Into the air, as they
rowed on, whirred up the great skeins of wild fowl innumerable, with a cry
as of all the bells of Crowland, or all the hounds of Bruneswold; and
clear above all the noise sounded the wild whistle of the curlews, and the
trumpet-note of the great white swan. Out of the reeds, like an arrow,
shot the peregrine, singled one luckless mallard from the flock, caught
him up, struck him stone dead with one blow of his terrible heel, and
swept his prey with him into the reeds again.
"Death! death! death!" said Lady Godiva, as the feathers fluttered down
into the boat and rested on the dead boy's pall. "War among man and beast,
war on earth, war in air, war in the water beneath," as a great pike
rolled at his bait, sending a shoal of white fish flying along the
surface. "And war, says holy writ, in heaven above. O Thou who didst die
to destroy death, when will it all be over?"
And thus they glided on from stream to stream, until they came to the
sacred isle of "the inheritance of the Lord, the soil of St. Mary and St.
Bartholomew; the most holy sanctuary of St. Guthlac and his monks; the
minster most free from worldly servitude; the special almshouse of the
most illustrious kings; the sole place of refuge for any one in all
tribulations; the perpetual abode of the saints; the possession of
religious men, especially set apart by the Common Council of the kingdom;
by reason of the frequent miracles of the most holy Confessor, an ever
fruitful mother of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi; and, by reason of
the privileges granted by the kings, a city of grace and safety to all who
repent.
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