as being the custom of the country.[27] In brief, he had already spent nearly all the £10 which he received at his journey's start from the hands of Brother John Lakyngheth, his rival for monastic promotion. So now he converts his balance of 16_s._ 8_d._ from sterling into florins, reckoning a florin at 3_s._ 2_d._ To this he adds seven florins by the sale of his own horse--a creditable bargain, for, having paid 34_s._ 8_d._ for the beast in London, he has ridden it to Bruges, and there parted with it for 22_s._ 2_d._ On the other hand, Gerard's horse has turned out badly; the journey has nearly killed it;[28] and it goes for three florins, or 9_s._ 6_d._ Colchester negotiated a loan of twenty-three florins, and on they went towards the south, sometimes hiring mounts, sometimes begging a ride in a cart, often in terror of the Frenchmen, who laid an ambush for them as they entered Dauphiné, so that our travellers hired a guide and went through byways. On the 27th day after leaving Bruges they entered Avignon, and next day they found Master Southam at his lodgings by the church of Our Lady of Miracles. For a moment I lay aside Colchester's ledger and turn to a separate document; for Southam had with him at Avignon another Westminster monk, John Farnago, who became Colchester's paymaster and in due course presented to the Abbey an account[29] of what he had laid out on his behalf. We are thus furnished with the date of the arrival of Colchester and Gerard--July 24--and learn that they required bed and board at Avignon till August 19. Farnago purchased for his Brother a fresh outfit--cape, tunic, and hood of black Benedictine cloth, a scapular and cowl, and a plain colobium (or sleeveless tunic), buying the last, as he says, from Hagyuus, a Jew, whose real name was probably Hayyim. He also provided a horse for the journey to Marseilles, where Colchester was to take ship, and put some money in his scrip. So our Proctor turned his back on Avignon, perhaps not fully realizing that when on August 14, five days before his departure, he and Farnago witnessed the probate of Cardinal Langham's will,[30] he had been concerned with a document which was to have a vast effect on the church and the conventual buildings of St. Peter, Westminster.