Free Thistle and Thyme by Sorche Nic Leodhas Page A

was well hidden and hardly to be seen from the sea, for the stones with which it had been built were the same color as the gray rocks of the glen. Besides that, great trees grew between the abbey and the sea, and screened it with their wide-spreading branches.
    The wicked pirates might never have found the abbey at all, had it not been for one young lay brother.
    The young lay brother loved the sweet-singing bells so dearly that he would have sent their voices to Heaven in praise every hour of day and night. But when it was known that the pirates were nearby, it was forbidden that anyone ring the bells lest the pirates hear and come down upon the abbey to raid it. It was always the pirates’ way to seek for an abbey by day, and when they had found where it was, they would steal on it by night and take it by surprise.
    As happens very often, temptation was too great for the young lay brother. For a while he fought against it and only laid his hand lovingly but lightly on the bell ropes when he passed by during the forbidden times. But one evening as he was on his way to vespers, he not only laid his hand upon the ropes but, thinking a very little peal would be scarcely heard, he gently pulled the rope of the smallest bell.
    Clear and silvery, one chiming note rang out, down to the shore and across the waters of the sea. But hidden from the abbey around a point of rock a pirate ship lay moored, to take on fresh water. The silver note came to the ears of the captain of the pirate ship, who knew at once that the sound of a bell meant there was an abbey somewhere near.
    As soon as they had finished storing the water in the ship, the captain sent out a spy to find where the abbey lay. Then they waited in hiding, until the moon rose and lit the way, and soon after, the pirates were battering at the gates of the abbey.
    The abbot knew by the fury of the attack that pirates were upon them. He ordered the monks and their pupils to carry away the chests of the abbey treasures, and flee by a small door at the side to the caves of the glen where the pirates would not think to seek for them. He stayed back himself to gather the cross and the vessels from the altar. A brave man was that abbot, for he had no more than reached the little side door with the rood and the holy vessels gathered into the skirts of his robe when the pirates broke down the gates and rushed into the abbey grounds. He heard their shouts of rage when they found the abbey deserted and the treasure not to be found. He heard their cries of disappointment at finding so little plunder, and then he heard them shout that they would have the bells since there was naught else worth the taking.
    When the abbot heard they were going to take the bells that the people had cast and given the abbey for love, he forgot his own danger. He turned at the door and, holding high the cross he had saved from the altar, he called the wrath of God down upon them all.
    â€œHave the bells!” he cried at the end. “Take them if you will! But they will give you neither profit nor good.”
    The pirates neither saw the abbot nor heard a word of his curse. Up in the bell tower they were, tearing loose the bells and hauling them down the ladder from the bell loft with great clamor and noise.
    So the abbot went away from the abbey and made his way up the glen in safety.
    When the pirates had the bells all down, they rejoiced to have such a great pile of metal of a quality so fine and pure. They were sure of getting a good price for it when they got it to the foreign ports where they’d offer the bells for sale. They carried them off to their ship, but before they left they set fire to the abbey.
    When they were back on their ship again, they stored the bells in the hold and then they prepared to set sail. The captain of the pirates looked back at the burning abbey and at the sky, red with dancing flames that seemed to reach clear to the moon. He roared with laughter and vowed that