 vices with which thou art charged." 
 
 " My liege lord," quoth the lord of Caversham, 
 *' I, who in the times that are past have so often 
 done that which liked me not for no fee or reward, 
 but only in discharge of the oaths I had sworn, 
 would not now ask a guerdon for the performance 
 of a task so grateful unto me. Let my son espouse 
 the fair Alice, and I am more than content." 
 
 But the king, who had been turning things over 
 in his mind while our abbat had been counselling Sir 
 Alain, now called in Sir Arthur de Bohun, and said 
 to him thus : — " Sir Knight of mine own making, 
 I, the king, do give unto thee the hand of that little 
 ladie Alice thou wottest of; and 1 do confer as a 
 dower upon the said ladie Alice all the manors, 
 honours, and lands whatsoever that were by her 
 mother conveyed to Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe. 
 It were not well that so noble a damsel should go 
 portionless to her husband. Ye may be people of 
 that rare sort that would care not for the fiefs, but 
 the noble maiden might feel it. The less we say 
 of her unnatural sire Sir Ingelric the better for 
 him and for us. Whether he be dead or alive, the 
 lands which were his through his two marriages are 
 confiscated. It were but a common act of justice 
 to give back to the maiden that which was her 
 mother's, and I would as my free gift add the lands 
 of the second marriage. A-Becket shall see to it, 
 and draw up the grant before we go hence. Sir 
 Arthur, I hail thee lord of Speen, and wish thee 
 joy with thy bride. These forty days of war will 
 soon be over, and with thy ladle's prayers to help
 
 214 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 US, we may finish with this mad Hugh de Mortimer 
 in much less time." 
 
 Arthur knelt at the feet of the Plantagenet, and 
 kissed his royal hand, and said it was too much 
 grace and over much greatness ; and both father 
 and son joined in telling the king that the lands of 
 the mother of Alice would be more than enough 
 without the inheritance of the dark ladie. 
 
 " Of a truth," said Sir Alain, " I should fear 
 that that evil heritage would come to us burthened 
 with a curse ; for it was ill acquired by the father of 
 tlie dark ladie, and was ever by her misused." 
 
 " Well," quoth the king, " we will keep part of 
 those lands in our own hands, and give a part to 
 the abbat and monks of Reading, who will know 
 how to remove the curse with masses and prayer, 
 and almsgiving to the poor." 
 
 It was now the turn of our lord abbat to give 
 tlianks, which he did like the noble and learned 
 churchman that he was. And all these things 
 being pre-arranged, Thomas-a-Becket penned the 
 royal grant for the iair Alice, and a new charter for 
 our house ; and the king signed and sealed the 
 twain. By the charter he confirmed all preceding 
 charters and donations. And he gave to the abbey 
 two o^ood manors which had belong-ed to the dark 
 ladie, together with permission to enclose a park, 
 in the place called Cumba, for the use of the sick, 
 whether monks or strangers. And very soon after, 
 upon his returning out of the west country, the 
 king, by a particular charter, gave the monks of 
 Reading licence to hold a fair every year on the day 
 of St. James and the three following days, and 
 confirmed our old right to a Sunday market at 
 Thatcham, commanding the inhabitants of the
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 215 
 
 country to attend the said market, and the jealous 
 men of Newbury not to hinder them or molest 
 them. He also made us a grant of forty marks of 
 silver, to be paid annually out of his exchequer 
 until he should be enabled to secure unto us a re- 
 venue of the same value in lands. Verily, we the 
 monks of Reading did no more suffer for that which 
 we had done in the past time than did our noble 
 neighbours of Caversham. When that the great 
 men saw in what high esteem Sir Alain and Sir 
 Arthur were held by the king, they spake to them 
 cap in hand, and vexed their wit to make them fine 
 flattering speeches ; yea, the very lords who had 
 essayed to work their ruin did now make them big 
 professions of friendship. 
 
 So the Plantagenet departed and went unto 
 Gloucester and Bridgenorth with his great battalia 
 and engines of war, and the lord abbat and I, 
 Far her Felix, went with Sir Alain de Bohun to 
 perambulate and perlustrate the country of Bark- 
 shire, bearing with us the royal mandate to all 
 heads of boroughs and townships and all good men 
 to assist in rooting out the foul donjons wiiich dis- 
 figured the fair country like blots of ink let fall 
 upon a pure skin of parchment. Expeditive and 
 very complete was the work we made ; for even as 
 at Speen the country people of their own free will 
 came flocking to us with their pickaxes and mat- 
 tocks on their shoulders ; and so soon as a castle 
 was levelled, our lord abbat, in pontificalibus, did 
 sprinkle holy water upon the spot to drive away the 
 evil spirits that had so long reigned there ; and did, 
 in the tongue of the people, as well as in Latin, put 
 up a prayer that such wickednesses might not be 
 again known in the land. Divers strange things
 
 216 A LEGE>-D OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 and many recondite holes and corners, and most 
 secret and undiscoverable chambers, were brought 
 to light in the course of tliese demolishings ; but it 
 was not until we broke down and took to pieces a 
 castle near Shrivenham, on the confines of Earks, 
 an outlying and little known place, that we laid 
 open to the light of day a very tragic spectacle, 
 which was in itself a conclusion to a part of this 
 my narration. Upon our coming to it, this cas- 
 tellum, like all the rest, was deserted, tlie draw- 
 bridge being down, and the portcullis and all other 
 gates removed by the serfs of the neighbouring 
 manors, who had made themselves good winter fires 
 of the wood thereof. Xay, some poor houseless 
 men had for a season dwelt witliin the keep, and 
 penned their swine in the courtyard ; but they had 
 been terrified thence by unaccountable and hor- 
 rible noises at midnight ; and these men and their 
 neighbours declared that it Mas the most accursed 
 place in all the country. It was a wonderful thing 
 to see how fast those walls toppled down, and how 
 soon the deep moat was filled up. When the thick 
 southern wall of the square keep was all but levelled, 
 Sir Alain de Bohnn's people came suddenly upon 
 a secret chamber which had been contrived with 
 much art and cunning within the said wall. The 
 men reached it by demolishing the masonry above, 
 but the access to it had been through a crooked 
 passage which mounted from a cell underground, 
 and then through a low narrow doorway, the door 
 of which contained more iron than oak, and closed 
 inward with certain hidden springs, the secret 
 whereof was not to be apprehended by any of us 
 until the door was knocked down and taken to 
 pieces. Within this dark and narrow chamber was
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 217 
 
 revealed a great heap of gold and silver, being well 
 nigh as much as we liad found at Speen ; and, prone 
 upon this heap, with the face buried among the g-old 
 and silver pieces, and with the arms stretched out 
 as though he had died in the act of clutching the 
 heap, was seen the body of a knight in black mail. 
 At the first glance Sir Alain's people and the serfs 
 that were helping them cried out joyously, " Gold ! 
 g-old !" but then they took the knight in his armour 
 for some scaled dragon or demon that was guard- 
 ing the treasure, and they ran away, crj'ing " Dia- 
 bolus ! It is the devil !" 
 
 As it especially concerned monks to deal wath the 
 great dragon, and lay evil spirits, Abbat Reginald 
 and I, Father Felix, with an acolyte, who was but 
 of tender age, and truth to say, sorely afeared, 
 hastened with Sir Alain to that pit within the 
 wall. 
 
 " By the blessed rood !" said the Lord of Caver- 
 sham, as he looked down into the hollow space — 
 " That is no living devil, but the dead body of 
 Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe! I know him by 
 that black mail of Milan, and by the rare hilt of 
 that sword, which I did give him when we were 
 sworn friends and brothers." 
 
 '' This is wonderful, and I see the finger of 
 Heaven in it," said our abbat, crossing himself: 
 and we all crossed ourselves for the amazement 
 and horror that was upon us. The meaner sort, 
 who had fled from the dead knight, now bethought 
 themselves of the glittering gold, and came back to 
 the edge of that narrow pit ; and when we, the 
 monks, had thrown some holy water therein, and 
 caused our acolyte to hold the cross over the gap, 
 two of Sir Alain's men-at-arms descended, and re-
 
 218 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 ascending, brought forth the body and laid it at 
 our feet upon its back, and with its face turned 
 towards the heavens. Jesu Maria ! but it was a 
 ghostly sight ! From the little air that had been 
 in that narrow cell, and from the great siccity or 
 dryness of the place, betwixt stones, flint, and 
 mortar, the body had not wasted away, or under- 
 gone the rapid corruption of the damp grave ; and 
 albeit the face was all shrivelled and shrunk, it 
 was not hard to trace some of the lineaments of the 
 unhappy Sir Ingelric. Within the cavity of the 
 mouth were pieces of coined gold, as tho' he had 
 set his famishing teeth in them ; and within his 
 clenched hands, clenched by the last agony and 
 convulsion of death, were pieces of gold and silver. 
 On the brow was the well-known mark of a w^ound 
 which that unhappy knight had gotten in his early 
 days in fighting for King Stephen ; the Agnus Dei, 
 and the little cross at the breast, were those of Sir 
 Ingelric, and were marked with his name ; and the 
 blade of the sword bore the conjoined names of Sir 
 Ingelric and Sir Alain. Having noted and pointed 
 out all these things, Abbat Reginald, after another 
 and more copious aspersion of the blessed water, 
 which is holier than the stream which now floweth 
 in Jordan, raised his right hand and said, " jMy 
 children, there is a dread lesson and example in 
 that which lieth before us ! Crooked courses ever 
 lead to evil ends, albeit not always in this nether 
 world. But here is one that hath reaped upon 
 earth the fruit of his crimes, and that hath perished 
 by the demon that first led him astray — aye, 
 perished upon a heap of gold and silver, and of 
 famine, the cruellest of deaths, and in a miser's hole 
 — a robber's hiding-place — unpitied, unheeded, un-
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 219 
 
 confessed, with the fiend mocking- him, and bidding 
 him eat his gold, and with the interdict of holy 
 mother church and the curses of ruined men press- 
 ing- upon his sinful soul. And was it for this, oh 
 Sir Ingelric, that thou didst soil thy faith, and 
 betray thy king and friends, and waste the fair 
 land of thy birth, and rack and torture the poor ? 
 Take hence the excommunicate body and bury it 
 deep in unconsecrated earth ; but remember, oh my 
 children, all that which ye have this day seen !" 
 
 The gold and silver we removed and put into 
 strong coffers, in order that we might use them 
 with the same justice and regard to the poor that 
 we had used with the treasure found in Sir Ingel- 
 ric's own castle at Speen. 
 
 When we came to make inquiries among the 
 people of those parts, and to put tl>eir several re- 
 ports together, we made a good key to the awful 
 enigma and mystery of Sir Ingelric's death. That 
 castle by Shrivenham had been made by one of 
 the very worst of the castle-building robbers, who 
 had never raised any standard but his own over 
 his donjon keep. In the autumnal season of the 
 year preceding that in which we came to destroy 
 the place, and at the time when the joint orders 
 of King Stephen and Henry Plantagenet were sent 
 forth against the castle-holders, there suddenly 
 appeared at Shrivenham a band that came from 
 the westward, and that were Iieaded by a knight in 
 black mail, and with a black plume to his casque ; 
 and by some of those reaches of treachery which 
 were common among these evil doers, the new- 
 comers got possession of this castellum, and made 
 a slaughter of the builder of it, and of the men 
 that were true to him. But the new comers had
 
 220 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 not been a day in possession of the castle when 
 intelligence was brought them by a scout that a 
 force of King Steplien, which had tracked them 
 from the west\Aard, was approaching Shrivenhara ; 
 and thereupon, and for that the castle was too un- 
 furnished with victual to withstand any beleaguer, 
 the strangers fled from it more suddenly than they 
 had come to it. As the vicinage was almost de- 
 serted, and as the few people fled and hid them- 
 selves, the black band had no communications with 
 them during their brief stay ; but two poor serfs 
 who had watched their departure had described it 
 as being full of panic, terror, and of a dread of 
 other things besides that of the close approach of 
 the king's force (which force never came at all) ; 
 for they had heard the band bewailing that they 
 had no longer a leader, that their chief had disap- 
 peared in the castellum, and that the devil must 
 have carried him off" bodily : and the serfs did well 
 mark that the knight in the black mail was not 
 among them, nor at their head, as they had seen 
 him at their first coming. And as Sir Alain's 
 people, in finishing their good work at the castel- 
 lum, threw open the subterrain winding passage, 
 of which mention hath been made, they found the 
 body of an old man with a bundle of great keys 
 at his girdle, and a long dagger sticking in his left 
 side ; and his head lay close to the strong door of 
 the treasure chamber, and between the body and 
 the door were picked up a strong bag and part of 
 a long extinguished torch. 
 
 " By Saint Lucia, who presideth over man's 
 blessed organ of sight and the glorious light of day," 
 quoth our abbat ; " by sweet Saint Lucia, I do see 
 daylight through that dark passage. The bait of
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 221 
 
 that gold drew Sir Ingelric hither, to be taken as 
 in a trap. He was eager to have the first hansel- 
 ling and most precious bits of the treasure, or may- 
 hap to carr)' off the whole, or conceal it for his 
 own use, counting upon more time than heaven 
 allowed him. That old unshriven traitor was, 
 doubtless, one of the men of the castle-builder, that 
 betrayed their master, and him Sir Ingelric slew so 
 soon as he had led him to the chamber and opened 
 the door, with the intent that he should not divulge 
 unto others the secret of the hiding place. Per- 
 adventure, the old man in his death-struggles 
 dashed out the light and pulled to the open door ; 
 or Sir Ingelric, being left in darkness, and unin- 
 formed of the fastenings, did in his great haste 
 kick the door and so cause it to fly to, and shut for 
 ever upon him." 
 
 We did all think that the riddle was well read 
 by Abbat Reginald, and that this was a natural 
 conclusion to the other and better known inci- 
 dents of Sir Ingelric's dark story. 
 
 By the time we had finished with the wicked 
 castles of Barkshire, our great and ever victorious 
 King Henry had finished with that perverse man 
 Hugh de Mortimer ; and as we came to our house 
 at Pangbourne on our way back to Reading, we 
 there met the young Lord of Caversham, Sir Ar- 
 thur de Bohun, who had been dismissed to his home 
 by the king, and not without some further proof of 
 the royal friendship, for, as it was ever in his nature 
 to do. Sir Arthur had done manfully in the king's 
 sieges and other emprises. It was a happy meeting 
 to all of us, and there was no longer any public 
 calamity to cloud or reproach our private happi- 
 ness. The donjons were all down, or in good keep- 
 
 1.
 
 222 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 ing ; and, from end to end and in all its breadth 
 England was at peace, and none of the baronage 
 were so daring as to resist the king and the law. 
 Dulce mihi nomen pads I — ever sweet unto me was 
 the name of peace, and now we had both the name 
 and the substance of it. It was therefore resolved 
 at Pangbourne that the marriage of Sir Arthur and 
 the Lady Alice should be celebrated on the feast of 
 St. Michael the Archangel, which was now near at 
 hand. 
 
 Upon coming to Caversham Sir Alain de Bohun 
 hung his shield upon the wall, intending to go forth 
 to no more wars. Then he put into the hands of 
 the gentle Alice the king's charter which conferred 
 upon her the domains of her mother, telling her^ in 
 his jocose way, that as she had now so goodly an 
 inheritance she might be minded to quit the hum- 
 ble house and poor people at Caversham, and get 
 her to court to match with some great earl. And 
 at this that fairest of maidens placed the king's 
 charter in the hands of Sir Arthur, and with a 
 blushing cheek and without words spoken, M'ent out 
 of the hall. Sir Arthur did afterwards inform her, 
 in the gentlest manner, of the sure death of Sir 
 Ingelric many months agone ; and, albeit he had 
 been so unnatural a father, Alice shed many tears, 
 and made a vow to give money to the church and 
 poor, that his sinful soul might be prayed for. The 
 dreadful manner of Sir Ingelric's death was care- 
 fully concealed from the young bride, and hath 
 never been fully made known unto her. She was 
 united to Sir Arthur in our abbey church, on the 
 happiest festival of St. Michael that our house had 
 ever known, for the season was mild and beautiful, 
 the harvest had been abundant, we had gotten in
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 223 
 
 all our crops without hindrance, our granaries were 
 filled with corn and our hearts with joy ; and as all 
 of us, from the lord abbat down to the obscurest 
 lay brother, had a surpassing affiection as well for 
 the gentle bride as for her noble mate, who had in a 
 manner been our son and pupil, and an old rever- 
 ence and love for Sir Alain and his ladie, we could 
 not but rejoice at the great joy we saw in them. 
 But all good people, gentle or simple, bond or free, 
 did jubilate on this happy day ; and when the bride 
 and bridegroom returned homeward, the procession 
 which followed them, shouting and singing, and call- 
 ing down blessings upon their young heads, was so 
 long as to run in an unbroken line from the midst 
 of the King's mead to the end of Caversham-bridge ; 
 for our good vassals of Reading town had all put 
 on their holiday clothes and shut up their houses, 
 and all the people of Caversham were afoot, and 
 Tilehurst, and Sulham, and Charlton, and Purley, 
 and Sunning, and Speen, and Pangbourne, and 
 every other township and village for miles round- 
 about had poured out their inhabitants ; and not a 
 franklin or serf, not a man, w^oman, or child among 
 them all, but was feasted either by Sir Alain or Sir 
 Artlmr, or by us the monks of Reading. Methinks 
 the sun never rose and set upon so beautiful a day! 
 The air and the earth rejoiced, and the flowing 
 waters ; the full Thamesis and our own quick and 
 resonant Kennet made music and thanksgiving 
 together ; and seemed it to me that I had never so 
 loved tlie country of my birth, and the fair scenes 
 in whicli my life had been past from infancy to ripe 
 manhood ; and yet had I ever loved that fair 
 country above all that mine eyes had seen in 
 muf'li travelling. Natale solum didcedine cunctos 
 
 l2
 
 224 A LEGEND OP READING ABBEY. 
 
 mulcet. Oh native soil, thou softenest man's heart, 
 and fillest it with love of thee ! 
 
 Now did the Ladie Alice more than verify the 
 happy prediction which our good Abbat Edward 
 put forth in the stormy time, to wit, that the little 
 maiden which came to our house in the basket, and 
 which I, Felix the novice, and Philip the lay-bro- 
 ther did convey by night unto Caversham, would 
 make amends for the ingratitude and treasons and 
 other wicked doings of her father. Betwixt that 
 merry wedding-day and the day that now is, there 
 have been nine long years, and they have all been 
 years of peace and happiness to the good house at 
 Caversham, with that increase and multiplication 
 which God willed when the world was in its infancy 
 and all unpeopled. 
 
 Happy, too, hath been our house at Reading, and 
 great the increase of the abbey in beauty and splen- 
 dour. Some few griefs and trials we have had ; 
 for earth, at the happiest, was never meant to be 
 heaven ; and we all live to die, and must die to 
 live again. The good and bountiful Lord Abbat 
 Reginald deceased on the fourth of the kalends 
 of February, in the year of grace eleven hundred 
 and fifty-eight; but he died full of years and honour, 
 and verily, the Lord Abbat Roger that now is, hath 
 been approved his very worthy successor. As our 
 wealth increased under the blessed peace, and the 
 sage government of our great king, and the favour 
 of our Lord Thomas a Becket, for some while 
 chancellor of the kingdom, and now and for the two 
 years last past, by the grace of God, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury and Primate of England, we of the 
 chapter did begin to think that our church was not 
 sufficiently lofty and spacious, and that wondrous
 
 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 225 
 
 improvements might be made in it, if we devoted 
 to the task some of our superfluous wealth. And 
 six years agone, when our Lord Eeginald was in the 
 twelfth year of his government over us (may our 
 Ladie the Virgin, and St. John and St. James ever 
 have him in their holy keeping), we made a be- 
 ginning ; and the year last past, being the year of 
 our redemption eleven hundred and sixty-four, we 
 finished our great church, which hath been so much 
 enlarged and altered that it may be called a new 
 church ; and Rex Henricus Secundus being present 
 with ten suffragan bishops, and great lay barons too 
 many to count, our Lord Archbishop Thomas did 
 consecrate it with that solemnity and magnificence 
 which he puts into all his doings : and on the very 
 day on which the archbishop consecrated our church, 
 the king, keeping his royal promise, granted us a 
 land revenue of forty marks of silver out of the 
 manor of Hoo in Kent, by assignment of Sir Robert 
 Bardolph, the lord of that manor. 
 
 And our mighty and ever victorious king, who 
 is no less a friend to learning and learned men, 
 nor less a patron of the church than was his grand- 
 father the Beauclerc, hath ordered books to be 
 bought for the enriching of our library, and hath 
 given us another charter confirming our liberties 
 and immunities, and enjoining all the kings that 
 may come after him to observe the same, and calling 
 upon the Lord to snatch them out of the land of 
 the living, together with their posterity, if they or 
 any one of them should seek to infringe our charter, 
 or lessen our rights and properties. " Quani qui 
 inf ringer e vel miiiuere presumj^serit, extrahat eum 
 dominus et evertat de terra viventium cum omni
 
 226 A LEGEND OF READING ABBEY. 
 
 posteritate sua.^' These be the king's very words 
 in the second great charter he hath given us. 
 
 Here I surcease from the pleasant labours which 
 have amused the few lonely hours that my various 
 duties left me. There cannot be a better time to 
 stop and say vale ! Henricus Secundus is king ; 
 Thomas a Becket is primate ; Roger is lord abbat 
 of Reading; and I, Felix the Sunningite, and 
 novice that was, am poor sub-prior ; and every 
 monk of the house is a man of English birth. It 
 halh been noted of late, that our prior declineth 
 apace ; and there hath been a talk among the 
 cloister monks that I best merit tliat succession, 
 which would place me next in dignity and greatness 
 to the mitred lord abbat of this royal abbey. But, 
 alas ! what is increase of dignity but increase of 
 care ! I do hope that our good prior may live all 
 through this winter; albeit, it is a very sharp one, 
 and old men be falling fast around us. — Vole et 
 semper Vale I 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON : WILLIAM CLOV7ES AlCD SONS, STAMFORD STREET.
 
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 * The Cabinet History ;' but portions of these chapters, with ad- 
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 *^* Of the Cabinet History Nine Volumes have been pub- 
 lished, which back Volumes will be kept on sale by all Book- 
 sellers. 
 
 London : CHARLES KNIGHT and CO., 22, Ludgate 
 Street.
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST D 
 'iuU"^ STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 OCT 1270^^; 
 
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