The White Company | Page 3

the master. "This mention of a woman may turn their minds
from their pious meditations to worldly and evil thoughts."
"Woman! woman!" groaned the Abbot. "Well has the holy Chrysostom
termed them radix malorum. From Eve downwards, what good hath
come from any of them? Who brings the plaint?"
"It is brother Ambrose."
"A holy and devout young man."
"A light and a pattern to every novice."
"Let the matter be brought to an issue then according to our old-time
monastic habit. Bid the chancellor and the sub-chancellor lead in the
brothers according to age, together with brother John, the accused, and
brother Ambrose, the accuser."
"And the novices?"
"Let them bide in the north alley of the cloisters. Stay! Bid the

sub-chancellor send out to them Thomas the lector to read unto them
from the `Gesta beati Benedicti.' It may save them from foolish and
pernicious babbling."
The Abbot was left to himself once more, and bent his thin gray face
over his illuminated breviary. So he remained while the senior monks
filed slowly and sedately into the chamber seating themselves upon the
long oaken benches which lined the wall on either side. At the further
end, in two high chairs as large as that of the Abbot, though hardly as
elaborately carved, sat the master of the novices and the chancellor, the
latter a broad and portly priest, with dark mirthful eyes and a thick
outgrowth of crisp black hair all round his tonsured head. Between
them stood a lean, white-faced brother who appeared to be ill at ease,
shifting his feet from side to side and tapping his chin nervously with
the long parchment roll which he held in his hand. The Abbot, from his
point of vantage, looked down on the two long lines of faces, placid
and sun-browned for the most part, with the large bovine eyes and
unlined features which told of their easy, unchanging existence. Then
he turned his eager fiery gaze upon the pale-faced monk who faced
him.
"This plaint is thine, as I learn, brother Ambrose," said he. "May the
holy Benedict, patron of our house, be present this day and aid us in our
findings! How many counts are there?"
"Three, most holy father," the brother answered in a low and quavering
voice.
"Have you set them forth according to rule?"
"They are here set down, most holy father, upon a cantle of
sheep-skin."
"Let the sheep-skin be handed to the chancellor. Bring in brother John,
and let him hear the plaints which have been urged against him."
At this order a lay-brother swung open the door, and two other
lay-brothers entered leading between them a young novice of the order.

He was a man of huge stature, dark-eyed and red-headed, with a
peculiar half-humorous, half-defiant expression upon his bold,
well-marked features. His cowl was thrown back upon his shoulders,
and his gown, unfastened at the top, disclosed a round, sinewy neck,
ruddy and corded like the bark of the fir. Thick, muscular arms,
covered with a reddish down, protruded from the wide sleeves of his
habit, while his white shirt, looped up upon one side, gave a glimpse of
a huge knotty leg, scarred and torn with the scratches of brambles. With
a bow to the Abbot, which had in it perhaps more pleasantry than
reverence, the novice strode across to the carved prie-dieu which had
been set apart for him, and stood silent and erect with his hand upon the
gold bell which was used in the private orisons of the Abbot's own
household. His dark eyes glanced rapidly over the assembly, and finally
settled with a grim and menacing twinkle upon the face of his accuser.
The chancellor rose, and having slowly unrolled the parchment-scroll,
proceeded to read it out in a thick and pompous voice, while a subdued
rustle and movement among the brothers bespoke the interest with
which they followed the proceedings.
"Charges brought upon the second Thursday after the Feast of the
Assumption, in the year of our Lord thirteen hundred and sixty-six,
against brother John, formerly known as Hordle John, or John of
Hordle, but now a novice in the holy monastic order of the Cistercians.
Read upon the same day at the Abbey of Beaulieu in the presence of
the most reverend Abbot Berghersh and of the assembled order.
"The charges against the said brother John are the following, namely, to
wit:
"First, that on the above-mentioned Feast of the Assumption, small beer
having been served to the novices in the proportion of one quart to each
four, the said brother John did drain the pot at one draught to the
detriment of brother Paul, brother Porphyry and brother Ambrose, who
could scarce eat their none-meat of salted stock-fish on account of their
exceeding