Let us turn next to Pudlicott’s own confession, that remarkable document from which I have already borrowed many details, though seldom without a word of warning. According to his confession, Pudlicott, having resolved to rob the treasury, came to the conclusion that the best way to tackle the business was to pierce a hole through the wall of thirteen feet of stone that supported the lower story of the chapter house. For so colossal a task time was clearly needed. Richard accordingly devoted himself during the dark nights of winter and early spring to drilling through the solid masonry. He attacked the building from the churchyard or eastern side, having access thereto from the palace. But the churchyard was open to the parish and the thrifty churchwardens of St. Margaret’s had let to a neighbouring butcher the right of grazing his sheep in it. Now the butcher was told that his privilege was withdrawn, and passers-by were sent round by another path. This was a precaution against the casual wayfarer seeing the hole which was daily growing larger. To hide from the casual observer the great gash in the stonework, Richard tells us that he sowed hempseed in the churchyard near the hole, and that this grew so rapidly that the tender hemp plants not only hid the gap in the wall, but provided cover for him to hide the spoils he hoped to steal from the treasury. When the hole was complete on 24 April, Pudlicott went through and found to his delight that the chamber was full of baskets, chests, and other vessels for holding valuables, plate, relics, jewels, and gold florins of Florence. Richard remained in the crypt gloating over the treasure surrounding him from the evening of 24 April to the morning of 26 April. Perhaps he found it impossible to tear himself away from so much wealth; or perhaps the intervening day, being the feast of St. Mark, there were too many people about, and too many services in the abbey to make his retreat secure. However, he managed on the morning of 26 April to get away, taking with him as much as he could carry. He seems to have dropped, or to have left lying about, a good deal that he was unable to carry, possibly for his friends to pick up.