a meal by some of the brethren who had come into the refectory to clear
the tables, cursed the house, incautiously commended it to the enemy of
mankind, and went off immediately to attend to some law-business at
Castor. Then one of the servants, who had tried unsuccessfully to light
a fire, lost his temper, and (following the evil example of his
superior) cried out, "_Veni, Diabole, et insuffla ignem_." Forthwith the
flames rose, and reached to the roof, and spread through all the offices
to the town. The whole church was consumed, and the town as well, all
the statues (or perhaps _signa_ may mean the bells) were broken, and the
fire continued burning in the tower for nine days. On the ninth night a
mighty wind arose and scattered the fire and burning fragments
_(carbones vivos)_ from the tower over the Abbot's house, so that there
was a fear that nothing would escape the devouring element.

The very next year John of Sais commenced the building of a new minster.
He laid the foundation on the 8th of March 1118. Much work was probably
necessary before a foundation stone could be laid; and Abbot John's
Chronicle, wherein it is said that the foundation of the new church at
Burgh was laid, on the 12th of March, 1117, may be speaking of the
actual commencement of the operations; and Candidus, who gives the later
date, and who was present, may refer to a ceremonial laying of a stone,
after the ground had been cleared and new designs prepared. The church
then begun is the minster we now see. The works commenced, as we find
almost universally the case, at the east end. The choir is here
terminated by an apse; and before the eastern addition was built in the
fifteenth century, this apse, with the two lesser ones at the ends of
the choir aisles, must have presented an appearance of much grandeur.

The Abbot who began the church did not live to see much progress made,
as he died in 1125. He is said to have worked hard at it, but how much