“That did I not. It was Earl Roger, because he wanted the man’s Shropshire lands.” Whereon high words ensued; and the king gave the earl the lie in his teeth, which the earl did not forget. “I think,” said the rough, shrewd voice of Ivo, “that instead of crying over spilt milk,--for milk the lad was, and never would have grown to good beef, had he lived to my age--” “Who spoke to thee?” “No man, and for that reason I spoke myself. I have lands in Spalding, by your Majesty’s grace, and wish to enjoy them in peace, having worked for them hard enough--and how can I do that, as long as Hereward sits in Ely?” “Splendeur Dex!” said William, “them art right, old butcher.” So they laid their heads together to slay Hereward. And after they had talked awhile, then spoke William’s chaplain for the nonce, an Italian, a friend and pupil of Lanfranc of Pavia, an Italian also, then Archbishop of Canterbury, scourging and imprisoning English monks in the south. And he spoke like an Italian of those times, who knew the ways of Rome. “If his Majesty will allow my humility to suggest--” “What? Thy humility is proud enough under the rose, I will warrant: but it has a Roman wit under the rose likewise. Speak!” “That when the secular and carnal arm has failed, as it is written [Footnote: I do not laugh at Holy Scripture myself. I only insert this as a specimen of the usual mediaeval “cant,”--a name and a practice which are both derived, not from Puritans, but from monks.]--He poureth contempt upon princes, and letteth them wander out of the way in the wilderness--or fens; for the Latin word, and I doubt not the Hebrew, has both meanings.” “Splendeur Dex!” cried William, bitterly; “that hath he done with a vengeance! Thou art right so far, Clerk!” “Yet helpeth He the poor, videlicet, His Church and the religious, who are vowed to holy poverty, out of misery, videlicet, the oppression of barbarous customs, and maketh them households like a flock of sheep.” “They do that for themselves already, here in England,” said William, with a sneer at the fancied morals of the English monks and clergy. [Footnote: The alleged profligacy and sensuality of the English Church before the Conquest rests merely on a few violent and vague expressions of the Norman monks who displaced them. No facts, as far as I can find, have ever been alleged. And without facts on the other side, an impartial man will hold by the one fact which is certain, that the Church of England, popish as it was, was, unfortunately for it, not popish enough; and from its insular freedom, obnoxious to the Church of Rome, and the ultramontane clergy of Normandy; and was therefore to be believed capable--and therefore again accused--of any and every crime.] “But Heaven, and not the Church, does it for the true poor, whom your Majesty is bringing in, to your endless glory.” “But what has all this to do with taking Ely?” asked William, impatiently. “I asked thee for reason, and not sermons.”