For
severe as was the discipline of a minster in time of peace, yet in time of
war, when life and death were in question, monks had ere now turned
valiant from very fear, like Cato's mouse, and mutinied: and so might the
monks of Ely,
And Edwin and Morcar?
No man knows what they said or thought; perhaps no man cared much, even in
their own days. No hint does any chronicler give of what manner of men
they were, or what manner of deeds they did. Fair, gentle, noble, beloved
even by William, they are mere names, and nothing more, in history: and it
is to be supposed, therefore, that they were nothing more in fact. The
race of Leofric and Godiva had worn itself out.
One night the confederates had sat late, talking over the future more
earnestly than usual. Edwin, usually sad enough, was especially sad that
night.
Hereward jested with him, tried to cheer him; but he was silent, would not
drink, and went away before the rest.
The next morning he was gone, and with him half a dozen of his private
housecarles.
Hereward was terrified. If defections once began, they would be endless.
The camp would fall to pieces, and every man among them would be hanged,
mutilated, or imprisoned, one by one, helplessly. They must stand or fall
together.
He went raging to Morcar.
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