And indeed, there was need for a man at Tilford, for the strife
betwixt the Abbey and the manor-house had never been appeased, and
still on one pretext or another the monks would clip off yet one
more slice of their neighbor's land. Over the winding river,
across the green meadows, rose the short square tower and the high
gray walls of the grim Abbey, with its bell tolling by day and
night, a voice of menace and of dread to the little household.
It is in the heart of the great Cistercian monastery that this
chronicle of old days must take its start, as we trace the feud
betwixt the monks and the house of Loring, with those events to
which it gave birth, ending with the coming of Chandos, the
strange spear-running of Tilford Bridge and the deeds with which
Nigel won fame in the wars. Elsewhere, in the chronicle of the
White Company, it has been set forth what manner of man was Nigel
Loring. Those who love him may read herein those things which
went to his making. Let us go back together and gaze upon this
green stage of England, the scenery, hill, plain and river even as
now, the actors in much our very selves, in much also so changed
in thought and act that they might be dwellers in another world to
ours.
II. HOW THE DEVIL CAME TO WAVERLEY
The day was the first of May, which was the Festival of the
Blessed Apostles Philip and James.
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