“’Tis the wont of kings no less than of lesser folk. Pass me yon bread platter, and fill thy flagon. So much history, I see, makes thee husky and sad!”
“Well, then came Stephen de Blois, the son of Adeliza, who was daughter to the Conqueror.”
“Forsworn priest!” I exclaimed at that familiar name, leaping to my feet and swinging the great gold flail into the air, “that is a falser lie than any yet. The noble Adeliza was troth to Harold, and had no children; unsay it, or——” and here the crook poised ominously over the shrieking Abbot’s head.
“I lied! I lied!” yelled the monk, cowering under the swing of my weapon like a partridge beneath a falcon’s circlings, and then, as the crook was thrown down on the table again, he added: “’Twas Adela, I meant; but what it should matter to thee whether it were Adeliza or Adela passes my comprehension,” and the monk smoothed out his ruffled feathers.
“Proceed! It is not for thee to question. Wrought Stephen anything more notable to thy mind than Henry?”
“Well, Sir, I recall, now thou puttest me to it, that he laid rough hands upon the sacred persons of our Bishops once or twice, yet he was much indebted to them. Didst ever draw sword in a good quarrel, Sir Saint?”
“Didst ever put thy fingers into a venison pasty, Sir Priest? Because, if thou hast, as often, and oftener, have I done according to thy supposition.”
“Why, then, I wonder you lay still upon yonder white marble slab while all the northern Bishops were up in arms for Stephen, and on bloody Northallerton Moor broke the power of the cruel Northmen forever. That day, Sir, the sacred flags of St. Cuthbert of Durham, St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, St. Wilfred of Ripon, not to mention the holy Thurstan’s ruddy pennon, led the van of battle. ’Tis all set out in a pretty scroll that we have over the priory fireplace, else, as you will doubtless guess, I had never remembered so much of detail.”
“Anyhow, it is well recalled. Who came next?”
“Another Henry, and he made the saintly Thomas Becket Archbishop in the year of grace 1162, and afterward the holy prelate was gathered to bliss.”