take his departure from the ever hospitable house of Ely, he took the Lord Abbat aside, and with bland looks and most gentle voice asked him whether he had not in the abbey some small matter to send as a present and welcoming gift to the royal Dane. Now good Thurstan, who was never of those that had expected a vast and unmingled good from the coming of the Danes, told him how he had broken open the shrine-boxes and stripped the shrines, and contaminated the house with dealing with usurers, in order to get what had been sent into Danemarck as a present for the king. “But,” said the greedy Dane, “have there been no pilgrims to thy shrine since then?” “Nay,” said the Lord Abbat, “some few there have been that have left their little offerings; and, doubtless, many more will come ere many days be past, for in this blessed month occur the festivals of our saints, to wit, that of Saint Sexburga, queen and second abbess of this house, and that of her kinswoman and successor, Saint Withburga, virgin and abbess. On such seasons the donations of the faithful were wont to be most liberal; but alas! few are the Saxons now that have anything left to give to Saxon saints! And the matter we have in our coffers at this present is too small for a gift to a prince, and is, moreover, much needed by this impoverished brotherhood.” To this the cunning, clutching old Dane said that a small matter was better than no money at all; that it had been the custom in all times to propitiate kings and princes with free gifts; that the Lord Abbat had better send such gold and silver as he had; and that the great Knut might come up to Ely after the festival of the two saints, when the shrine-boxes would be fuller, and so give the monks of Ely occasion to make a more suitable offering. At these words Lord Thurstan grew red in the face, and stared at the Dane with a half incredulous look; and then he said, “Wouldst thou skin us alive? Wouldst take the last silver penny? Wouldst see the shrines of four among the greatest of our saints left in dirt and darkness? Dane, can it be that thou art herein doing the bidding of a royal and a Christian prince? Hast thou thy master’s orders to ask that which thou art asking?” Not a whit discountenanced, the old Dane said that men who lived with princes learned to know their wishes, and hastened to execute them, without waiting for express commands; and that he must repeat that he thought the best thing the Abbat of Ely could do would be to send Prince Knut all the money he had in the house.