ing to do Samson an ill turn:--Samson his _Sub_-sacristan, with
those clear eyes, could not be a prime favourite of his! Samson again
obeys in silence.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] _Eadmeri Hist._ p. 8.

[8] Javelin, missile pike. _Gaveloc_ is still the Scotch name for
_crowbar_.

[9] Does this mean, "Rome forever; Canterbury _not_" (which claims an
unjust Supremacy over us)! Mr. Rokewood is silent. Dryasdust would
perhaps explain it,--in the course of a week or two of talking; did
one dare to question him!

[10] _Jocelini Chronica_, p. 36.

[11] _Jocelini Chronica_, p. 7.

CHAPTER VII.

THE CANVASSING.

Now, however, come great news to St. Edmundsbury: That there is to be
an Abbot elected; that our interlunar obscuration is to cease; St.
Edmund's Convent no more to be a doleful widow, but joyous and once
again a bride! Often in our widowed state had we prayed to the Lord
and St. Edmund, singing weekly a matter of 'one-and-twenty penitential
Psalms, on our knees in the Choir,' that a fit Pastor might be
vouchsafed us. And, says Jocelin, had some known what Abbot we were to
get, they had not been so devout, I believe!--Bozzy Jocelin opens to
mankind the floodgates of authentic Convent gossip; we listen, as in a
Dionysius' Ear, to the inanest hubbub, like the voices at Virgil's
Horn-Gate of Dreams. Even gossip, seven centuries off, has
significance. List, list, how like men are to one another in all
centuries:

'_Dixit quidam de quodam_, A certain person said of a certain person,
"He, that _Frater_, is a good monk, _probabilis persona_; knows much
of the order and customs of the church; and, though not so perfect a
philosopher as some others, would make a very good Abbot. Old Abbot
Ording, still famed among us, knew little of letters. Besides,
as we read in Fables, it is better to choose a log for king, than
a serpent never so wise, that will venomously hiss and bite his
subjects."--"Impossible!" answered the other: "How can such a man make
a sermon in the Chapter, or to the people on festival-days, when he
is without letters? How can he have the skill to bind and to loose, he
who does not understand the Scriptures? How--?"'

And then 'another said of another, _alius de alio_, "That _Frater_ is
a _homo literatus_, eloquent, sagacious; vigorous in discipline; loves
the Convent much, has suffered much for its sake." To which a third
party answers, "From all your great clerks, good Lord deliver us! From
Norfolk