Now those of the faction who had not felt the tight grip of Thurstan’s right hand, nor the weight of his foot, were greatly rejoiced at what had happened, as they thought it would give them a handle whereby to move a vote of the chapter for the forcible suspension of the Lord Abbat; and to this end they raised a loud clamour that Thurstan had acted uncanonically, tyrannically, and indecently, in beating a monk who was next in dignity to himself, and that by this one act he had merited suspension.
“Babblers and fools,” cried Thurstan, growing wroth again; “Fools that ye are, though with more malice than folly, and with more treachery than ignorance, it is not unto me that ye can expound the canons of the church, or the rules of the order of Saint Benedict! Was I not bred up in this house from mine infancy? Was I not reputed sufficiently learned both in English and in Latin, many years before I became your abbat? Have I not read and gotten by heart the laws and institutes? Ye have a rule if ye would read it! and is it not this—that it is your duty to obey your Lord Abbat in all things, and that your abbat may impose upon each and all of ye such penance as he thinks fit, secundum delictum, even to the chastising of ye with his own hand? Chamberlain! I have seen Abbat Wilfric cudgel thee with his fen-pole until thy back was as black as thy heart now is. Sacrist! thou art old now, but thou wilt remember how Abbat Wilfric’s predecessor knocked thee down in the refectory on the eve of Saint John, for being drunk before evening-song, and thine offence was small compared to that which this false prior hath given me before the whole house!”
The prior, who had now recovered his breath and removed himself to the farthest end of the hall, spoke and said—“But what say the canons of Ælfric?—‘Let not a priest wear weapons nor work strife, nor let him swear oaths, but with gentleness and simplicity ever speak truly as a learned servant of God:’—and what sayeth Ælfric in his pastoral epistle?—‘No priest shall be too proud nor too boastful. He shall not be violent and quarrelsome, nor stir up strife, but he shall pacify quarrels always if he can; and he may not who is God’s soldier lawfully wear weapons, nor go into any battle:’—and what say the canons enacted under King Edgar, the great benefactor of this our house?—‘Let each of God’s servants be to other a support and a help both before God and before men: and we enjoin that each respect the other.’”
“Say on,” cried the abbat; “thou sayest not all the canons of good King Edgar, for it ordains that all junior priests or monks shall respect and obey their elders and superiors. But I will not lose more time and temper in talking with thee and such as thou art; and since the major part of the convent have fallen off from their duty and the respect and obedience they owe me, I, Thurstan, by the grace of God Lord Abbat of Ely, entering my solemn protest against the wrong which hath been done me, and making my appeal to God against this injustice and rebellion, do here, for this time being, take off my mitre and dalmatic, and lay down my crosier, and take my departure for the Camp of Refuge, to take my chance with those whom ye are betraying.”
And so saying, Thurstan laid mitre, dalmatic, and crosier upon the table, and then strode down the hall towards the door.
“Oh Thurstan,” cried the chamberlain with a voice of great joy, “thou hast done wisely! but it would not be wisely done in us to let thee go forth of this house for this present! Sub-prior, cellarer, friends, all that would save the abbey and your own lives, look to the door! Prior, put it to the vote that the house in chapter assembled do accept the voluntary resignation of Thurstan, and that he, our whilom abbat, be closely confined within his own innermost chamber, until another chapter ordain otherwise, or until this exceeding great danger be past.”
The door was more than secured; and save only the feeble voices of those three old and good monks, Fathers Kynric, Elsin, and Celred, not a voice was heard to speak against these wicked proposals, or in favour of the bountiful Lord Abbat, whose heart died within him at the sight of so much ingratitude, and who stood, as if rooted to the ground, at the end of the hall near the door, muttering to himself, “Hereward, my son, if thou hadst lived it ne’er had come to this! Oh noble lords and knights and warriors true in the Camp,—no longer a Camp of Refuge, but Castra Doloris, a Camp of Woe,—ye will be betrayed and butchered, and in ye will be betrayed and butchered the liberties of England and the last rights of the English church, before warning can be given ye! Oh Stigand, my spiritual lord, and all ye Saxon bishops and abbats that came hither as to a sanctuary, ye have but thrown yourselves into the lion’s den! Hereward, dear, brave Hereward, thou art happy, thou art happy in this, that thou hast at least died like a soldier! The rest of us will die like sheep in the shambles!”
While Thurstan, a sadder man than ever was Marius among the ruins of Carthage, was thus standing motionless, and communing with his own sad heart, the prior put to the vote the resolution which the chamberlain had moved; and the large majority of the house, some being deep in the plot, but more being carried by the dread of the Normans and the dread of famine, or being thrown into despair by the reported death of the Lord of Brunn, voted as the prior and chamberlain wished they would vote. The prior would fain have cast Thurstan into that subterranean dungeon into which Thurstan had once threatened,[[237]] but unluckily only threatened, to cast him; and he took much pains to show that it was needful to keep the deposed abbat in a place of great strength and security, to keep his imprisonment a secret, and to prevent all possibility of access to him or correspondence with him; but when he came to name the dark damp cold cells in the foundations of the abbey, wherein the rebellious son of an old East Anglian king had been immured, after having been deprived of his eyes, the monks testified compunction and disgust, and even sundry monks that had long been the most desperate of his faction spoke against the barbarity, and therefore the astute prior had not put it to the vote, and Thurstan was merely conveyed to the inner chamber of his own apartment; and this being done, and a strong guard being left in the abbat’s apartment, the monks all went to their long delayed dinner, and as soon as the dinner was over, the prior, the cellarer, the chamberlain, the sacrist, and a large attendance of monks and lay brothers went forth to complete their treason, leaving behind them rigorous orders that all the gates of the abbey should be kept closed, and that none should be admitted therein until they returned from Cam-Bridge.[[238]] The way which the traitors took across the fens and broad waters of Ely was indirect and long, for they feared to be seen of any Saxon, and so shunned the good folk of the township of Ely, the faithful vassals and loaf-eaters of the abbey. Nevertheless they got to the causey which the Normans had made before compline, or second vespers, and finding fleet horses there waiting for them, they got to the castle at Cam-Bridge, and into the presence of Duke William and his fiercer half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, two good hours before the beginning of lauds.[[239]] The false Saxons kneeled at the feet of the Normans, kissed their hands—mailed hands both, for the bishop, heedless of the canons of the church, wore armour and carried arms as frequently as his brother the duke, and, like the duke, intended to take the field against the last of the Saxons, and was only waiting for the summons and the sign which the monks of Ely were to give. The compact had been propounded many nights before this; but now the duke, speaking as lawful sovereign of England, and the Bishop of Bayeux, speaking as one that had authority from the primate Lanfranc and from the Pope of Rome himself, laid their hands upon the relics of some Saxon saints which the traitor monks had brought with them, and solemnly promised and vowed that, in consideration of the said monks showing them a safe byway to the Camp of Refuge, and in consideration of their other services, they would do no harm, nor suffer any to be done either to Ely Abbey, or to any monk, novice, lay brother, or other servant soever of that house. Aye, they promised and vowed that the whole patrimony of Saint Etheldreda should remain and be confirmed to the Saxon brotherhood, and that not a hide of land should be taken from them, nor a single Norman knight, soldier, abbat, or monk be forced upon them, or enriched by their spoils. Aye, and they promised and vowed to enrich the shrines of the saints, and to restore to the abbey its pristine splendour and all its ancient possessions, not excepting those for which Guthmund, the brother of Abbat Wilfric, had compounded; and they opened unto the delighted eyes of the prior the sure and brilliant prospect of the mitre and crosier. And upon this the false monks of Ely swore upon the same relics to do all and more than they had promised to do; and so kneeled again and kissed the mailed hands, and took their departure from that ill-omened castle on the hill that stood and stands near to Cam-Bridge; and riding along the causey as fast as the best English horses could carry them, and then stealing over the waters, across the fens, and through the woods of willows, like night thieves that blow no horn, because they will not that their going and coming be known to honest men, they got back to the abbey, and went to their several cells about the same hour of prime on which Elfric the sword-bearer, and Girolamo the Salernitan, got down as far as to Brandon with corn and wine for the house.
The order was again given that all the gates of the abbey should be kept closed; and during the whole of that day, or from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof, no living soul was allowed either to enter the house or to issue therefrom. So much did the traitors fear lest their treasons and the wrongs they had done unto the good Lord Abbat should become known to the good folk of Ely town, and through them to the warriors in the Camp of Refuge. Some of the Saxon prelates had gone forth for the Camp several days before, and had not yet returned; but such as remained in the house (only a few sick and aged men) were told that the Lord Abbat was sick, and could not be spoken with, and that the doors and gates were kept closed in order that he might not be disturbed. Nor was this all false. Thurstan’s wrath, and then his grief and perturbations, had brought on a fever and ague and he was lying on his bed in a very helpless and very hopeless state, with none to help him or hear him, for the sub-prior had made fast the door of the inner chamber, and the door of the chamber which led into it; and the guard was stationed at a distance in the corridor.