at Ely; with the rest, who had been left with the ships at Lynn, he would go to the Welland river, and make a beginning. “But thou canst not go yet awhile,” said Abbat Thurstan, thinking of the Christmas festivals and of the Rhenish wines; “thou canst not quit us, my son, until after the feast of the Epiphany! ’Tis but twelve days from to-morrow, and the Normans are not likely to be a-stirring during those twelve days.” “True, my Lord Abbat,” said Hereward, “the Normans will be feasting and rejoicing; but it is on that very account that I must go forthwith in order to take them unprepared and attack their bands separately, while they are feasting. An ye, holy brothers, give me your prayers, and the saints grant me the success I expect, I shall have recovered for ye the house at Spalding and the abbey of Crowland, and for myself mine humble house at Brunn, before these twelve days be over.” “Then,” said the abbat, “thou mayest be back and keep the feast of the Epiphany with us.” Hereward thought of keeping the feast in another place and with a different company, but the eager hospitality of Thurstan was not to be resisted, and so he promised that he would return, if he could do so without detriment to the business he had on hand. But when he spoke of setting forth on the morrow after high mass, not only the Lord Abbat, but every one that heard him, raised his voice against him, and Hereward yielded to the argument that it would be wicked to begin war on Christmas Day, or to do any manner of thing on that day except praying and feasting. Something did Hereward say in praise of Elfric, and of the ability, and courage, and quickness of invention he had displayed while on his mission in foreign parts, and on shipboard. “Albeit,” said he, “I would not rob my good friends the Abbat of Crowland and the Prior of Spalding of so promising a novice, I needs must think that he would make a much better soldier than monk; nor can I help saying that I would rather have Elfric for my messenger and aid in the field than any Saxon youth I know, whether of low degree or high.” “My good brother of Crowland and I have been thinking of these things,” said Abbat Thurstan; “and these are surely days when the saints of England require the services of men with steel caps on their heads as much as they require the services of men with shaven crowns. Not but that some of us that wear cowls have not wielded arms and done good battle in our day for the defence of our shrines and houses.” At this moment the eels and fish of the Christmas-eve supper were all ready, and the best cask of Rhenish which the bark had brought up to my Lord Abbat’s pier was broached. CHAPTER VIII. LORD HEREWARD GOES TO GET HIS OWN.