e,
which harass me, and make my soul to sigh and be anxious." Whereto I,
lifting up my hands to Heaven: "From such anxiety, Omnipotent merciful
Lord deliver me!"--I have heard the Abbot say, If he had been as he
was before he became a Monk, and could have anywhere got five or six
marcs of income,' some three-pound ten of yearly revenue, 'whereby to
support himself in the schools, he would never have been Monk nor
Abbot. Another time he said with an oath, If he had known what a
business it was to govern the Abbey, he would rather have been
Almoner, how much rather Keeper of the Books, than Abbot and Lord.
That latter office he said he had always longed for, beyond any other.
_Quis talia crederet?_' concludes Jocelin, 'Who can believe such
things?'

Three-pound ten, and a life of Literature, especially of
quiet Literature, without copyright, or world-celebrity of
literary-gazettes,--yes, thou brave Abbot Samson, for thyself it had
been better, easier, perhaps also nobler! But then, for thy
disobedient Monks, unjust Viscounts; for a Domain of St. Edmund
overgrown with Solecisms, human and other, it had not been so well.
Nay neither could _thy_ Literature, never so quiet, have been easy.
Literature, when noble, is not easy; but only when ignoble.
Literature too is a quarrel, and internecine duel, with the whole
World of Darkness that lies without one and within one;--rather a hard
fight at times, even with the three-pound ten secure. Thou, there
where thou art, wrestle and duel along cheerfully to the end: and make
no remarks!

FOOTNOTES:

[15] _Jocelini Chronica_, p. 85.

[16] _Jocelini Chronica_, p. 24.

CHAPTER XIII.

IN PARLIAMENT.

Of Abbot Samson's public business we say little, though that also was
great. He had to judge the people as Justice Errant, to decide in
weighty arbitrations and public controversies; to equip his _milites_,
send them duly in war-time to the King;--strive every way that the
Commonweal, in his quarter of it, take no damage.

Once, in the confused days of Lackland's usurpation, while
Coeur-de-Lion was away, our brave Abbot took helmet himself, having
first excommunicated all that should favour Lackland; and led his men
in person to the siege of _Windleshora_, what we now call Windsor;
where Lackland had entrenched himself, the centre of infinite
confusions; some Reform Bill, then as now, being greatly needed. There
did Abbot Samson 'fight the battle of reform,'--with other