The wiser part threw
out a shrewd suspicion, that the old deities whom their forefathers had
worshipped, and whose altars had been thrown down and their sacrifices
forbidden, had burst the thraldom in which they were aforetime held by
the Christian priests, and were now brooding a fearful revenge for the
many insults they had endured. But the decree from the lord was hasty,
and the command urgent; so that a council was holden for the devising of
some plan for their relief.
Hugh de Chadwycke and John de Spotland were subordinate lords, or
feudatories, holding fortified dwellings, castelets, or peels, in the
manor of Rochdale; the former had builded his rude mansion of massive
timber, for the double purpose of habitation and defence, on a bold
eminence, forming a steep bank of the river, about a mile from the
Thane's castle. Claiming a relationship to the lord, he was in some
measure privileged above his friend De Spotland, yet was the latter a
personage of considerable power and influence at the manor court. To
these men when their aid was necessary, either as counsellors or
intercessors, did the inhabitants generally repair.
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