hoc
memoria praecipue dignum indico quod fenestram magnam in orientali
parte alae australis in ecclesia sua imaginibus optime in vitro
depictis impleverit: id quod et ipsius effigies et insignia ibidem
posita demonstrant. Domum quoque Abbatialem fere totam restauravit:
puteo in atrio ipsius effosso et lapidibus marmoreis pulchre caelatis
exornato. Decessit autem, morte aliquantulum subitanea perculsus,
aetatis suae anno lxxii(do), incarnationis vero Dominicae mdxxix(o)._

'I suppose I shall have to translate this,' said the antiquary to
himself, as he finished copying the above lines from that rather rare and
exceedingly diffuse book, the _Sertum Steinfeldense Norbertinum.[5]_
'Well, it may as well be done first as last,' and accordingly the
following rendering was very quickly produced:

Up to the present day there is much gossip among the Canons about a
certain hidden treasure of this Abbot Thomas, for which those of
Steinfeld have often made search, though hitherto in vain. The story
is that Thomas, while yet in the vigour of life, concealed a very
large quantity of gold somewhere in the monastery. He was often asked
where it was, and always answered, with a laugh: 'Job, John, and
Zechariah will tell either you or your successors.' He sometimes
added that he should feel no grudge against those who might find it.
Among other works carried out by this Abbot I may specially mention
his filling the great window at the east end of the south aisle of
the church with figures admirably painted on glass, as his effigy and
arms in the window attest. He also restored almost the whole of the
Abbot's lodging, and dug a well in the court of it, which he adorned
with beautiful carvings in marble. He died rather suddenly in the
seventy-second year of his age, A.D. 1529.

[5] An account of the Premonstratensian abbey of Steinfeld, in the
Eiffel, with lives of the Abbots, published at Cologne in 1712 by
Christian Albert Erhard, a resident in the district. The epithet
_Norbertinum_ is due to the fact that St Norbert was founder of the
Premonstratensian Order.

The object which the antiquary had before him at the moment was that of
tracing the whereabouts of the painted windows of the Abbey Church at
Steinfeld. Shortly after the Revolution, a very large quantity of painted
glass made its way from the dissolved abbeys of Germany and Be