So soon as Elfric had refreshed himself in the hospitium, he was called to the presence of Abbat Thurstan, and in truth to the presence of all the abbat’s noble and reverend guests, for Thurstan was seated in his great hall, where the servitors were preparing for the supper. Elfric would have taken his trophies with him, but the loaf-man who brought the message doubted whether the abbat would relish the sight of dead men’s heads close afore suppertime, and told him that his prowess was already known; and so Elfric proceeded without his trophies to the great hall, where he was welcomed by the noble company like another David that had slain two Goliaths.[67] When he had told the story of Ivo Taille-Bois’ long persecution and night attack, and his own flight and journey, and had answered numerous questions put to him by the grave assembly, Abbat Thurstan asked him whether he knew what had happened at Spalding since his departure, and what had become of Father Adhelm and his monks, and what fate had befallen the good Abbat of Crowland. “After my flight from the succursal cell,” said the youth, “I dwelt for a short season at Crowland, hidden in the township, or in Deeping-fen, whither also came unto the abbey Father Adhelm and the rest of that brotherhood of Spalding; and there we learned how Ivo Taille-Bois had sent over to his own country to tell his kinsmen that he had to offer them a good house, convenient for a prior and five friars, ready built, ready furnished and well provided with lands and tenements; and how these heretical and unsound Norman monks[68] were hastening to cross the Channel and take possession of the succursal cell at Spalding. My Lord Abbat of Crowland, having what they call the king’s peace, and holding the letters of protection granted by Lanfranc”.... “They will protect no man of Saxon blood, and the priest or monk that accepts them deserves excommunication,” said Frithric, the Abbat of Saint Albans. “Amen!” said Elfric; “but our Abbat of Crowland, relying upon these hollow and rotten reeds, laid his complaints before the king’s council at that time assembled near unto Peterborough, and sought redress and restitution.[69] But the Normans sitting in council not only refused redress and absolved Taille-Bois, but also praised him for what he had done in the way of extortion, pillage, sacrilege, and murder; and”.... “My once wise brother thy Abbat of Crowland ought to have known all this beforehand,” said the Abbat of Saint Albans; “for do not these foreigners all support and cover one another, and form a close league, bearing one upon another, even as on the body of the old dragon scale is laid over scale?”