thou
taken?"

"Alack-a-day! There were a hundred pints in the cask at the start, and I
have taken me a pint every day this month of June--it being to-day the
thirtieth thereof--and if my Lord Abbot can tell me to a nicety how much
good wine I have taken in all, let him punish me as he will."

"Why, knave, that is thirty pints."

"Nay, nay; for each time I drew a pint out of the cask, I put in a pint
of water in its stead!"

It is a curious fact that this is the only riddle in the old record that
is not accompanied by its solution. Is it possible that it proved too
hard a nut for the monks? There is merely the note, "John suffered no
punishment for his sad fault."

46.--_The Riddle of the Crusaders._

On another occasion a certain knight, Sir Ralph de Bohun, was a guest of
the monks at Riddlewell Abbey. Towards the close of a sumptuous repast he
spoke as follows:--

"My Lord Abbot, knowing full well that riddles are greatly to thy liking,
I will, by your leave, put forth one that was told unto me in foreign
lands. A body of Crusaders went forth to fight the good cause, and such
was their number that they were able to form themselves into a square.
But on the way a stranger took up arms and joined them, and they were
then able to form exactly thirteen smaller squares. Pray tell me, merry
monks, how many men went forth to battle?"

Abbot David pushed aside his plate of warden pie, and made a few hasty
calculations.

[Illustration]

"Sir Knight," said he at length, "the riddle is easy to rede. In the
first place there were 324 men, who would make a square 18 by 18, and
afterwards 325 men would make 13 squares of 25 Crusaders each. But which
of you can tell me how many men there would have been if, instead of 13,
they had been able to form 113 squares under exactly the like
conditions?"

The monks gave up this riddle, but the Abbot showed them the answer next
morning.

47.--_The Riddle of St. Edmondsbury._

"It used to be told at St. Edmondsbury," said Father Peter on one
occasion, "that many years ago they were so overrun with mice that the
good abbot gave orders that all the cats from the country round should be
obtained to exterminate the vermin. A record was kept, and at the end of
the year it was found that every cat had killed an equal number of mice,
and the total was exactly 1,111,111 mice. How many cats do you suppose
there were?"

"Methinks one cat killed the lot," said Brother Benja