as! the new man slept at St. Catherine's Priory on Michaelmas Eve and
walked upon his bare toes to the cracked cathedral next morning. When he
was fairly and ceremonially seated the archdeacon held out his practised
palm for the customary fee (archdeacons are still fee-extracting
creatures). He was astonished to hear the radical retort, "What I gave
for my mitre" (it was a very cheap one) "that and no more will I give
for my throne." Both Herbert and with him Simon Magus fell backward
breathless at this blow.{4} But Hugh had a short way of demolishing his
enemies, and the archdeacon appears hereafter as his stout follower
knocked, no doubt, into a friend. All who were present at this ceremony
had their penances remitted for thirteen days. Two other incidents are
recorded of this time. One is that the bursar asked how many small
fallow deer from the bishop's park should be killed for the inauguration
feast. "Let three hundred be taken, and if you find more wanted do not
stickle to add to this number." In this answer the reader must not see
the witless, bad arithmetic of a vegetarian unskilled in catering, but a
fine determination, first to feed all the poor folk of his metropolis
with the monopolies of princes; and secondly, to sever himself wholly
and dramatically from the accursed oppression of the game and forest
laws. When Hugh told the story at Court it served as a merry jest, often
broken, no doubt, against game (but not soul) preserving prelates, but,
as the sequel shows, there was method in it. The other incident is that
in the convent after Matins, on the morning of his enthronement, he
slept and heard a voice which comforted his doubtful heart, too fearful
lest this step should not be for the people's health or his own. "Thou
hast entered for the waxing of thy people, for the waxing of salvation
to be taken with thy Christ."

The new bishop lived at his manor at Stowe (of which part of the moat
and a farmhouse are now to be seen by the curious), a place parked and
ponded deliciously. Almost as soon as he was installed a new swan came
upon the waters, huge and flat-beaked, with yellow fleshings to his
mandibles. This large wild bird dwarfed the tame swans into geese by
comparison, and no doubt tame swans and geese were small things in those
days compared to our selected fatlings. This bird drove off and killed
the other swans, all but one female, with whom he companied but did not
breed. The servants easily caugh