It was a
picture of the marriage of church and state well worthy of reproduction
on canvas.
Yet King William knew how to deal with Abbot Thurston. Lands belonging
to the monastery lay beyond the fens, and on these the king laid the
rough hand of royal right, as an earnest of what would happen when the
monastery itself should fall into his hands. A flutter of terror shook
the hearts of the abbot and his family of monks. To them it seemed that
the skies were about to fall, and that they would be wise to stand from
under.
While the monks of Ely were revolving this threat of disaster in their
souls, the tide of assault and defence rolled on. William's causeway
pushed its slow length forward through the fens. Hereward assailed it
with fire and sword, and harried the king's lands outside by sudden
raids. It is said that, like King Alfred before him, he more than once
visited the camp of the Normans in disguise, and spied out their ways
and means of warfare.
There is a story connected with this warlike enterprise so significant
of the times that it must be told. Whether or not William believed
Hereward to be an enchanter, he took steps to defeat enchantment, if any
existed. An old woman, who had the reputation of being a sorceress, was
brought to the royal camp, and her services engaged in the king's cause.
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