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As they drew near, they passed every minute some fisher's log canoe, in
which worked with net or line the criminal who had saved his life by
fleeing to St. Guthlac, and becoming his man henceforth; the slave who had
fled from his master's cruelty; and here and there in those evil days, the
master who had fled from the cruelty of Normans, who would have done to
him as he had done to others. But all old grudges were put away there.
They had sought the peace of St. Guthlac; and therefore they must keep his
peace, and get their living from the fish of the five rivers, within the
bounds whereof was peace, as of their own quiet streams; for the Abbot and
St. Guthlac were the only lords thereof, and neither summoner nor sheriff
of the king, nor armed force of knight or earl, could enter there.
At last they came to Crowland minster,--a vast range of high-peaked
buildings, founded on piles of oak and hazel driven into the fen,--itself
built almost entirely of timber from the Bruneswold; barns, granaries,
stables, workshops, stranger's hall,--fit for the boundless hospitality of
Crowland,--infirmary, refectory, dormitory, library, abbot's lodgings,
cloisters; and above, the great minster towering up, a steep pile, half
wood, half stone, with narrow round-headed windows and leaden roofs; and
above all the great wooden tower, from which, on high days, chimed out the
melody of the seven famous bells, which had not their like in English
land.
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