The Pilgram of Hate Read Online Free PDF

best they could. As for the man
Christian, who had so angered Bishop Henry, he was attacked that same evening
in the street, as he set out to return to the queen empty-handed. Four or five
ruffians set on him in the dark, no one knows who, for they fled when one of
the empress’s knights and his men came to the rescue and beat them off, crying
shame to use murder as argument in any cause, and against an honest man who had
done his part fearlessly in the open. The clerk got no worse than a few
bruises. It was the knight who got the knife between his ribs from behind and
into the heart. He died in the gutter of a Winchester street. A shame to us
all, who claim to be making peace and bringing enemies into amity.”
    By
the shadowed anger of his face it had gone deep with him, the single wanton act
that denied all pretences of good will and justice and conciliation. To strike
at a man for being honestly of the opposite persuasion, and then to strike
again at the fair-minded and chivalrous who sought to prevent the outrage—very
ill omens, these, for the future of the legate’s peace.
    “And
no man taken for the killing?” demanded Hugh, frowning.
    “No.
They fled in the dark. If any creature knows name or hiding-place, he has
spoken no word. Death is so common a matter now, even by stealth and treachery
in the darkness, this will be forgotten with the rest. And the next day our
council closed with sentence of excommunication against a great number of
Stephen’s men, and the legate pronounced all men blessed who would bless the
empress, and accursed those who cursed her. And so dismissed us,” said
Radulfus. “But that we monastics were not dismissed, but kept to attend on him
some weeks longer.”
    “And
the empress?”
    “Withdrew
to Oxford, while these long negotiations with the city of London went on, how
and when she should be admitted within the gates, on what terms, what numbers
she might bring in with her to Westminster. On all which points they have
wrangled every step of the way. But in nine or ten days now she will be
installed there, and soon thereafter crowned.” He lifted a long, muscular hand,
and again let it fall into the lap of his habit. “So, at least, it seems. What
more can I tell you of her?”
    “I
meant, rather,” said Hugh, “how is she bearing this slow recognition? How is
she dealing with her newly converted barons? And how do they rub, one with
another? It’s no easy matter to hold together the old and the new liegemen, and
keep them from each other’s throats. A manor in dispute here and there, a few
fields taken from one and given to another… I think you know the way of it,
Father, as well as I.”
    “I
would not say she is a wise woman,” said Radulfus carefully. “She is all too
well aware how many swore allegiance to her at her father’s order, and then
swung to King Stephen, and now as nimbly skip back to her because she is in the
ascendant. I can well understand she might take pleasure in pricking into the
quick where she can, among these. It is not wise, but it is human. But that she
should become lofty and cold to those who never wavered—for there are some,”
said the abbot with respectful wonder, “who have been faithful throughout at
their own great loss, and will not waver even now, whatever she may do. Great
folly and great injustice to use them so highhandedly, who have been her right
hand and her left all this while.”
    You
comfort me, thought Hugh, watching the lean, quiet face intently. The woman is
out of her wits if she flouts even the like of Robert of Gloucester, now she
feels herself so near the throne.
    “She
has greatly offended the bishop-legate,” said the abbot, “by refusing to allow
Stephen’s son to receive the rights and titles of his father’s honours of
Boulogne and Mortain, now that his father is a prisoner. It would have been
only justice. But no, she would not suffer it. Bishop