But at the end of a couple of weeks came old Abbot Absalom riding down from London, from the King’s holding of Parliament. Being told of the great miracle which the Blessed Archangels had worked on his Church porch, he went in hot haste to behold it. He examined it carefully and critically. ‘Marry,’ quoth he at length in a dry decided voice, ‘if this be the work of the Blessed Archangels, then have Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael been to school at that knave William’s.’ Then he pointed with his staff to the figure of Our Blessed Lady, carved to the life, holding the Holy Infant on her lap for the Wise Men to adore. ‘God’s foot,’ quoth he, ‘I have seen that Virgin’s face somewhere before.’ They all began to stare at the carven Virgin; then some began to titter and then to laugh, and at last one cried out, ‘Beshrew me, if it is not bonny Gilly Hedgerow from the Crutched House.’ Now at the time William was amorous of this wench. When the Abbot had dined he sent a messenger for William, and had him brought forthwith into his presence. ‘Right noble and celestial sire,’ said the Abbot, bowing satirically as low as his fat paunch would let him, ‘I have spoken with many a great lord and noble, with our Lord the King and with His Holiness the Pope, but never have I had the honour of meeting an Archangel before.’ Whereupon William fell down upon his knees and told the Abbot all that had happened, how the Twelve Apostles had cheated him of a hundred crowns, and how he had made them repay him three times as much. In the end he asked forgiveness, humbly submitting that although he had indeed taken down the Apostles he had put a better piece of work in their place. Then the Abbot laughed heartily at the story and, raising William to his feet, sent for a cup of wine wherein he pledged him merrily as the wittiest cogging knave in England, and forced him also to pledge him in return. ‘I freely forgive thee,’ quoth he, ‘for thou hast not only given me a good jest to tell to my Lord Abbot of Saint Alban’s, but an excellent exchange against the Apostles, which, however, I will buy from thee again for the Chapter House.’ So saying he gave Will the cup with twenty crowns in it to boot, and afterwards told the story of Will’s revenge upon the usurers with great applause at the King’s Court at Westminster. When the townsfolk got to hear of it, they laughed as heartily thereat as the Abbot had done, and for a long time afterwards William and his two men were commonly known as the Archangels. Further, they said that Roodborough was indeed a town favoured by God, for whereas it had long possessed a famous goodly Abbey and the Twelve Apostles, now also it had the three Archangels into the bargain. How Peter heard the Cock crow I