“ making of England.” The estates which fell to them, by reason 
of the religious enthusiasm, the superstition, or the blood-guiltiness 
of the powerful of the land, or were obtained by other means, which 
the holy fathers were adepts at employing, were wisely and 
beneficially administered ; and in the seclusion of the monastic 
establishment, all through the long dark ages of ruthless conquest 
and transition, was kept alive the spark of that gentler life enjoined 
by the Master, Avhich, however dimmed it might be by worldly 
passion, would, but for them, have been in danger of becoming 
totally extinct. That their influence was for good, the peaceful 
end of many an ill-spent life bears testimony — the youth and man- 
hood, spent in cruelty and oppression, ending in penanco' and acts 
of charity. Call it superstition, if you will; but it cannot bo 
regarded otherwise than as a happy consummation. Wo can 
readily picture to ourselves the softening influence which came 
over the hardened Caiuito, as, with his Cbieen Emma by his side, on 
the eve of the feast of the “ Purification of our Lady,” ho bade his 
Warriors approach softly, as he, fixing his eyes upon the Church, 
listened to the monks of Ely: — 
“ Merie sungen «e .Muneches binnen Ely. 
Xa Cnut clung reu Xer by. 
RobeS cnites noer the land. 
And here ye bes Munechas sieng.” * 
J^fany a phantom must have passed before the mind’s eye of the 
blood-stained old Viking, as the monks sang ; and wo cannot help 
contrasting the monarch who, in all humility, placed his crown on 
the head of the crucifix at Winchester, and governed his people so 
wisely, with the cruel and impetuous Dane who scrupled so little 
as to the means by which that crown had been made secure. 
The monks served their purpose admirably, and have passed away. 
Peace be to their ashes ! Let us neither look too closely into the 
history of their later days, nor at the motives of those who despoiled 
them of their riches. 
On the occasion of another visit paid by Canute to Ely, the Fen 
was frozen over, at which, though it did not alter his purpose, he 
was “sorrowful and much troubled.” Then comes a glimpse of Fen- 
life in the eleventh century. “Howbeit,” says Dugdale,f “putting 
* ‘ Liber Elien.sis,’ p. 202 (ed. Stewart, 1S4S). 
+ ‘ History of Embanking’ (second edition, folio) p. 184. 
