Robbers and wolves could easily
demolish those whom the foresters did not choose to protect, and the
forest men went through the land like a scourge. Some flagrant injustice
to one of Hugh's men brought down an excommunication upon Godfrey, who
sent off to the king in fury and astonishment; and Henry was in a fine
fit of anger at the news, for the Conqueror long ago had forbidden
unauthorised anathemas against his men. Certain courtiers, thinking to
put Hugh in the way of obliging the king, suggested that a vacant
prebend at Lincoln should be given to one of themselves. The king sent a
letter to that effect, which he did with some curiosity, suggesting this
tit for tat. The messengers jingled through Oxford from Woodstock and
found the bishop at Dorchester touring round his weedy diocese, who
addressed the expectant prebendary and his friends with these words:
"Benefices are not for courtiers but for ecclesiastics. Their holders
should not minister to the palace, revenue, or treasury, but as
Scripture teachers to the altar. The lord king has wherewith to reward
those who serve him in his business, wherewith to recompense soldiers'
work in temporals with temporals. It is good for him to allow the
soldiers of the highest King to enjoy what is set aside for their future
necessities and not to agree to deprive them of their due stipends."
With these words he unhesitatingly sent the courtiers empty and packing.
The fat was in the fire, and the angry courtiers took care that the
chimney should draw. A man galloped off to say "Come to the king at
once," and when the bishop was nearing Rosamond's bower, the king and
his nobles rode off to the park, and sat down in a ring. The bishop
followed at once. No one replied to his salute, or took the least notice
of him. He laid hands upon a great officer next the king and moved him
and sat down, in the circle of black looks. Then the king called for a
needle. He had hurt one of his left fingers, and he sewed a stall upon
it. The bishop was practised in silence, and was not put out by it. At
last he said gently, "You are very like your relatives in Falaise."
Henry threw himself back and laughed in a healthy roar. The courtiers
who understood the sarcasm were aghast at its audacity. They could not
but smile, but waited for the king, who, when he had had his laugh out,
explained the allusion to the Conqueror's leather dressing and gloving
lineage. "All the same, my good man, you must say wh