Page:A literal translation of the Saxon Chronicle.djvu/226

214 an alliance with him, for they believed that he would conquer this land. Then the Danish Bishop Christien, and Earl Osbearn, and their Danish retainers, came into Ely, and all the people of the fens joined them, for they believed that they would conquer the whole country.—Now the monks of Peterborough were told that some of their own men, these were Hereward and his train, would pillage the monastery, and this, because they had heard that the King had given the Abbacy to a French Abbot named Turold, and that he was a very stern man, and that he was come into Stamford with all his French followers. There was, at that time, a church-warden named Ywar; and he took all that he could by night, gospels, mass-robes, cassocks, and other garments, even all and each of such small things as he could carry away, and he came before day to the Abbot Turold, and told him that he sought his protection, and told how the outlaws were coming to Peterborough, and he said that he had done this at the desire of the monks. Then early in the morning all the outlaws came with many ships, and they endeavoured to enter the monastery, but the monks withstood them, so that they were not able to get in. Then they set fire to it, and burned all the monks' houses,