a set of mealy-mouthed persons who strove to make the passing
hour easy for him,--for him easy, and for themselves profitable;
accumulating in the distance mere mountains of confusion. Old
Dominus Hugo sat inaccessible in this way, far in the interior,
wrapt in his warm flannels and delusions; inaccessible to all
voice of Fact; and bad grew ever worse with us. Not that our
worthy old _Dominus Abbas_ was inattentive to the divine offices,
or to the maintenance of a devout spirit in us or in himself;
but the Account-Books of the Convent fell into the frightfullest
state, and Hugo's annual Budget grew yearly emptier, or filled
with futile expectations, fatal deficit, wind and debts!

His one worldly care was to raise ready money; sufficient for
the day is the evil thereof. And how he raised it: From
usurious insatiable Jews; every fresh Jew sticking on him like a
fresh horseleech, sucking his and our life out; crying
continually, Give, Give! Take one example instead of scores.
Our _Camera_ having fallen into ruin, William the Sacristan
received charge to repair it; strict charge, but no money;
Abbot Hugo would, and indeed could, give him no fraction
of money. The _Camera_ in ruins, and Hugo penniless and
inaccessible, Willelmus Sacrista borrowed Forty Mares (some
Seven-and-twenty Pounds) of Benedict the Jew, and patched up our
Camera again. But the means of repaying him? There were no
means. Hardly could _Sacrista, Cellerarius, or any public
officer, get ends to meet, on the indispensablest scale, with
their shrunk allowances: ready money had vanished.

Benedict's Twenty-seven pounds grew rapidly at compound-interest;
and at length, when it had amounted to One hundred pounds, he, on