“Aye! and the cellars full, and the granaries full,” said the cellarius.
“And nothing was taken from our treasury or from the shrines of our saints,” said the sub-sacrist.
“Nor was there any dealing and pledging with the accursed Israelites,” said the chamberlain.
“Nor did we then bring upon ourselves the black guilt of robbing other religious houses to give the spoils to the half-converted, drunken Danes,” said the sub-chamberlain.
“Slanderers and traitors all,” shouted Thurstan, “ye all know how these things were brought about! There is not one of ye but had more to do in that of which ye now complain than I had! Ye forced me into those dealings with Jews and Danes.”
“Thou wast abbat and ruler of the house, and as such thou art still answerable for all;” said the prior with a very insolent and diabolical sneer.
Thurstan could no longer control his mighty wrath, and springing upon the prior and seizing him by the neck he shouted, “Dog, I will answer upon thy throat! Nay, viper, that stingest thy benefactor, I will crush thee under my heel!”
And before the cellarer and chamberlain or any of that faction could come to the rescue, the puny prior, with a blackened face, was cast on his back upon the floor of the chapter-house, and the Lord Abbat had his foot upon him.
The prior moaned and then screamed and yelled like a whipped cur: the faction rose from their seats and came to his aid, but as they all knew and dreaded the stalwart strength that was in Thurstan’s right arm, each of them wished some other monk to go foremost, and so the cellarer pushed forward the chamberlain, and the chamberlain pushed forward the sub-chamberlain, the sacrist, the sub-sacrist, and so with the rest; and maugre all this pushing, not one of them would venture to lay his hand upon the sleeve of the abbat’s gown, or to get within reach of Thurstan’s strong right arm.
But the Lord Abbat cooling in his wrath, and feeling scorn and contempt instead of anger, took his foot from the hollow breast of the recreant prior, and bade him rise and cease his yelling: and the prior rose, and the abbat returned to his seat.