There was something in the appearance of the stranger that
interested Egremont; and waiting till he had established
himself in his pleasant resting place, Egremont descended into
the cloister garden and determined to address him.
Book 2 Chapter 5
"You lean against an ancient trunk," said Egremont, carelessly
advancing to the stranger, who looked up at him without any
expression of surprise, and then replied. "They say 'tis the
trunk beneath whose branches the monks encamped when they came
to this valley to raise their building. It was their house,
till with the wood and stone around them, their labour and
their fine art, they piled up their abbey. And then they were
driven out of it, and it came to this. Poor men! poor men!"
"They would hardly have forfeited their resting-place had they
deserved to retain it," said Egremont.
"They were rich. I thought it was poverty that was a crime,"
replied the stranger in a tone of simplicity.
"But they had committed other crimes."
"It may be so; we are very frail. But their history has been
written by their enemies; they were condemned without a
hearing; the people rose oftentimes in their behalf; and their
property was divided with those on whose reports it was
forfeited.
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