Sir Nigel | Page 8

"There is the matter of the fish-ponds."
The Abbot's face brightened. It was a subject upon which he was an
authority. If the rule of his Order had robbed him of the softer joys of
life, he had the keener, zest for those which remained.
"How have the char prospered, brother?"
"They have done well, holy father, but the carp have died in the Abbot's
pond."
"Carp prosper only upon a gravel bottom. They must be put in also in
their due proportion, three milters to one spawner, brother sacrist, and
the spot must be free from wind, stony and sandy, an ell deep, with
willows and grass upon the banks. Mud for tench, brother, gravel for
carp."
The sacrist leaned forward with the face of one who bears tidings of
woe. "There are pike in the Abbot's pond," said he.
"Pike!" cried the Abbot in horror. "As well shut up a wolf in our
sheepfold. How came a pike in the pond? There were no pike last year,
and a pike does not fall with the rain nor rise in the springs. The pond
must be drained, or we shall spend next Lent upon stockfish, and have
the brethren down with the great sickness ere Easter Sunday has come
to absolve us from our abstinence."
"The pond shall be drained, holy father; I have already ordered it. Then
we shall plant pot-herbs on the mud bottom, and after we have gathered
them in, return the fish and water once more from the lower pond, so
that they may fatten among the rich stubble."
"Good!" cried the Abbot. "I would have three fish-stews in every

well-ordered house - one dry for herbs, one shallow for the fry and the
yearlings, and one deep for the breeders and the tablefish. But still, I
have not heard you say how the pike came in the Abbot's pond."
A spasm of anger passed over the fierce face of the sacrist, and his keys
rattled as his bony hand clasped them more tightly. "Young Nigel
Loring!" said he. "He swore that he would do us scathe, and in this way
he has done it."
"How know you this?"
"Six weeks ago he was seen day by day fishing for pike at the great
Lake of Frensham. Twice at night he has been met with a bundle of
straw under his arm on the Hankley Down. Well, I wot that the straw
was wet and that a live pike lay within it."
The Abbot shook his head. "I have heard much of this youth's wild
ways; but now indeed he has passed all bounds if what you say be truth.
It was bad enough when it was said that he slew the King's deer in
Woolmer Chase, or broke the head of Hobbs the chapman, so that he
lay for seven days betwixt life and death in our infirmary, saved only
by Brother Peter's skill in the pharmacies of herbs; but to put pike in the
Abbot's pond-why should he play such a devil's prank?"
"Because he hates the House of Waverley, holy father; because he
swears that we hold his father's land."
"In which there is surely some truth."
"But, holy father, we hold no more than the law has allowed."
"True, brother, and yet between ourselves, we may admit that the
heavier purse may weigh down the scales of Justice. When I have
passed the old house and have seen that aged woman with her ruddled
cheeks and her baleful eyes look the curses she dare not speak, I have
many a time wished that we had other neighbors."
"That we can soon bring about, holy father. Indeed, it is of it that I
wished to speak to you. Surely it is not hard for us to drive them from
the country-side. There are thirty years' claims of escuage unsettled,
and there is Sergeant Wilkins, the lawyer of Guildford, whom I will
warrant to draw up such arrears of dues and rents and issues of hidage
and fodder-corn that these folk, who are as beggarly as they are proud,
will have to sell the roof-tree over them ere they can meet them. Within
three days I will have them at our mercy."
"They are an ancient family and of good repute. I would not treat them

too harshly, brother."
"Bethink you of the pike in the carp pond!"
The Abbot hardened his heart at the thought. "It was indeed a devil's
deed - when we had but newly stocked it with char and with carp. Well,
well, the law is the law, and if you can use it to hurt, it is still lawful to
do so Have these claims been advanced?"
"Deacon the bailiff with his two varlets went down to the Hall
yesternight