So provisions were running somewhat short, and would run
shorter still.
Moreover, there was a great cause of anxiety. Bishop Egelwin, Abbot
Thurstan, and the monks of Ely were in rebellion, not only against King
William, but more or less against the Pope of Rome. They might be
excommunicated. The minster lands might be taken away.
Bishop Egelwin set his face like a flint. He expected no mercy. All he had
ever done for the French was to warn Robert Comyn that if he stayed in
Durham, evil would befall him. But that was as little worth to him as it
was to the said Robert. And no mercy he craved. The less a man had, the
more fit he was for Heaven. He could but die; and that he had known ever
since he was a chanter-boy. Whether he died in Ely, or in prison, mattered
little to him, provided they did not refuse him the sacraments; and that
they would hardly do. But call the Duke of Normandy his rightful sovereign
he would not, because he was not,--nor anybody else just now, as far as he
could see.
Valiant likewise was Abbot Thurstan, for himself. But he had--unlike
Bishop Egelwin, whose diocese had been given to a Frenchman--an abbey,
monks, and broad lands, whereof he was father and steward. And he must do
what was best for the abbey, and also what the monks would let him do.
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