The Abbot and Prior of St. Mary’s
In the meantime the abbot of St. Mary’s was counting that Sir Richard’s lands were safely his; he had no pity for the poor unlucky knight, but rather exulted in the legal cruelty which he could inflict. Very joyfully he called aloud, early that morn: “A twelvemonth ago to-day we lent four hundred pounds to a needy knight, Sir Richard of the Lea, and unless he comes by noon to-day to repay the money he will lose all his land and be disinherited, and our abbey will be the richer by a fat estate, worth four hundred pounds a year. Our Lady grant that he keep not his day.” “Shame on you!” cried the prior. “This poor knight may be ill, or beyond the sea; he may be in hunger and cold as well as poverty, and it will be a foul wrong if you declare his land forfeit.”
“This is the set day,” replied the abbot, “and he is not here.” “You dare not escheat his estates yet,” replied the prior stubbornly. “It is too early in the day; until noon the lands are still Sir Richard’s, and no man shall take them ere the clock strikes. Shame on your conscience and your greed, to do a good knight such foul wrong! I would willingly pay a hundred pounds myself to prevent it.”
“Beshrew your meddlesome temper!” cried the abbot. “You are always crossing me! But I have with me the Lord Chief Justice, and he will declare my legal right.” Just at that moment the high cellarer of the abbey entered to congratulate the abbot on Sir Richard’s absence. “He is dead or ill, and we shall have the spending of four hundred pounds a year,” quoth he.