21. The famous Robin Hood, who lived in the reign of Richard the First, is supposed to have been a descendant of one of these unfortunate English nobles.
22. The Bishops’ sees and abbey lands were seized in the same violent manner, as the estates of the nobles, and given to the Norman clergy; and many of the monasteries, after being broken open and plundered, were taken for the abode of monks who came over from Normandy in great numbers.
23. The Normans built a great many castles in different parts of the country; and, if they wanted to build one on a spot where there happened to be houses, they thought nothing of turning out the inhabitants, and pulling down the houses, to make room: and they pressed the poor people, both men and women, to do all the labour, without pay, and treated them very cruelly besides; for, if they did not work hard enough, these unfeeling taskmasters would urge them on with blows.
24. Then wherever the Norman soldiers stayed, they went and lived in the houses of the people, took what they pleased, and made the family wait upon them.
25. The king, himself, cruelly laid waste different parts of the country in revenge for the opposition made to his progress by some of the English earls, especially in the north, where, about three years after the battle of Hastings, such a scene of desolation was made by fire and sword, that, from York to Durham, the houses, the people, and all signs of cultivation, were utterly destroyed.
26. The last stand made against the Normans was in a little island, formed by bogs and lakes, in Cambridgeshire, and still called the Isle of Ely. There, a brave chief, named Hereward, set up a fortified camp, and was joined by other noblemen, and many of their dependents, who, with the ceorls, or tenants, belonging to the Abbey of Ely, made quite an army.
27. It was a secure place of refuge, because the only safe paths into the island were unknown to the Normans, who would most likely have been lost in the bogs, if they had ventured to approach.
28. But they had built a castle close by, at Cam Bridge, and they brought boats and tried to make causeways by which they might get into the camp of refuge; but the English would go out in bands at night and destroy all that their enemies had done, and kept constantly on the watch for straggling parties, who were often attacked unawares, and many of them killed, while the English could always retreat to their camp, where they were safe from pursuit.
29. At last the Normans established a blockade of boats round the island, and provisions began to get scarce within it; so two or three bad selfish men, who lived in the abbey, went to the Normans at Cam Bridge, and said, they would show them the way into the island, if they would promise not to meddle with the abbey.
30. These men led the Normans secretly into the island, and a terrible battle was fought, in which almost all the English were killed.