nity. Thus wretchedly was
the abbacy given away, betwixt Christmas and Candlemas, at
London; and so he went with the King to Winchester, and thence he
came to Peterborough, and there he dwelt (157) right so as a
drone doth in a hive. For as the drone fretteth and draggeth
fromward all that the bees drag toward [the hive], so did
he.--All that he might take, within and without, of learned and lewd,
so sent he over sea; and no good did there--no good left there.
Think no man unworthily that we say not the truth; for it was
fully known over all the land: that, as soon as he came thither,
which was on the Sunday when men sing "Exurge quare o D---- etc."
immediately after, several persons saw and heard many huntsmen
hunting. The hunters were swarthy, and huge, and ugly; and their
hounds were all swarthy, and broad-eyed, and ugly. And they rode
on swarthy horses, and swarthy bucks. This was seen in the very
deer-fold in the town of Peterborough, and in all the woods from
that same town to Stamford. And the monks heard the horn blow
that they blew in the night. Credible men, who watched them in
the night, said that they thought there might well be about
twenty or thirty horn-blowers. This was seen and heard from the
time that he (158) came thither, all the Lent-tide onward to
Easter. This was his entry; of his exit we can as yet say
nought. God provide.

A.D. 1128. All this year was the King Henry in Normandy, on
account of the hostility that was between him and his nephew, the
Earl of Flanders. But the earl was wounded in a fight by a
swain; and so wounded he went to the monastery of St. Bertin;
where he soon became a monk, lived five days afterwards, then
died, and was there buried. God honour his soul. That was on
the sixth day before the calends of August. This same year died
the Bishop Randulph Passeflambard of Durham; and was there buried
on the nones of September. And this same year went the aforesaid
Abbot Henry home to his own minster at Poitou by the king's
leave. He gave the king to understand, that he would withal
forgo that minster, and that land, and dwell with him in England,
and in the monastery of Peterborough. But it was not so
nevertheless. He did this because he would be there, through his
crafty wiles, were it a twelvemonth or more, and come again
afterwards. May God Almighty extend his mercy over that wretched
place. This same year came from Jerusalem Hugh of the Temple to
the kin