Then the young lord said, “Read me what is written that I may hear.” And the procurator read out,-- “We, the monks of Marmoutier and Walter, Lord, hold in common sundry serfs, men and women, now to be divided between us in severalty. Therefore at this present, being the 6th day of June, in the year of the Incarnation, 1087, and Bernard being abbot, we have proceeded to the division of the men children and of the women children of----” Then old Father Augustine looked up from the parchment and said, “My lord, until we have agreed, it can go no further.” Walter, the young lord, rubbed his shaven chin with his hand, and looked sidelong at Novice Raoul. For Novice Raoul, being the son of one of the villeins adjacent, could bear witness. Brother Raoul spoke,-- “The farm which my father has in villeinage marches, Father Procurator, with Hauterive farm, and as a boy, before I came to holy service here and to the special following of God, my father and I, on those two work days of the week that are due to the lord, went in company with those of Hauterive, who were more wealthy than we from the goodness of their land; and I can bear witness to custom.” “Of the elders,” here said the young lord, “there is no question, for I freely allow what Abbot Bernard has written me and Father Procurator here--to wit, that Renaud, whose house is called the ‘Village House,’ is due for the two days’ labour at the monastery gates, and Guascelin, the other villein upon Hauterive land, is due at the castle gates.” The monks nodded, agreeing. “We have but to agree upon the children, their dues of labour, as they come to that age when the custom of the manor demands it. This must be settled.” “So we have set it on the parchment,” said Leo, the monk who had not yet spoken. “So we have set it, lest, when they grow older, quarrels, as in the time of your father, should arise.” Then the Father Procurator spoke again,-- “If Renaud of the Village House chooses to redeem in coin, we shall settle it upon our admitted rule, Lord Walter--two-thirds to the monastery, one-third to the castle.” “That would be but just,” the young man assented. “He will not redeem!” broke in Novice Raoul quickly. “Surely,” said his colleague Leo mildly, “he is rich enough! It is the best land on all the river side, and there are one hundred arpents of it, and it has a vineyard too!” But Raoul laughed, remembering his father’s neighbour.