A Legend of Reading Abbey Page 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 HughFitzhugh, of Purley, and Sir Walter de Courcy, from Inglesfield, arrivedat the abbey, and demanded speech of our superiors. So soon as theservice permitted, the lord abbat, the prior, and the otherobedientiarii of our house retired into the abbat's garden with theseworthy knights, who were in great haste, insomuch that they wouldneither stay to partake of my lord's collation, which was now nigh uponbeing ready, nor allow the saddles to be taken from their weariedhorses. They stayed but a short while in the garden, and then remountingtheir steeds, they spurred away for Caversham, bidding the burghers ofReading and a number of serfs, who had collected outside our gates, tolook after their bows and arrows, and to get such other weapons as theycould, and to stand upon their defence, as traitors to King Stephen wereabroad and might be soon upon them. These good people made loudlamentation, for they were ill prepared and provided, and they could notdivine who these enemies and night burners could be. We, the humblermembers of the house, were alike ignorant; but after he had refreshedhis inward man, the good abbat came forth and addressed us all, and thepeople without the gate, in this wise:--

  "My brothers and children, and ye good men of Reading, who be also mychildren, lift up your voices and say with me, God save King Stephen,the rightful king of this realm, and down with the traitors who wouldshake his throne!"

  Having all of us shouted as we were bidden to do, and with right goodwill, for King Stephen at this time was much loved in the land, my lordabbat continued his oration.

  "The case," said he, "stands thus. That ungodly restless woman, theundutiful daughter of our late pious King Henry, whose body rests withinthese walls--that presumptuous Matilda, once Empress, but now nought butCountess of Anjou, hath sent over her bastard half-brother Robert, Earlof Gloucester, to claim the throne of England as her right; as if themartial nobility and bold people of this land could ever be governed bya woman, and as if Stephen, our good king and the well-beloved nephew ofour late King Henry, who appointed him to be his successor, had not beenelected with the consent of the baronage, clergy, and people of England,and confirmed in his lawful seat by our lord the Pope! Now thistraitorous Earl of Gloucester, after taking the oaths of fealty andhomage to King Stephen, and obtaining by the act possession of his greatestates in this realm, hath suddenly lifted up the mask and thrown downthe gauntlet, and sundry false barons like himself have followed hispernicious example, and are now raging through the country, seizing uponthe king's towns and castles, treacherously surprising the castles ofhonest lords and good knights, and burning the homes and destroying thelives of all such as will not join them, or of all such as hold themanors and lands these traitors desire to be possessed of. In the eastHugh Bigod, steward of the late king's household, and the very man whomade oath before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other great lordsof the realm, as well lay as ecclesiastic, that King Henry on hisdeath-bed did adopt and choose his nephew Stephen to be his successor,because this Matilda, Countess of Anjou, had been an undutiful childunto him, and had given him many and grievous offences, and was by hersex disqualified for the succession; this Hugh Bigod, I say, hath in theeast seized Norwich Castle and hoisted thereupon the banner of thisAngevin Countess. In the west the Earl of Gloucester hath armed all hisvassals, and is calling upon all such friends as hope to better theirworldly fortunes by deluging the country with blood and wasting it withfire. Some of these evil men have raised the banner of war in our quietneighbourhood, and have fallen with merciless fury upon some of ournoblest and best neighbours, taking them by foul treachery andsurprisal, and waging war upon women and children, and unarmed serfs, inthe absence of their lords. Yesterday a great band of these traitorsmarched from the vicinage of Windsore, and, last night, after a foulplunder and butchery of the people, the townships of Basildon,Whitechurch, Purley, Tidmersh, Tilehurst, Sulham, Theal, and Speen weregiven to the flames. Sir Ingelric, of Huntercombe, who hath ever beenheld as a loyal and fearless knight, and whose noble mate could traceher Saxon ancestry beyond the days of King Alfred, was not at his home,but his fair young wife being forewarned of their coming, made fast thegates and defended the manor-house for divers hours: but, woe is me! theevil men set fire to the house, and--_combusta est_, it is burned, withthe gentle dame and all that were in it! The brave Sir Ingelric ofHuntercombe was not there, or mayhap----"

  "Ingelric of Huntercombe is here," cried that dark and sad-lookingknight, who had just arrived on a panting steed; "Ingelric ofHuntercombe 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 ofjudgment, had caused my lord abbat, as well as the rest of us, to forgetthe little stranger that had come in the basket, not without bringingsome trouble to him and to some of us; but his lordship soon collectedhis thoughts, and seeing how the matter stood, he clasped in his armsthe knight, who had dismounted from his horse, and said to him in hiskind fatherly voice, "Sir Ingelric, may the saints vouchsafe theestrength to bear the woe that hath befallen thee; but thy child issafe."

  "Let me see her," said the knight; "let me hold her in mine arms; hermother shall I never see more! Her sweet body hath been consumed in thefire 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 whatgood and tender keeping; and while he was doing this, Humphrey, our oldjanitor, looking steadfastly at a churl who had dismounted to hold SirIngelric's horse, and at another serf, who remained mounted, he saidaloud, "These be the two knaves that gave me the basket!" and thenentering into short converse with the men, Humphrey brought out thesefacts:--At the near approach of the danger, of which she had beenforewarned, their mistress had given her child to them, with charge tohasten with it to Reading Abbey, and then to make all possible speedback to Tilehurst, whither, as she had fondly hoped, her lord would bereturned before his enemies could do her harm, for Sir Ingelric had goneto no greater distance than to Wallingford, and a messenger had beendespatched 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 himrapidly to her rescue. This was all we learned now, but we afterwardslearned that the messenger on the fleet horse had been intercepted andslain; that the manor-house had been stormed and set on fire before thetwo 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 theirlord, had thrown themselves into the woods, and had gone a wearisomejourney on foot in search of him, and had met their master between nightand morning near North Stoke Ford, for the conflagration had been seenat Wallingford, and had filled the heart of Sir Ingelric with awfulpresentiments, albeit he and no other man could at first conceive thecause and nature of the mischief which had so suddenly broken out in atime of the most perfect tranquillity. When Sir Ingelric had understoodthat which had befallen, he had well nigh died of sudden horror; but,rousing himself to vengeance, he had collected a few honest men and somehorses, and had ridden with all speed to our abbey, being but too surelyconfirmed on his way, by a few of his serfs who had escaped, of the fatehis fair young wife had met in the manor-house. Never did I see a facefuller of woe than was that of Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe when our goodabbat, taking him by the hand, led him within the house, to give himghostly consolation, and to commune with him upon the measures whichought to be adopted for the defence of the country. But I should tellhow that, before our lord abbat quitted the outer gate, he gavecommandment that the draw-bridge, which had not been raised for many aday, should be hauled up, and that the serfs of our abbey lands shouldbe set to work to deepen the ditch, and to dig a new trench right downto the Kennet. Albeit no enemy was visible, the townfolk of Reading andall the simple hinds that had assembled were seized with a mightyconsternation w
hen we began to take measures for heaving up the bridgeand closing our strong iron-bound gate. By order of the prior many ofthe better sort were admitted into our outer court, with their wives andchildren, as well as their property. Those who remained without wrungtheir hands, but departed not, for they felt that the very shadow of ourholy walls would be a better protection unto them than any other theycould find; and certes we would have brought them within those walls incase of extremity; for was not our house the asylum of the unhappy aswell as the _refugium peccatorum_?

  When Sir Ingelric had communed until the beginning of tierce with ourlord abbat, and had been somewhat restored by prayer and exhortation,and by meat and wine, he came out and called for his horse. But theabbat noted that the knight's horse needed rest, and so he ordered afresh steed to be brought from his own stable, together with his ownquiet grey palfrey, telling the brethren that he was minded to ride overto Caversham with Sir Ingelric to deliberate with his well-belovednephew, who was too good a man of war to have omitted making somepreparations against the threatening storm. "You will put up a prayer ortwain for my safety," said the abbat to the prior, "and cause a_Miserere, Domine_, to be sung in the church. And thou wilt hold thyselfready, oh prior, to hurl an anathema at the head of the rebels, if theyshould come near unto this godly house; and moreover thou wilt see tosuch war-harness and weapons as we do possess, and station thestrongest-armed of our monks and lay-brothers, and the stoutest-heartedof our serfs, with our men-at-arms, in the tower and turrets, with bowsand cross-bows; for it may chance that those who respect not the Lord'sanointed will have no respect for holy church that hath anointed him;and when the children of Ishmael fall on, the children of Jacob maydefend themselves with the arms of the flesh."

  Now our prior was a man of a very martial and fearless temperament, andone that well remembered how, in the times that were passed, bishops andabbats had put chain armour over their rockets and albs, and had riddenforth with lay-lords and men of war, and had ofttimes done battle forthe cause which they held to be the just one, or the cause of thechurch. It is not for a humble servant of mother church like me todecide whether such actions be altogether conformable to the councils ofthe church and the canons therein propounded; but this I do know, thatthe sword and battle-axe have wrought their effects upon stubborn andimpenitent minds when our spiritual arms had failed, ay, when the wickedhad laughed to scorn our interdicts and our very excommunications. Butnot to press further this _casus conscientiae_, I will only record thatour prior responded with a firm voice and willing heart to the warlikeportions of our lord abbat's instructions, and that he, with marvellousalacrity, did arm the house and prepare to do battle.

  As the gate was unbarred and the draw-bridge again lowered to allow theabbat and Sir Ingelric to go forth for Caversham, those of our knightsand men-at-arms who had ridden at an earlier hour to makereconnaissance, came back with loose bridle to report that a greatbattalia of the rebels was advancing upon the town of Reading by thewestern road.

  "Then," quoth our abbat, "is there no time to lose;" and putting hisfoot in the bright silver stirrup, he got into his saddle without theleast 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 abbatand Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, but the rest tarried with us.

  "Remember," said the abbat, turning the head of his palfrey, andaddressing the townfolk and the serfs, "remember well that ye be alltrue men unto King Stephen!"

  The poor people made a very feeble essay to shout "Long live KingStephen!" and then prayed that we would admit them in at thepostern-gate if the rebels came nearer; which thing we did now promisethem to do.

  The lord abbat and his party, riding away at a hard gallop, were soonseen 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 ofthe river, a little below the bridge. Except these armed men, not a man,woman, or child could be discovered anywhere; for the shepherds andcowherds had driven their flocks and herds to the other side ofThamesis, and all the serfs and labouring people had fled either to ourabbey walls or unto Caversham Castle. Only yesterday morning our greenmeadows and fruitful corn-fields had been full of life and joy andthoughtless song, but now they were solitary, and as sad and still asthe grave. The wind, which blew freshly from the westward, still broughtwith it hideous drifts of smoke, which dirtied the bright blue sky, anda coarse pungent smell, which overcame the sweet odours that wereemitted by our flowering hedge-rows and by the myriads of flowers whichgrew in the bright green meads and along the moist banks by the riverside. It was all a Tartarus now; but on that sunny, happy May morning ofyesterday it was like being in paradise to stand on our outer turret andscent 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 ourhead, and the blackbird whistling in the brake at our feet. Not a birdof all that choir was left now: the foul smoke and the pungent smellhad scared them all away, as Aetna and Vesuve are said to do when theyvomit their sulphureous fires.

  I was roused from some meditations of this sort by the scream of atrumpet, and by a chorus of rude voices that shouted, "The Empress forEngland! Down with the usurper Stephen! Long life to the Queen, anddeath to all who gainsay it!"

  And presently after hearing these sounds I saw the head of a greatcolumn wind round the castle-mound (whereon there was not now any castledeserving of the name), and take the high road which runs from Readingtown to Caversham bridge. Saint John the Evangelist to my aid, but itseemed 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 thehead of it. But our prior, after waxing very red and wrathful at thefirst sight, did say, upon better observance, that the mass of that hostwere but rascaille people, serfs that had slipped their collars, knavesthat had no arms but staves and bludgeons, and that would not stand fora moment against a charge of horse, nay, nor even against a good flightof quarrels or long-bow arrows.

  "They will not win across the bridge," said the prior, "for the chainsbe up, and pass the river they cannot, for the skiffs be all on theother side, and there is no ford hereabout. But see, they halt! And nowthey wheel round for the King's Mead! Will the caitiffs hitherward? Letthem come--our walls be of flint. By the founder of our house, it isthis way they come!"

  And in little more time than it takes to say the credo andpater-noster, the rebels crossed a brook which runs into Thamesis, andcame midway into the King's Mead, with the head of their column pointingstraight for our main gate. But who be those that follow them on thegrey palfrey and dapple jennet? By Saint John and Saint James, thepatrons of our house, it is our good lord abbat, and it is thatright-hearted man the mass-priest of Caversham, and the latter hath awhite flag fastened to his saddle, and he upholds a golden bannerwhereon is depicted the effigies of Him who died for our sins, andtaught that there was to be peace upon earth and good will among allmen! And see, the rebels halt, and our abbat and the mass-priestfearlessly ride up to their leaders, and discourse with them. Word canwe hear not at this distance, but plainly do we discern, by the abbat'sgestures, and by the frequent up-lifting of the holy standard, that thehead of our house is earnestly recommending peace and repentance, thetruce of God for the present, and agreement and reconciliationhereafter. Gentle are our lord abbat's actions, and no doubt his speech,albeit the rebels have set their impious feet upon the lands of ourabbey; but rude and outrageous are the gestures of those mailed knightsthat do confer with him.... And can their ungodly rage amount tothis?... Yea, verily, so it is! One of them rides his big war-horseagainst the grey palfrey, and the lord abbat of Reading is jostled outof his seat, and lies prostrate on the grass--may it be soft beneathhim!

  Judge ye of the choler of our prior, and of the grief and anger of allof us that saw this shameful and sacrilegious sight. We shouted fromour tower and turrets, "_O turpissime!_" and the prior, standing uponthe loftiest battlement, stre
tched out his hands towards the traitors inthe King's Mead, even as Pope Leo did from the walls of Rome, whenAttila and his pagans came on for the assault of the holy city. But theprior's first anathema was not said before our good abbat, assisted bythe mass-priest of Caversham, was on his feet, and to all seeming notmuch the worse for his fall. He now spoke so loudly to the knights thatwe could hear the sound of his voice and distinguish some of his words,_specialiter_ when he conjured them to depart quietly thence, and avoidthe shedding of blood. It was plain that the savage crew would notlisten to him; and we saw him remount his palfrey, and turn his headback towards the bridge. We much feared that the rebels would layviolent hands upon him, and keep him as their prisoner; but, _nemorepente_, this was but the beginning of the great wickedness; and albeitimpious factions did afterwards load the servants of the church withchains, and throw even bishops into noisome dungeons, and keep themthere for ransom among toads and snakes, Jews and thieves, and otherunclean men, this present band did offer no let or hindrance to our lordabbat or to the mass-priest, who went back at a good pace to Cavershambridge.

  "And now," quoth our prior, with a brightening eye, "we shall surely seesome feat of war if Sir Alain be alive! The foul rebels have refused toparley, and have atrociously wronged the would-be peace-maker. Ay, bythe bones of King Henry, 'tis as I thought! The trumpets sound! SirAlain'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 withPhilip, the lay brother, who had been teaching me how to use the longbow, did now see a battalia rushing across the bridge, a mixed force ofhorse and foot, and did further perceive a good company of cross-bowmendescend the left bank of Thamesis as if their intent was to march belowour abbey to Sunning. The battalia which crossed the bridge divideditself into two parts, of the which one marched hastily along the roadthat leads right to the Castle-hill and town of Reading, while the otherand major part struck across the meadows for the King's Mead, neverhalting or pausing until it was right in front of the rebels. With theparty in the mead were seen the pennon and cognizances of Sir Alain deBohun: it seemed but a small force compared with that which was opposedto it, but of horse Sir Alain seemed to have rather more than theadverse party. There was a short parley, the words of which we could nothear, but it was very short, and then we heard right well, from the oneside the shout of "God for King Stephen!" and from the other "God forthe Empress-queen!" and when they had thus shouted for a space, theyjoined battle. At first their superiority in number seemed to give therebels the advantage; and our prior was so transported at this, that heclapped 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 ourknights and men-at-arms to charge the enemy in the rear. But, lo! thecross-bows, of whom we had lost sight, appeared on the river in skiffs,and in less than an Ave they landed on the right bank; and then theyformed in good order, and came on with quick steps to the right wing ofthe foe, and shooting close and all together, smote it sorely with theirquarrels. And hereupon the rascaille people fell off from their leaders,and ran in much disorder across the meadows. Now that part of SirAlain's battalion which had marched towards the Castle-hill set up atriumphant shout, and drove the fugards back again, and moved upon theother flank of the disordered rebel host. The serfs of the abbey-landsand the townfolk and others who had been cowering under our walls andeven in our ditches, became full of heart at sight of the great successof Sir Alain's cross-bows and the easy victory the good knight ofCaversham was now completing; and this encouraged the prior todistribute bows and bills among them, and to throw open the abbey-gateand form a third line or battalia round the discomfited foe. Divers ofour brotherhood did go forth with the prior, and even take a post inadvance upon the Falbury-hill; but I, Felix, having no commandment tothe contrary, stayed where I was, in a very safe place, whence I couldsee all that chanced below. After making sundry desperate attempts tostop the flight of their pedones and bring them to a head again, theEmpress's knights, not without holes in their chain jerkins, began tofly themselves and to knock down and ride pitilessly over their ownpeople. They could go no other gait than close by our abbey and acrossthe Falbury; and when they came near unto our force on the hillock, astiffish flight of arrows and quarrels made them swerve and draw rein.At this juncture, Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, whose lance was red withblood, and whose casque had been knocked from his head by some terribleblow, and whose face was covered with blood in a manner fearful to lookupon, came thundering among the rebel knights calling upon his mortalfoe, that caitiff knight Sir Jocelyn de Brienne, to tarry and receivehis inevitable doom as a felon traitor, coward, and foul murtherer. Atthese hard words Sir Jocelyn, who was aforetime a man of a very evilreputation, wheeled round his horse, and with his lance in rest chargedSir Ingelric, who was charging him. Sir Jocelyn, the prime leader ofthis first rebellion, and main actor in the horrible deeds of theover-night, was wounded and unhorsed, and lay on the hard ground of theFalbury (not on a soft mead like that on which he made fall our lordabbat) crying "Rescue! rescue! Help me or I perish!"

  Ay! there lay the proud strong man, struck down in his pride andstrength, looking towards our abbey-gate, and upon the hospital forlepers, called the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, which Aucherius, thesecond abbat of our house, did build near to the great gate, and I weenthat Sir Jocelyn would have changed his present estate even for that ofa leper! and still he cried "Rescue! rescue! Will no true man stop andsave me?" But the knights and men-at-arms that had ridden with him couldnot stay to lift him up or give him any aid, for that Sir Alain de Bohunand his horsemen were now again close upon them, and therefore did theyspur their steeds and gallop madly past some of the townfolk our priorhad armed. Rings still in my ear the horrible voice with which thefallen and disabled Sir Jocelyn cried "Quarter! quarter!" and calledupon his foe to show mercy, and name what ransom he would; and still myblood runs cold as I recall the manner in which Sir Ingelric ofHuntercombe, dismounting, lifted up his enemy's coat of mail and droveunder it into Sir Jocelyn's heart his long thick dagger, screaming,"Where was thy mercy last night! Die unconfessed!" And Sir Jocelynperished, and another knight and ten men-at-arms perished unshrievedupon our abbey lands, yea, and close unto our church and sacristy. Manythat escaped were sorely wounded, and well upon two score of thecommoner sort were made prisoners, either in the King's Mead or in theFalbury. Sir Ingelric of Huntercombe, mad with revenge, would havebutchered all these captives on the Falbury-hill as a sacrifice to themanes of his beloved wife, but Sir Alain de Bohun stood between thewretched serfs and this great fury, and when our good and merciful lordabbat rode up on his grey palfrey, Sir Ingelric was somewhat pacified athis discourse. By the foundation charter which the Beauclerc had givenus, it appertained to the lord abbat, and to none but him, to judge ofoffences committed upon the lands of the abbey; yea, our lord abbat hadthe privileges of the hundred courts, and all manner of pleas, with socand sac, infangtheof, and hamsockna; that is to say, he could try allcauses, impose forfeitures, judge bondmen and villeins, with theirchildren, goods and chattels, and try and punish any thief orhousebreaker, or other evil-doer taken within our jurisdiction. Allthese rights and privileges were granted to the abbat of Reading Abbeyin their fullest extent, with judicial power in all cases of assault,murder, breach of the peace, and the like; in short, in as full extentas belonged to the royal authority. Lord Edward might have hanged everyone of those prisoners by the neck to the trees on the Falbury, and nonecould have said him nay; or he could have chopped off their hands andfeet. But being of a merciful nature, he only made cut off the ears andslit the noses of a few of the churls, and then dismissed them all, asto keep them in prison would be troublesome and costly. And when thislast thing was done, all the victorious party came into our church,where we the monks and novices did chant the _Te Deum laudamus_, afterwhich our abbat delivered a learned discourse upon the rights of KingStephen, and put up a prayer for his preservation on the throne.<
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  Much bloodshedding and many horribly vindictive acts did the lord abbatprevent on this unhappy day: nevertheless much blood was shed, and a newscore of vengeance was commenced. The kin and friends of Sir Jocelyncould no more forgive and forget his death than Sir Ingelric ofHuntercombe could forgive the burning of his house and the murther ofhis wife; every man that had fallen in the field left some behind himwho were sure to call for vengeance.