The singular appearance of this cavalcade not only attracted the

curiosity of Wamba, but excited even that of his less volatile

companion. The monk he instantly knew to be the Prior of Jorvaulx

Abbey, well known for many miles around as a lover of the chase, of

the banquet, and, if fame did him not wrong, of other worldly pleasures

still more inconsistent with his monastic vows.

Yet so loose were the ideas of the times respecting the conduct of the

clergy, whether secular or regular, that the Prior Aymer maintained a

fair character in the neighbourhood of his abbey. His free and jovial

temper, and the readiness with which he granted absolution from all

ordinary delinquencies, rendered him a favourite among the nobility and

principal gentry, to several of whom he was allied by birth, being of

a distinguished Norman family. The ladies, in particular, were not

disposed to scan too nicely the morals of a man who was a professed

admirer of their sex, and who possessed many means of dispelling the

ennui which was too apt to intrude upon the halls and bowers of an

ancient feudal castle.

The Prior mingled in the sports of the field with

more than due eagerness, and was allowed to possess the best-trained

hawks, and the fleetest greyhounds in the North Riding; circumstances

which strongly recommended him to the youthful gentry. With the old,

he had another part to play, which, when needful, he could sustain

with great decorum. His knowledge of books, however superficial, was

sufficient to impress upon their ignorance respect for his supposed

learning; and the gravity of his deportment and language, with the high

tone which he exerted in setting forth the authority of the church

and of the priesthood, impressed them no less with an opinion of his

sanctity. Even the common people, the severest critics of the conduct of

their betters, had commiseration with the follies of Prior Aymer. He

was generous; and charity, as it is well known, covereth a multitude

of sins, in another sense than that in which it is said to do so in

Scripture.

The revenues of the monastery, of which a large part was at

his disposal, while they gave him the means of supplying his own very

considerable expenses, afforded also those largesses which he bestowed

among the peasantry, and with which he frequently relieved the

distresses of the oppressed. If Prior Aymer rode hard in the chase, or

remained long at the banquet,--if Prior Aymer was seen, at the early

peep of dawn, to enter the postern of the abbey, as he glided home

from some rendezvous which had occupied the hours of darkness, men

only shrugged up their shoulders, and reconciled themselves to his

irregularities, by recollecting that the same were practised by many

of his brethren who had no redeeming qualities whatsoever to atone for

them. Prior Aymer, therefore, and his character, were well known to

our Saxon serfs, who made their rude obeisance, and received his

"benedicite, mes filz," in return.




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