bbot, hearing of him, sent the
proper officer to lead him down to prison, and clap 'foot-gyves on
him' there. Another poor official furtively brought him a cup of wine;
bade him "be comforted in the Lord." Samson utters no complaint; obeys
in silence. 'Our Lord Abbot, taking counsel of it, banished me to
Acre, and there I had to stay long.'

Our Lord Abbot next tried Samson with promotions; made him
Subsacristan, made him Librarian, which he liked best of all, being
passionately fond of Books: Samson, with many thoughts in him, again
obeyed in silence; discharged his offices to perfection, but never
thanked our Lord Abbot,--seemed rather as if looking into him, with
those clear eyes of his. Whereupon Abbot Hugo said, _Se nunquam
vidisse_, He had never seen such a man; whom no severity would break
to complain, and no kindness soften into smiles or thanks:--a
questionable kind of man!

In this way, not without troubles, but still in an erect
clear-standing manner, has Brother Samson reached his forty-seventh
year; and his ruddy beard is getting slightly grizzled. He is
endeavouring, in these days, to have various broken things thatched
in; nay perhaps to have the Choir itself completed, for he can bear
nothing ruinous. He has gathered 'heaps of lime and sand;' has masons,
slaters working, he and _Warinus monachus noster_, who are joint
keepers of the Shrine; paying out the money duly,--furnished by
charitable burghers of St. Edmundsbury, they say. Charitable burghers
of St. Edmundsbury? To me Jocelin it seems rather, Samson, and Warinus
whom he leads, have privily hoarded the oblations at the Shrine
itself, in these late years of indolent dilapidation, while Abbot Hugo
sat wrapt inaccessible; and are struggling, in this prudent way, to
have the rain kept out![11]--Under what conditions, sometimes, has
Wisdom to struggle with Folly; get Folly persuaded to so much as
thatch out the rain from itself! For, indeed, if the Infant govern the
Nurse, what dextrous practice on the Nurse's part will not be
necessary!

It is a new regret to us that, in these circumstances, our Lord the
King's Custodiars, interfering, prohibited all building or thatching
from whatever source; and no Choir shall be completed, and Rain and
Time, for the present, shall have their way. Willelmus Sacrista, he of
'the frequent bibations and some things not be spoken of;' he, with
his red nose, I am of opinion, had made complaint to the Custodiars;
wish