Here the Lord Abbat looked rather grim, and said, “Of a truth I thought that thy people had made great booty! By Saint Etheldreda, the founder of this house—the house was never so poor as it now is, or had such urgent need of money as it now hath! By my soul it is but a small matter that is in our shrine-boxes, and all of it, and more than all, is due unto the Jews!” “It is sinful and heathenish to pay unto Jews the gold and silver which Christian pilgrims have deposited on the shrines of their saints,” said one of the Danish jarls. And hereat the Lord Abbat Thurstan blushed and held down his head, much grieving that, though against his vote and will, the house had been driven to traffic with Israelites and money-changers; yet still remembering that this evil thing had been begun in order to get money to send to the insatiate Danes. All this while Prince Knut kept his state, and said not a word. But the cunning old man went on to say, that hitherto the profits of the expedition had not been half enough to pay King Svend Estrithson the price of half the ships he had lost last year; and that, although the amount of gold and silver in the shrine-boxes might be but small, there was a rumour that there was other good treasure in the house.[196] Here it was that the Lord of Brunn grew red, for he was the first to understand that the greedy Dane meant to speak of the chalices and pateras, the crown of gold, the gold and silver tables, and the other things of great price that he had brought away with him from Peterborough in order that they might be saved from Torauld of Fescamp. Again speaking, when he ought not to have spoken—before Abbat Thurstan could speak or collect his thoughts—the chamberlain said, “Verily, oh Dane! I have under my charge some strong boxes which the Lord of Brunn sent hither from Peterborough; and, albeit, I know not with precision what these strong boxes contain...” Here Abbat Thurstan stopped the talkative chamberlain and said, “Let the strong boxes contain what they will, the contents are none of ours! They be here as a sacred deposit, to be returned to the _good_ monks of Peterborough when they can get back to their house and their church, and live without dread of Saxon traitors and Norman plunderers!”