Edward should have raised in it his own
mausoleum, and that he should be buried in the
noblest temple yet known in the land. Part
of his work still remains; some massive columns
with the full square capitals roughly chopped
into forms preparatory for the sculptor, a
window here and a doorway there, with a bit of the
refectory wall—for his seventy monks wanted
eating as well as sleeping room, and must be
fed under decent housing. But the chief work
of his remaining is the Chapel of the Pyx, with
its wide Norman joints and massive masonry;
of which the government took possession in
after days, using it as a kind of treasury. It
is still government property, and requires special
favour to be allowed to visit; and when Mr.
Scott went there he was accompanied by the
representatives of the Treasury and Exchequer,
with attendants bearing boxes containing six big
keys; all with mighty form and solemnity, to see
—a few empty chests—one only containing the
paraphernalia for the trial of the Pyx. This was
the place whence certain thieves on June tenth,
one thousand three hundred and three, took one
hundred thousand pounds (some say two
millions) of gold, plate, and jewels, belonging to
Edward the First, and laid up there by him to
be used in the Scotch wars; for which theft the
abbot and forty monks were sent to the Tower
on suspicion, and diligent search made for the
missing treasure. Most probably it was all
recovered in time, for we have the record that
Richard de Podelicote, one of the principal
thieves, was found with two thousand two
hundred pounds' worth of gold and jewels in his
purse, and that others followed. His confession
gives a curious picture of mediaeval burglary.
And as this is not a grave or scientific paper,
with absolute laws in the matter of chronology,
we may as well gossip about the robbery now
that is on hand, and save the trouble of a
future "loop." Mr. Burtt's extract is the most
graphic description to be had, so it shall be
given entire:

Richard de Podelicote was a travelling merchant
for wool, cheese, and butter, and was arrested in
Flanders for the king's debts in Bruges, and there
were taken from him fourteen pounds seventeen
shillings, for which he sued in the King's Court at
Westminster at the beginning of August, in the
thirty-first year, and then he saw the condition of
the refectory of the Abbey, and saw the servants
bringing in and out silver cups and spoons and
mazers. So he thought how he might obtain some
of those goods, as he was so poor on account of his
loss in Flanders, and so he spied about all the parts of
the Abbey. And on the day when the king left the
place for Barnes, on the following night, as he had
spied out, he found a ladder at a house which was
near the gate of the palace towards the Abbey, and
put that ladder to a window of the chapter-house,
which he opened and closed by a cord; and he
entered by this cord, and thence he went to the door
of the refectory, and found it closed with a lock, and
he opened it with his knife and entered, and there he
found six silver hanaps in an ambry behind the door,
and more than thirty silver spoons in another ambry,
and the mazer hanaps under a bench near together;
and he carried them all away, and closed the door
after him, without shutting the lock. And having
spent the proceeds by Christmas he thought how he
could rob the king's treasury. And as he knew the
ways of the Abbey, and where the treasury was, and
how he could get there, he began to set about the
robbery eight days before Christmas with the tools
which he provided for it, viz. two "tarrers," great
and small knives and other small "engines" of iron,
and so was about the breaking open during the night-
hours of eight days before Christmas to the quinzain
of Easter, when he first had entry, on the night of
a Wednesday, the eve of St. Mark (April 24th); and
all the day of St. Mark he stayed in there, and
arranged what he would carry away, which he did
the night after, and the night after that, and the
remainder he carried away with him out of the gate
behind the church of St. Margaret, and put it at the
foot of the wall beyond the gate, covering it with
earth, and there were there pitchers, cups, with feet
and covers. And also he put a great pitcher with
stones, and a cup in a certain tomb. Besides he put
three pouches full of jewels and vessels, of which one
was "hanaps" entire and in pieces. In another a
great crucifix and jewels, a case of silver with gold
spoons. In the third "hanaps" nine dishes and
saucers, and an image of our lady in silver-gilt; and
two little pitchers of silver. Besides he took to the
ditch by the mews a pot and a cup of silver. Also
he took with him spoons, saucers, spice dishes of
silver, a cup, rings, brooches, stones, crowns, girdles,
and other jewels which were afterwards found with,
him. And he says that what he took out of the
treasury he took at once out of the gate near
St. Margaret's Church, and left nothing behind
within it.

Another robber also confessed, but he spoke
of about fourteen accomplices as present at the
"debrusure;" among them two monks, two
knights, and two foresters. But the chief portion
of the guilt lay with the sacrist of Westminster,
the keeper of the palace, and Richard de
Podelicote, helped by their immediate retainers
and friends. The robbery was planned with much
cunning and foresight. For Christmas time was
chosen because the cemetery, being sown with
hemp in the early spring, would then be thick
and green; "so that the said hemp should grow
high enough by the time of the robbery, that
they might hide the treasures there, and the
misdeed be unknown." Edward the First,
however, was not the man to submit very quietly to
a thing of this kind. He sent writ upon writ
to the magistrates of the different burghs, and
so harassed and hunted the thieves that they
gave up the game, and surrendered themselves
and the treasure. Some of it was found among
the hemp in the cemetery; some was fouud in
the sacrist's house; a linendraper, at St. Giles's,
bad a large pannier full of broken vessels of
gold and silver sent to him, which so terrified
him, when the royal proclamation was issued,
that he sent them all by a shepherd-lad to be
hidden in Kentish-town—where they were found.
So by degrees, from across the water and down
the river, and here and there and everywhere,
the lost treasure was recovered, and the angry
justice of the law satisfied. After this bold
robbery the "defences" of the treasure-chamber
were looked to, and the king finding that easy