abbat of Clugny named Peter came to England with the king's leave, and he was received with much honour wherever he went; he came to Peterborough, and there the abbat Henry promised that he would obtain for him the monastery of Peterborough, and that it should be annexed to Clugny but as it is said in the proverb:
"The hedge still stands
That parts the lands."
May Almighty God frustrate evil counsels! And soon afterwards the abbat of Clugny went home to his own country. This year was Angus slain by the Scottish army, and a great number of persons with him. There was God's right wrought upon Mm, for that he was all forsworn.
A. 1131. This year, on a moonlight night[1] after Christmas, during the first sleep, the northern half of the heaven was, as it were, a burning fire; so that all who saw it were more afeared[2] than ever they were before; this happened on the 3rd before the Ides of January. The same year there was so great a pestilence amongst animals over all England, as had not been in the memory of man; it chiefly fell on cattle and on swine, so that in the town where ten or twelve ploughs had been going, not one remained, and the man, who had possessed two or three hundred swine, had not one left him. After this the hens died; and flesh-meat became scarce, and cheese and butter. God mend the state of things when such is his will! And king Henry came home to England before harvest, after the feast of St. Peter ad vincula. The same year before Easter the abbat Henry went from Peterborough over sea to Normandy, and there he spoke with the king, and told him that the abbat of Clugny had commanded him to come over, and resign to him the abbey of Angely; and that then, with his leave, he would return home: and so he went to his own monastery and abode there till Midsummer-day. And on the day after the feast of St. John, the monks chose an abbat from among themselves, and brought him into the church in procession; they sang Te Deum laudamus, rang the bells, and set him on the abbat's seat, and did all obedience to him, even as
