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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge
+#6 in our series by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+Title:  The Little Duke
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+Author:  Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date:  January, 2002  [Etext #3048]
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+Edition:  10
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge
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+
+
+
+THE LITTLE DUKE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+On a bright autumn day, as long ago as the year 943, there was a
+great bustle in the Castle of Bayeux in Normandy.
+
+The hall was large and low, the roof arched, and supported on thick
+short columns, almost like the crypt of a Cathedral; the walls were
+thick, and the windows, which had no glass, were very small, set in
+such a depth of wall that there was a wide deep window seat, upon
+which the rain might beat, without reaching the interior of the room.
+And even if it had come in, there was nothing for it to hurt, for the
+walls were of rough stone, and the floor of tiles.  There was a fire
+at each end of this great dark apartment, but there were no chimneys
+over the ample hearths, and the smoke curled about in thick white
+folds in the vaulted roof, adding to the wreaths of soot, which made
+the hall look still darker.
+
+The fire at the lower end was by far the largest and hottest.  Great
+black cauldrons hung over it, and servants, both men and women, with
+red faces, bare and grimed arms, and long iron hooks, or pots and
+pans, were busied around it.  At the other end, which was raised
+about three steps above the floor of the hall, other servants were
+engaged.  Two young maidens were strewing fresh rushes on the floor;
+some men were setting up a long table of rough boards, supported on
+trestles, and then ranging upon it silver cups, drinking horns, and
+wooden trenchers.
+
+Benches were placed to receive most of the guests, but in the middle,
+at the place of honour, was a high chair with very thick crossing
+legs, and the arms curiously carved with lions' faces and claws; a
+clumsy wooden footstool was set in front, and the silver drinking-cup
+on the table was of far more beautiful workmanship than the others,
+richly chased with vine leaves and grapes, and figures of little boys
+with goats' legs.  If that cup could have told its story, it would
+have been a strange one, for it had been made long since, in the old
+Roman times, and been carried off from Italy by some Northman pirate.
+
+From one of these scenes of activity to the other, there moved a
+stately old lady:  her long thick light hair, hardly touched with
+grey, was bound round her head, under a tall white cap, with a band
+passing under her chin:  she wore a long sweeping dark robe, with
+wide hanging sleeves, and thick gold ear-rings and necklace, which
+had possibly come from the same quarter as the cup.  She directed the
+servants, inspected both the cookery and arrangements of the table,
+held council with an old steward, now and then looked rather
+anxiously from the window, as if expecting some one, and began to say
+something about fears that these loitering youths would not bring
+home the venison in time for Duke William's supper.
+
+Presently, she looked up rejoiced, for a few notes of a bugle-horn
+were sounded; there was a clattering of feet, and in a few moments
+there bounded into the hall, a boy of about eight years old, his
+cheeks and large blue eyes bright with air and exercise, and his long
+light-brown hair streaming behind him, as he ran forward flourishing
+a bow in his hand, and crying out, "I hit him, I hit him!  Dame
+Astrida, do you hear?  'Tis a stag of ten branches, and I hit him in
+the neck."
+
+"You! my Lord Richard! you killed him?"
+
+"Oh, no, I only struck him.  It was Osmond's shaft that took him in
+the eye, and--Look you, Fru Astrida, he came thus through the wood,
+and I stood here, it might be, under the great elm with my bow thus"-
+-And Richard was beginning to act over again the whole scene of the
+deer-hunt, but Fru, that is to say, Lady Astrida, was too busy to
+listen, and broke in with, "Have they brought home the haunch?"
+
+"Yes, Walter is bringing it.  I had a long arrow--"
+
+A stout forester was at this instant seen bringing in the venison,
+and Dame Astrida hastened to meet it, and gave directions, little
+Richard following her all the way, and talking as eagerly as if she
+was attending to him, showing how he shot, how Osmond shot, how the
+deer bounded, and how it fell, and then counting the branches of its
+antlers, always ending with, "This is something to tell my father.
+Do you think he will come soon?"
+
+In the meantime two men entered the hall, one about fifty, the other,
+one or two-and-twenty, both in hunting dresses of plain leather,
+crossed by broad embroidered belts, supporting a knife, and a bugle-
+horn.  The elder was broad-shouldered, sun-burnt, ruddy, and rather
+stern-looking; the younger, who was also the taller, was slightly
+made, and very active, with a bright keen grey eye, and merry smile.
+These were Dame Astrida's son, Sir Eric de Centeville, and her
+grandson, Osmond; and to their care Duke William of Normandy had
+committed his only child, Richard, to be fostered, or brought up. {1}
+
+It was always the custom among the Northmen, that young princes
+should thus be put under the care of some trusty vassal, instead of
+being brought up at home, and one reason why the Centevilles had been
+chosen by Duke William was, that both Sir Eric and his mother spoke
+only the old Norwegian tongue, which he wished young Richard to
+understand well, whereas, in other parts of the Duchy, the Normans
+had forgotten their own tongue, and had taken up what was then called
+the Langued'oui, a language between German and Latin, which was the
+beginning of French.
+
+On this day, Duke William himself was expected at Bayeux, to pay a
+visit to his son before setting out on a journey to settle the
+disputes between the Counts of Flanders and Montreuil, and this was
+the reason of Fru Astrida's great preparations.  No sooner had she
+seen the haunch placed upon a spit, which a little boy was to turn
+before the fire, than she turned to dress something else, namely, the
+young Prince Richard himself, whom she led off to one of the upper
+rooms, and there he had full time to talk, while she, great lady
+though she was, herself combed smooth his long flowing curls, and
+fastened his short scarlet cloth tunic, which just reached to his
+knee, leaving his neck, arms, and legs bare.  He begged hard to be
+allowed to wear a short, beautifully ornamented dagger at his belt,
+but this Fru Astrida would not allow.
+
+"You will have enough to do with steel and dagger before your life is
+at an end," said she, "without seeking to begin over soon."
+
+"To be sure I shall," answered Richard.  "I will be called Richard of
+the Sharp Axe, or the Bold Spirit, I promise you, Fru Astrida.  We
+are as brave in these days as the Sigurds and Ragnars you sing of!  I
+only wish there were serpents and dragons to slay here in Normandy."
+
+"Never fear but you will find even too many of them," said Dame
+Astrida; "there be dragons of wrong here and everywhere, quite as
+venomous as any in my Sagas."
+
+"I fear them not," said Richard, but half understanding her, "if you
+would only let me have the dagger!  But, hark! hark!" he darted to
+the window.  "They come, they come!  There is the banner of
+Normandy."
+
+Away ran the happy child, and never rested till he stood at the
+bottom of the long, steep, stone stair, leading to the embattled
+porch.  Thither came the Baron de Centeville, and his son, to receive
+their Prince.  Richard looked up at Osmond, saying, "Let me hold his
+stirrup," and then sprang up and shouted for joy, as under the arched
+gateway there came a tall black horse, bearing the stately form of
+the Duke of Normandy.  His purple robe was fastened round him by a
+rich belt, sustaining the mighty weapon, from which he was called
+"William of the long Sword," his legs and feet were cased in linked
+steel chain-work, his gilded spurs were on his heels, and his short
+brown hair was covered by his ducal cap of purple, turned up with
+fur, and a feather fastened in by a jewelled clasp.  His brow was
+grave and thoughtful, and there was something both of dignity and
+sorrow in his face, at the first moment of looking at it, recalling
+the recollection that he had early lost his young wife, the Duchess
+Emma, and that he was beset by many cares and toils; but the next
+glance generally conveyed encouragement, so full of mildness were his
+eyes, and so kind the expression of his lips.
+
+And now, how bright a smile beamed upon the little Richard, who, for
+the first time, paid him the duty of a pupil in chivalry, by holding
+the stirrup while he sprung from his horse.  Next, Richard knelt to
+receive his blessing, which was always the custom when children met
+their parents.  The Duke laid his hand on his head, saying, "God of
+His mercy bless thee, my son," and lifting him in his arms, held him
+to his breast, and let him cling to his neck and kiss him again and
+again, before setting him down, while Sir Eric came forward, bent his
+knee, kissed the hand of his Prince, and welcomed him to his Castle.
+
+It would take too long to tell all the friendly and courteous words
+that were spoken, the greeting of the Duke and the noble old Lady
+Astrida, and the reception of the Barons who had come in the train of
+their Lord.  Richard was bidden to greet them, but, though he held
+out his hand as desired, he shrank a little to his father's side,
+gazing at them in dread and shyness.
+
+There was Count Bernard, of Harcourt, called the "Dane," {2} with his
+shaggy red hair and beard, to which a touch of grey had given a
+strange unnatural tint, his eyes looking fierce and wild under his
+thick eyebrows, one of them mis-shapen in consequence of a sword cut,
+which had left a broad red and purple scar across both cheek and
+forehead.  There, too, came tall Baron Rainulf, of Ferrieres, cased
+in a linked steel hauberk, that rang as he walked, and the men-at-
+arms, with helmets and shields, looking as if Sir Eric's armour that
+hung in the hail had come to life and was walking about.
+
+They sat down to Fru Astrida's banquet, the old Lady at the Duke's
+right hand, and the Count of Harcourt on his left; Osmond carved for
+the Duke, and Richard handed his cup and trencher.  All through the
+meal, the Duke and his Lords talked earnestly of the expedition on
+which they were bound to meet Count Arnulf of Flanders, on a little
+islet in the river Somme, there to come to some agreement, by which
+Arnulf might make restitution to Count Herluin of Montreuil, for
+certain wrongs which he had done him.
+
+Some said that this would be the fittest time for requiring Arnulf to
+yield up some towns on his borders, to which Normandy had long laid
+claim, but the Duke shook his head, saying that he must seek no
+selfish advantage, when called to judge between others.
+
+Richard was rather tired of their grave talk, and thought the supper
+very long; but at last it was over, the Grace was said, the boards
+which had served for tables were removed, and as it was still light,
+some of the guests went to see how their steeds had been bestowed,
+others to look at Sir Eric's horses and hounds, and others collected
+together in groups.
+
+The Duke had time to attend to his little boy, and Richard sat upon
+his knee and talked, told about all his pleasures, how his arrow had
+hit the deer to-day, how Sir Eric let him ride out to the chase on
+his little pony, how Osmond would take him to bathe in the cool
+bright river, and how he had watched the raven's nest in the top of
+the old tower.
+
+Duke William listened, and smiled, and seemed as well pleased to hear
+as the boy was to tell.  "And, Richard," said he at last, "have you
+nought to tell me of Father Lucas, and his great book?  What, not a
+word?  Look up, Richard, and tell me how it goes with the learning."
+{3}
+
+"Oh, father!" said Richard, in a low voice, playing with the clasp of
+his father's belt, and looking down, "I don't like those crabbed
+letters on the old yellow parchment."
+
+"But you try to learn them, I hope!" said the Duke.
+
+"Yes, father, I do, but they are very hard, and the words are so
+long, and Father Lucas will always come when the sun is so bright,
+and the wood so green, that I know not how to bear to be kept poring
+over those black hooks and strokes."
+
+"Poor little fellow," said Duke William, smiling and Richard, rather
+encouraged, went on more boldly.  "You do not know this reading,
+noble father?"
+
+"To my sorrow, no," said the Duke.
+
+"And Sir Eric cannot read, nor Osmond, nor any one, and why must I
+read, and cramp my fingers with writing, just as if I was a clerk,
+instead of a young Duke?"  Richard looked up in his father's face,
+and then hung his head, as if half-ashamed of questioning his will,
+but the Duke answered him without displeasure.
+
+"It is hard, no doubt, my boy, to you now, but it will be the better
+for you in the end.  I would give much to be able myself to read
+those holy books which I must now only hear read to me by a clerk,
+but since I have had the wish, I have had no time to learn as you
+have now."
+
+"But Knights and Nobles never learn," said Richard.
+
+"And do you think it a reason they never should?  But you are wrong,
+my boy, for the Kings of France and England, the Counts of Anjou, of
+Provence, and Paris, yes, even King Hako of Norway, {4} can all
+read."
+
+"I tell you, Richard, when the treaty was drawn up for restoring this
+King Louis to his throne, I was ashamed to find myself one of the few
+crown vassals who could not write his name thereto."
+
+"But none is so wise or so good as you, father," said Richard,
+proudly.  "Sir Eric often says so."
+
+"Sir Eric loves his Duke too well to see his faults," said Duke
+William; "but far better and wiser might I have been, had I been
+taught by such masters as you may be.  And hark, Richard, not only
+can all Princes here read, but in England, King Ethelstane would have
+every Noble taught; they study in his own palace, with his brothers,
+and read the good words that King Alfred the truth-teller put into
+their own tongue for them."
+
+"I hate the English," said Richard, raising his head and looking very
+fierce.
+
+"Hate them? and wherefore?"
+
+"Because they traitorously killed the brave Sea King Ragnar!  Fru
+Astrida sings his death-song, which he chanted when the vipers were
+gnawing him to death, and he gloried to think how his sons would
+bring the ravens to feast upon the Saxon.  Oh! had I been his son,
+how I would have carried on the feud!  How I would have laughed when
+I cut down the false traitors, and burnt their palaces!"  Richard's
+eye kindled, and his words, as he spoke the old Norse language,
+flowed into the sort of wild verse in which the Sagas or legendary
+songs were composed, and which, perhaps, he was unconsciously
+repeating.
+
+Duke William looked grave.
+
+"Fru Astrida must sing you no more such Sagas," said he, "if they
+fill your mind with these revengeful thoughts, fit only for the
+worshippers of Odin and Thor.  Neither Ragnar nor his sons knew
+better than to rejoice in this deadly vengeance, but we, who are
+Christians, know that it is for us to forgive."
+
+"The English had slain their father!" said Richard, looking up with
+wondering dissatisfied eyes.
+
+"Yes, Richard, and I speak not against them, for they were even as we
+should have been, had not King Harold the fair-haired driven your
+grandfather from Denmark.  They had not been taught the truth, but to
+us it has been said, 'Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.'  Listen to
+me, my son, Christian as is this nation of ours, this duty of
+forgiveness is too often neglected, but let it not be so with you.
+Bear in mind, whenever you see the Cross {5} marked on our banner, or
+carved in stone on the Churches, that it speaks of forgiveness to us;
+but of that pardon we shall never taste if we forgive not our
+enemies.  Do you mark me, boy?"
+
+Richard hesitated a little, and then said, "Yes, father, but I could
+never have pardoned, had I been one of Ragnar's sons."
+
+"It may be that you will be in their case, Richard," said the Duke,
+"and should I fall, as it may well be I shall, in some of the
+contests that tear to pieces this unhappy Kingdom of France, then,
+remember what I say now.  I charge you, on your duty to God and to
+your father, that you keep up no feud, no hatred, but rather that you
+should deem me best revenged, when you have with heart and hand,
+given the fullest proof of forgiveness to your enemy.  Give me your
+word that you will."
+
+"Yes, father," said Richard, with rather a subdued tone, and resting
+his head on his father's shoulder.  There was a silence for a little
+space, during which he began to revive into playfulness, to stroke
+the Duke's short curled beard, and play with his embroidered collar.
+
+In so doing, his fingers caught hold of a silver chain, and pulling
+it out with a jerk, he saw a silver key attached to it.  "Oh, what is
+that?" he asked eagerly.  "What does that key unlock?"
+
+"My greatest treasure," replied Duke William, as he replaced the
+chain and key within his robe.
+
+"Your greatest treasure, father!  Is that your coronet?"
+
+"You will know one day," said his father, putting the little hand
+down from its too busy investigations; and some of the Barons at that
+moment returning into the hall, he had no more leisure to bestow on
+his little son.
+
+The next day, after morning service in the Chapel, and breakfast in
+the hall, the Duke again set forward on his journey, giving Richard
+hopes he might return in a fortnight's time, and obtaining from him a
+promise that he would be very attentive to Father Lucas, and very
+obedient to Sir Eric de Centeville.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+One evening Fru Astrida sat in her tall chair in the chimney corner,
+her distaff, with its load of flax in her hand, while she twisted and
+drew out the thread, and her spindle danced on the floor.  Opposite
+to her sat, sleeping in his chair, Sir Eric de Centeville; Osmond was
+on a low bench within the chimney corner, trimming and shaping with
+his knife some feathers of the wild goose, which were to fly in a
+different fashion from their former one, and serve, not to wing the
+flight of a harmless goose, but of a sharp arrow.
+
+The men of the household sat ranged on benches on one side of the
+hall, the women on the other; a great red fire, together with an
+immense flickering lamp which hung from the ceiling, supplied the
+light; the windows were closed with wooden shutters, and the whole
+apartment had a cheerful appearance.  Two or three large hounds were
+reposing in front of the hearth, and among them sat little Richard of
+Normandy, now smoothing down their broad silken ears; now tickling
+the large cushions of their feet with the end of one of Osmond's
+feathers; now fairly pulling open the eyes of one of the good-natured
+sleepy creatures, which only stretched its legs, and remonstrated
+with a sort of low groan, rather than a growl.  The boy's eyes were,
+all the time, intently fixed on Dame Astrida, as if he would not lose
+one word of the story she was telling him; how Earl Rollo, his
+grandfather, had sailed into the mouth of the Seine, and how
+Archbishop Franco, of Rouen, had come to meet him and brought him the
+keys of the town, and how not one Neustrian of Rouen had met with
+harm from the brave Northmen.  Then she told him of his grandfather's
+baptism, and how during the seven days that he wore his white
+baptismal robes, he had made large gifts to all the chief churches in
+his dukedom of Normandy.
+
+"Oh, but tell of the paying homage!" said Richard; "and how Sigurd
+Bloodaxe threw down simple King Charles!  Ah! how would I have
+laughed to see it!"
+
+"Nay, nay, Lord Richard," said the old lady, "I love not that tale.
+That was ere the Norman learnt courtesy, and rudeness ought rather to
+be forgotten than remembered, save for the sake of amending it.  No,
+I will rather tell you of our coming to Centeville, and how dreary I
+thought these smooth meads, and broad soft gliding streams, compared
+with mine own father's fiord in Norway, shut in with the tall black
+rocks, and dark pines above them, and far away the snowy mountains
+rising into the sky.  Ah! how blue the waters were in the long summer
+days when I sat in my father's boat in the little fiord, and--"
+
+Dame Astrida was interrupted.  A bugle note rang out at the castle
+gate; the dogs started to their feet, and uttered a sudden deafening
+bark; Osmond sprung up, exclaiming, "Hark!" and trying to silence the
+hounds; and Richard running to Sir Eric, cried, "Wake, wake, Sir
+Eric, my father is come!  Oh, haste to open the gate, and admit him."
+
+"Peace, dogs!" said Sir Eric, slowly rising, as the blast of the horn
+was repeated.  "Go, Osmond, with the porter, and see whether he who
+comes at such an hour be friend or foe.  Stay you here, my Lord," he
+added, as Richard was running after Osmond; and the little boy
+obeyed, and stood still, though quivering all over with impatience.
+
+"Tidings from the Duke, I should guess," said Fru Astrida.  "It can
+scarce be himself at such an hour."
+
+"Oh, it must be, dear Fru Astrida!" said Richard.  "He said he would
+come again.  Hark, there are horses' feet in the court!  I am sure
+that is his black charger's tread!  And I shall not be there to hold
+his stirrup!  Oh!  Sir Eric, let me go."
+
+Sir Eric, always a man of few words, only shook his head, and at that
+moment steps were heard on the stone stairs.  Again Richard was about
+to spring forward, when Osmond returned, his face showing, at a
+glance, that something was amiss; but all that he said was, "Count
+Bernard of Harcourt, and Sir Rainulf de Ferrieres," and he stood
+aside to let them pass.
+
+Richard stood still in the midst of the hall, disappointed.  Without
+greeting to Sir Eric, or to any within the hall, the Count of
+Harcourt came forward to Richard, bent his knee before him, took his
+hand, and said with a broken voice and heaving breast, "Richard, Duke
+of Normandy, I am thy liegeman and true vassal;" then rising from his
+knees while Rainulf de Ferrieres went through the same form, the old
+man covered his face with his hands and wept aloud.
+
+"Is it even so?" said the Baron de Centeville; and being answered by
+a mournful look and sigh from Ferrieres, he too bent before the boy,
+and repeated the words, "I am thy liegeman and true vassal, and swear
+fealty to thee for my castle and barony of Centeville."
+
+"Oh, no, no!" cried Richard, drawing back his hand in a sort of
+agony, feeling as if he was in a frightful dream from which he could
+not awake.  "What means it?  Oh!  Fru Astrida, tell me what means it?
+Where is my father?"
+
+"Alas, my child!" said the old lady, putting her arm round him, and
+drawing him close to her, whilst her tears flowed fast, and Richard
+stood, reassured by her embrace, listening with eyes open wide, and
+deep oppressed breathing, to what was passing between the four
+nobles, who spoke earnestly among themselves, without much heed of
+him.
+
+"The Duke dead!" repeated Sir Eric de Centeville, like one stunned
+and stupefied.
+
+"Even so," said Rainulf, slowly and sadly, and the silence was only
+broken by the long-drawn sobs of old Count Bernard.
+
+"But how? when? where?" broke forth Sir Eric, presently.  "There was
+no note of battle when you went forth.  Oh, why was not I at his
+side?"
+
+"He fell not in battle," gloomily replied Sir Rainulf.
+
+"Ha! could sickness cut him down so quickly?"
+
+"It was not sickness," answered Ferrieres.  "It was treachery.  He
+fell in the Isle of Pecquigny, by the hand of the false Fleming!"
+
+"Lives the traitor yet?" cried the Baron de Centeville, grasping his
+good sword.
+
+"He lives and rejoices in his crime," said Ferrieres, "safe in his
+own merchant towns."
+
+"I can scarce credit you, my Lords!" said Sir Eric.  "Our Duke slain,
+and his enemy safe, and you here to tell the tale!"
+
+"I would I were stark and stiff by my Lord's side!" said Count
+Bernard, "but for the sake of Normandy, and of that poor child, who
+is like to need all that ever were friends to his house.  I would
+that mine eyes had been blinded for ever, ere they had seen that
+sight!  And not a sword lifted in his defence!  Tell you how it
+passed, Rainulf!  My tongue will not speak it!"
+
+He threw himself on a bench and covered his face with his mantle,
+while Rainulf de Ferrieres proceeded:  "You know how in an evil hour
+our good Duke appointed to meet this caitiff, Count of Flanders, in
+the Isle of Pecquigny, the Duke and Count each bringing twelve men
+with them, all unarmed.  Duke Alan of Brittany was one on our side,
+Count Bernard here another, old Count Bothon and myself; we bore no
+weapon--would that we had--but not so the false Flemings.  Ah me!  I
+shall never forget Duke William's lordly presence when he stepped
+ashore, and doffed his bonnet to the knave Arnulf."
+
+"Yes," interposed Bernard.  "And marked you not the words of the
+traitor, as they met?  'My Lord,' quoth he, 'you are my shield and
+defence.' {6}  Would that I could cleave his treason-hatching skull
+with my battle-axe."
+
+"So," continued Rainulf, "they conferred together, and as words cost
+nothing to Arnulf, he not only promised all restitution to the paltry
+Montreuil, but even was for offering to pay homage to our Duke for
+Flanders itself; but this our William refused, saying it were foul
+wrong to both King Louis of France, and Kaiser Otho of Germany, to
+take from them their vassal.  They took leave of each other in all
+courtesy, and we embarked again.  It was Duke William's pleasure to
+go alone in a small boat, while we twelve were together in another.
+Just as we had nearly reached our own bank, there was a shout from
+the Flemings that their Count had somewhat further to say to the
+Duke, and forbidding us to follow him, the Duke turned his boat and
+went back again.  No sooner had he set foot on the isle," proceeded
+the Norman, clenching his hands, and speaking between his teeth,
+"than we saw one Fleming strike him on the head with an oar; he fell
+senseless, the rest threw themselves upon him, and the next moment
+held up their bloody daggers in scorn at us!  You may well think how
+we shouted and yelled at them, and plied our oars like men
+distracted, but all in vain, they were already in their boats, and
+ere we could even reach the isle, they were on the other side of the
+river, mounted their horses, fled with coward speed, and were out of
+reach of a Norman's vengeance."
+
+"But they shall not be so long!" cried Richard, starting forward; for
+to his childish fancy this dreadful history was more like one of Dame
+Astrida's legends than a reality, and at the moment his thought was
+only of the blackness of the treason.  "Oh, that I were a man to
+chastise them!  One day they shall feel--"
+
+He broke off short, for he remembered how his father had forbidden
+his denunciations of vengeance, but his words were eagerly caught up
+by the Barons, who, as Duke William had said, were far from
+possessing any temper of forgiveness, thought revenge a duty, and
+were only glad to see a warlike spirit in their new Prince.
+
+"Ha! say you so, my young Lord?" exclaimed old Count Bernard, rising.
+"Yes, and I see a sparkle in your eye that tells me you will one day
+avenge him nobly!"
+
+Richard drew up his head, and his heart throbbed high as Sir Eric
+made answer, "Ay, truly, that will he!  You might search Normandy
+through, yea, and Norway likewise, ere you would find a temper more
+bold and free.  Trust my word, Count Bernard, our young Duke will be
+famed as widely as ever were his forefathers!"
+
+"I believe it well!" said Bernard.  "He hath the port of his
+grandfather, Duke Rollo, and much, too, of his noble father!  How say
+you, Lord Richard, will you be a valiant leader of the Norman race
+against our foes?"
+
+"That I will!" said Richard, carried away by the applause excited by
+those few words of his.  "I will ride at your head this very night if
+you will but go to chastise the false Flemings."
+
+"You shall ride with us to-morrow, my Lord," answered Bernard, "but
+it must be to Rouen, there to be invested with your ducal sword and
+mantle, and to receive the homage of your vassals."
+
+Richard drooped his head without replying, for this seemed to bring
+to him the perception that his father was really gone, and that he
+should never see him again.  He thought of all his projects for the
+day of his return, how he had almost counted the hours, and had
+looked forward to telling him that Father Lucas was well pleased with
+him!  And now he should never nestle into his breast again, never
+hear his voice, never see those kind eyes beam upon him.  Large tears
+gathered in his eyes, and ashamed that they should be seen, he sat
+down on a footstool at Fru Astrida's feet, leant his forehead on his
+hands, and thought over all that his father had done and said the
+last time they were together.  He fancied the return that had been
+promised, going over the meeting and the greeting, till he had almost
+persuaded himself that this dreadful story was but a dream.  But when
+he looked up, there were the Barons, with their grave mournful faces,
+speaking of the corpse, which Duke Alan of Brittany was escorting to
+Rouen, there to be buried beside the old Duke Rollo, and the Duchess
+Emma, Richard's mother.  Then he lost himself in wonder how that
+stiff bleeding body could be the same as the father whose arm was so
+lately around him, and whether his father's spirit knew how he was
+thinking of him; and in these dreamy thoughts, the young orphan Duke
+of Normandy, forgotten by his vassals in their grave councils, fell
+asleep, and scarce wakened enough to attend to his prayers, when Fru
+Astrida at length remembered him, and led him away to bed.
+
+When Richard awoke the next morning, he could hardly believe that all
+that had passed in the evening was true, but soon he found that it
+was but too real, and all was prepared for him to go to Rouen with
+the vassals; indeed, it was for no other purpose than to fetch him
+that the Count of Harcourt had come to Bayeux.  Fru Astrida was quite
+unhappy that "the child," as she called him, should go alone with the
+warriors; but Sir Eric laughed at her, and said that it would never
+do for the Duke of Normandy to bring his nurse with him in his first
+entry into Rouen, and she must be content to follow at some space
+behind under the escort of Walter the huntsman.
+
+So she took leave of Richard, charging both Sir Eric and Osmond to
+have the utmost care of him, and shedding tears as if the parting was
+to be for a much longer space; then he bade farewell to the servants
+of the castle, received the blessing of Father Lucas, and mounting
+his pony, rode off between Sir Eric and Count Bernard.  Richard was
+but a little boy, and he did not think so much of his loss, as he
+rode along in the free morning air, feeling himself a Prince at the
+head of his vassals, his banner displayed before him, and the people
+coming out wherever he passed to gaze on him, and call for blessings
+on his name.  Rainulf de Ferrieres carried a large heavy purse filled
+with silver and gold, and whenever they came to these gazing crowds,
+Richard was well pleased to thrust his hands deep into it, and
+scatter handfuls of coins among the gazers, especially where he saw
+little children.
+
+They stopped to dine and rest in the middle of the day, at the castle
+of a Baron, who, as soon as the meal was over, mounted his horse, and
+joined them in their ride to Rouen.  So far it had not been very
+different from Richard's last journey, when he went to keep Christmas
+there with his father; but now they were beginning to come nearer the
+town, he knew the broad river Seine again, and saw the square tower
+of the Cathedral, and he remembered how at that very place his father
+had met him, and how he had ridden by his side into the town, and had
+been led by his hand up to the hall.
+
+His heart was very heavy, as he recollected there was no one now to
+meet and welcome him; scarcely any one to whom he could even tell his
+thoughts, for those tall grave Barons had nothing to say to such a
+little boy, and the very respect and formality with which they
+treated him, made him shrink from them still more, especially from
+the grim-faced Bernard; and Osmond, his own friend and playfellow,
+was obliged to ride far behind, as inferior in rank.
+
+They entered the town just as it was growing dark.  Count Bernard
+looked back and arrayed the procession; Eric de Centeville bade
+Richard sit upright and not look weary, and then all the Knights held
+back while the little Duke rode alone a little in advance of them
+through the gateway.  There was a loud shout of "Long live the little
+Duke!" and crowds of people were standing round to gaze upon his
+entry, so many that the bag of coins was soon emptied by his
+largesses.  The whole city was like one great castle, shut in by a
+wall and moat, and with Rollo's Tower rising at one end like the keep
+of a castle, and it was thither that Richard was turning his horse,
+when the Count of Harcourt said, "Nay, my Lord, to the Church of our
+Lady." {7}
+
+It was then considered a duty to be paid to the deceased, that their
+relatives and friends should visit them as they lay in state, and
+sprinkle them with drops of holy water, and Richard was now to pay
+this token of respect.  He trembled a little, and yet it did not seem
+quite so dreary, since he should once more look on his father's face,
+and he accordingly rode towards the Cathedral.  It was then very
+unlike what it is now; the walls were very thick, the windows small
+and almost buried in heavy carved arches, the columns within were
+low, clumsy, and circular, and it was usually so dark that the
+vaulting of the roof could scarcely be seen.
+
+Now, however, a whole flood of light poured forth from every window,
+and when Richard came to the door, he saw not only the two tall thick
+candles that always burnt on each side of the Altar, but in the
+Chancel stood a double row ranged in a square, shedding a pure, quiet
+brilliancy throughout the building, and chiefly on the silver and
+gold ornaments of the Altar.  Outside these lights knelt a row of
+priests in dark garments, their heads bowed over their clasped hands,
+and their chanted psalms sounding sweet, and full of soothing music.
+Within that guarded space was a bier, and a form lay on it.
+
+Richard trembled still more with awe, and would have paused, but he
+was obliged to proceed.  He dipped his hand in the water of the font,
+crossed his brow, and came slowly on, sprinkled the remaining drops
+on the lifeless figure, and then stood still.  There was an
+oppression on his breast as if he could neither breathe nor move.
+
+There lay William of the Long Sword, like a good and true Christian
+warrior, arrayed in his shining armour, his sword by his side, his
+shield on his arm, and a cross between his hands, clasped upon his
+breast.  His ducal mantle of crimson velvet, lined with ermine, was
+round his shoulders, and, instead of a helmet, his coronet was on his
+head; but, in contrast with this rich array, over the collar of the
+hauberk, was folded the edge of a rough hair shirt, which the Duke
+had worn beneath his robes, unknown to all, until his corpse was
+disrobed of his blood-stained garments.  His face looked full of
+calm, solemn peace, as if he had gently fallen asleep, and was only
+awaiting the great call to awaken.  There was not a single token of
+violence visible about him, save that one side of his forehead bore a
+deep purple mark, where he had first been struck by the blow of the
+oar which had deprived him of sense.
+
+"See you that, my Lord?" said Count Bernard, first breaking the
+silence, in a low, deep, stern voice.
+
+Richard had heard little for many hours past save counsels against
+the Flemings, and plans of bitter enmity against them; and the sight
+of his murdered father, with that look and tone of the old Dane,
+fired his spirit, and breaking from his trance of silent awe and
+grief, he exclaimed, "I see it, and dearly shall the traitor Fleming
+abye it!"  Then, encouraged by the applauding looks of the nobles, he
+proceeded, feeling like one of the young champions of Fru Astrida's
+songs.  His cheek was coloured, his eye lighted up, and he lifted his
+head, so that the hair fell back from his forehead; he laid his hand
+on the hilt of his father's sword, and spoke on in words, perhaps,
+suggested by some sage.  "Yes, Arnulf of Flanders, know that Duke
+William of Normandy shall not rest unavenged!  On this good sword I
+vow, that, as soon as my arm shall have strength--"
+
+The rest was left unspoken, for a hand was laid on his arm.  A
+priest, who had hitherto been kneeling near the head of the corpse,
+had risen, and stood tall and dark over him, and, looking up, he
+recognized the pale, grave countenance of Martin, Abbot of Jumieges,
+his father's chief friend and councillor.
+
+"Richard of Normandy, what sayest thou?" said he, sternly.  "Yes,
+hang thy head, and reply not, rather than repeat those words.  Dost
+thou come here to disturb the peace of the dead with clamours for
+vengeance?  Dost thou vow strife and anger on that sword which was
+never drawn, save in the cause of the poor and distressed?  Wouldst
+thou rob Him, to whose service thy life has been pledged, and devote
+thyself to that of His foe?  Is this what thou hast learnt from thy
+blessed father?"
+
+Richard made no answer, but he covered his face with his hands, to
+hide the tears which were fast streaming.
+
+"Lord Abbot, Lord Abbot, this passes!" exclaimed Bernard the Dane.
+"Our young Lord is no monk, and we will not see each spark of noble
+and knightly spirit quenched as soon as it shows itself."
+
+"Count of Harcourt," said Abbot Martin, "are these the words of a
+savage Pagan, or of one who has been washed in yonder blessed font?
+Never, while I have power, shalt thou darken the child's soul with
+thy foul thirst of revenge, insult the presence of thy master with
+the crime he so abhorred, nor the temple of Him who came to pardon,
+with thy hatred.  Well do I know, ye Barons of Normandy, that each
+drop of your blood would willingly be given, could it bring back our
+departed Duke, or guard his orphan child; but, if ye have loved the
+father, do his bidding--lay aside that accursed spirit of hatred and
+vengeance; if ye love the child, seek not to injure his soul more
+deeply than even his bitterest foe, were it Arnulf himself, hath
+power to hurt him."
+
+The Barons were silenced, whatever their thoughts might be, and Abbot
+Martin turned to Richard, whose tears were still dropping fast
+through his fingers, as the thought of those last words of his father
+returned more clearly upon him.  The Abbot laid his hand on his head,
+and spoke gently to him.  "These are tears of a softened heart, I
+trust," said he.  "I well believe that thou didst scarce know what
+thou wert saying."
+
+"Forgive me!" said Richard, as well as he could speak.
+
+"See there," said the priest, pointing to the large Cross over the
+Altar, "thou knowest the meaning of that sacred sign?"
+
+Richard bowed his head in assent and reverence.
+
+"It speaks of forgiveness," continued the Abbot.  "And knowest thou
+who gave that pardon?  The Son forgave His murderers; the Father them
+who slew His Son.  And shalt thou call for vengeance?"
+
+"But oh!" said Richard, looking up, "must that cruel, murderous
+traitor glory unpunished in his crime, while there lies--" and again
+his voice was cut off by tears.
+
+"Vengeance shall surely overtake the sinner," said Martin, "the
+vengeance of the Lord, and in His own good time, but it must not be
+of thy seeking.  Nay, Richard, thou art of all men the most bound to
+show love and mercy to Arnulf of Flanders.  Yes, when the hand of the
+Lord hath touched him, and bowed him down in punishment for his
+crime, it is then, that thou, whom he hath most deeply injured,
+shouldst stretch out thine hand to aid him, and receive him with
+pardon and peace.  If thou dost vow aught on the sword of thy blessed
+father, in the sanctuary of thy Redeemer, let it be a Christian vow."
+
+Richard wept too bitterly to speak, and Bernard de Harcourt, taking
+his hand, led him away from the Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+Duke William of the Long Sword was buried the next morning in high
+pomp and state, with many a prayer and psalm chanted over his grave.
+
+When this was over, little Richard, who had all the time stood or
+knelt nearest the corpse, in one dull heavy dream of wonder and
+sorrow, was led back to the palace, and there his long, heavy, black
+garments were taken off, and he was dressed in his short scarlet
+tunic, his hair was carefully arranged, and then he came down again
+into the hall, where there was a great assembly of Barons, some in
+armour, some in long furred gowns, who had all been attending his
+father's burial.  Richard, as he was desired by Sir Eric de
+Centeville, took off his cap, and bowed low in reply to the
+reverences with which they all greeted his entrance, and he then
+slowly crossed the hall, and descended the steps from the door, while
+they formed into a procession behind him, according to their ranks--
+the Duke of Brittany first, and then all the rest, down to the
+poorest knight who held his manor immediately from the Duke of
+Normandy.
+
+Thus, they proceeded, in slow and solemn order, till they came to the
+church of our Lady.  The clergy were there already, ranged in ranks
+on each side of the Choir; and the Bishops, in their mitres and rich
+robes, each with his pastoral staff in his hand, were standing round
+the Altar.  As the little Duke entered, there arose from all the
+voices in the Chancel the full, loud, clear chant of Te Deum
+Laudamus, echoing among the dark vaults of the roof.  To that sound,
+Richard walked up the Choir, to a large, heavy, crossed-legged,
+carved chair, raised on two steps, just before the steps of the Altar
+began, and there he stood, Bernard de Harcourt and Eric de Centeville
+on each side of him, and all his other vassals in due order, in the
+Choir.
+
+After the beautiful chant of the hymn was ended, the service for the
+Holy Communion began.  When the time came for the offering, each
+noble gave gold or silver; and, lastly, Rainulf of Ferrieres came up
+to the step of the Altar with a cushion, on which was placed a
+circlet of gold, the ducal coronet; and another Baron, following him
+closely, carried a long, heavy sword, with a cross handle.  The
+Archbishop of Rouen received both coronet and sword, and laid them on
+the Altar.  Then the service proceeded.  At that time the rite of
+Confirmation was administered in infancy, and Richard, who had been
+confirmed by his godfather, the Archbishop of Rouen, immediately
+after his baptism, knelt in solemn awe to receive the other Holy
+Sacrament from his hands, as soon as all the clergy had communicated.
+{8}
+
+When the administration was over, Richard was led forward to the step
+of the Altar by Count Bernard, and Sir Eric, and the Archbishop,
+laying one hand upon both his, as he held them clasped together,
+demanded of him, in the name of God, and of the people of Normandy,
+whether he would be their good and true ruler, guard them from their
+foes, maintain truth, punish iniquity, and protect the Church.
+
+"I will!" answered Richard's young, trembling voice, "So help me
+God!" and he knelt, and kissed the book of the Holy Gospels, which
+the Archbishop offered him.
+
+It was a great and awful oath, and he dreaded to think that he had
+taken it.  He still knelt, put both hands over his face, and
+whispered, "O God, my Father, help me to keep it."
+
+The Archbishop waited till he rose, and then, turning him with his
+face to the people, said, "Richard, by the grace of God, I invest
+thee with the ducal mantle of Normandy!"
+
+Two of the Bishops then hung round his shoulders a crimson velvet
+mantle, furred with ermine, which, made as it was for a grown man,
+hung heavily on the poor child's shoulders, and lay in heaps on the
+ground.  The Archbishop then set the golden coronet on his long,
+flowing hair, where it hung so loosely on the little head, that Sir
+Eric was obliged to put his hand to it to hold it safe; and, lastly,
+the long, straight, two-handed sword was brought and placed in his
+hand, with another solemn bidding to use it ever in maintaining the
+right.  It should have been girded to his side, but the great sword
+was so much taller than the little Duke, that, as it stood upright by
+him, he was obliged to raise his arm to put it round the handle.
+
+He then had to return to his throne, which was not done without some
+difficulty, encumbered as he was, but Osmond held up the train of his
+mantle, Sir Eric kept the coronet on his head, and he himself held
+fast and lovingly the sword, though the Count of Harcourt offered to
+carry it for him.  He was lifted up to his throne, and then came the
+paying him homage; Alan, Duke of Brittany, was the first to kneel
+before him, and with his hand between those of the Duke, he swore to
+be his man, to obey him, and pay him feudal service for his dukedom
+of Brittany.  In return, Richard swore to be his good Lord, and to
+protect him from all his foes.  Then followed Bernard the Dane, and
+many another, each repeating the same formulary, as their large
+rugged hands were clasped within those little soft fingers.  Many a
+kind and loving eye was bent in compassion on the orphan child; many
+a strong voice faltered with earnestness as it pronounced the vow,
+and many a brave, stalwart heart heaved with grief for the murdered
+father, and tears flowed down the war-worn cheeks which had met the
+fiercest storms of the northern ocean, as they bent before the young
+fatherless boy, whom they loved for the sake of his conquering
+grandfather, and his brave and pious father.  Few Normans were there
+whose hearts did not glow at the touch of those small hands, with a
+love almost of a parent, for their young Duke.
+
+The ceremony of receiving homage lasted long and Richard, though
+interested and touched at first, grew very weary; the crown and
+mantle were so heavy, the faces succeeded each other like figures in
+an endless dream, and the constant repetition of the same words was
+very tedious.  He grew sleepy, he longed to jump up, to lean to the
+right or left, or to speak something besides that regular form.  He
+gave one great yawn, but it brought him such a frown from the stern
+face of Bernard, as quite to wake him for a few minutes, and make him
+sit upright, and receive the next vassal with as much attention as he
+had shown the first, but he looked imploringly at Sir Eric, as if to
+ask if it ever would be over.  At last, far down among the Barons,
+came one at whose sight Richard revived a little.  It was a boy only
+a few years older than himself, perhaps about ten, with a pleasant
+brown face, black hair, and quick black eyes which glanced, with a
+look between friendliness and respect, up into the little Duke's
+gazing face.  Richard listened eagerly for his name, and was
+refreshed at the sound of the boyish voice which pronounced, "I,
+Alberic de Montemar, am thy liegeman and vassal for my castle and
+barony of Montemar sur Epte."
+
+When Alberic moved away, Richard followed him with his eye as far as
+he could to his place in the Cathedral, and was taken by surprise
+when he found the next Baron kneeling before him.
+
+The ceremony of homage came to an end at last, and Richard would fain
+have run all the way to the palace to shake off his weariness, but he
+was obliged to head the procession again; and even when he reached
+the castle hall his toils were not over, for there was a great state
+banquet spread out, and he had to sit in the high chair where he
+remembered climbing on his father's knee last Christmas-day, all the
+time that the Barons feasted round, and held grave converse.
+Richard's best comfort all this time was in watching Osmond de
+Centeville and Alberic de Montemar, who, with the other youths who
+were not yet knighted, were waiting on those who sat at the table.
+At last he grew so very weary, that he fell fast asleep in the corner
+of his chair, and did not wake till he was startled by the rough
+voice of Bernard de Harcourt, calling him to rouse up, and bid the
+Duke of Brittany farewell.
+
+"Poor child!" said Duke Alan, as Richard rose up, startled, "he is
+over-wearied with this day's work.  Take care of him, Count Bernard;
+thou a kindly nurse, but a rough one for such a babe.  Ha! my young
+Lord, your colour mantles at being called a babe!  I crave your
+pardon, for you are a fine spirit.  And hark you, Lord Richard of
+Normandy, I have little cause to love your race, and little right, I
+trow, had King Charles the Simple to call us free Bretons liegemen to
+a race of plundering Northern pirates.  To Duke Rollo's might, my
+father never gave his homage; nay, nor did I yield it for all Duke
+William's long sword, but I did pay it to his generosity and
+forbearance, and now I grant it to thy weakness and to his noble
+memory.  I doubt not that the recreant Frank, Louis, whom he restored
+to his throne, will strive to profit by thy youth and helplessness,
+and should that be, remember that thou hast no surer friend than Alan
+of Brittany.  Fare thee well, my young Duke."
+
+"Farewell, Sir," said Richard, willingly giving his hand to be shaken
+by his kind vassal, and watching him as Sir Eric attended him from
+the hall.
+
+"Fair words, but I trust not the Breton," muttered Bernard; "hatred
+is deeply ingrained in them."
+
+"He should know what the Frank King is made of," said Rainulf de
+Ferrieres; "he was bred up with him in the days that they were both
+exiles at the court of King Ethelstane of England."
+
+"Ay, and thanks to Duke William that either Louis or Alan are not
+exiles still.  Now we shall see whose gratitude is worth most, the
+Frank's or the Breton's.  I suspect the Norman valour will be the
+best to trust to."
+
+"Yes, and how will Norman valour prosper without treasure?  Who knows
+what gold is in the Duke's coffers?"
+
+There was some consultation here in a low voice, and the next thing
+Richard heard distinctly was, that one of the Nobles held up a silver
+chain and key, {9} saying that they had been found on the Duke's
+neck, and that he had kept them, thinking that they doubtless led to
+something of importance.
+
+"Oh, yes!" said Richard, eagerly, "I know it.  He told me it was the
+key to his greatest treasure."
+
+The Normans heard this with great interest, and it was resolved that
+several of the most trusted persons, among whom were the Archbishop
+of Rouen, Abbot Martin of Jumieges, and the Count of Harcourt, should
+go immediately in search of this precious hoard.  Richard accompanied
+them up the narrow rough stone stairs, to the large dark apartment,
+where his father had slept.  Though a Prince's chamber, it had little
+furniture; a low uncurtained bed, a Cross on a ledge near its head, a
+rude table, a few chairs, and two large chests, were all it
+contained.  Harcourt tried the lid of one of the chests:  it opened,
+and proved to be full of wearing apparel; he went to the other, which
+was smaller, much more carved, and ornamented with very handsome
+iron-work.  It was locked, and putting in the key, it fitted, the
+lock turned, and the chest was opened.  The Normans pressed eagerly
+to see their Duke's greatest treasure.
+
+It was a robe of serge, and a pair of sandals, such as were worn in
+the Abbey of Jumieges.
+
+"Ha! is this all?  What didst say, child?" cried Bernard the Dane,
+hastily.
+
+"He told me it was his greatest treasure!" repeated Richard.
+
+"And it was!" said Abbot Martin.
+
+Then the good Abbot told them the history, part of which was already
+known to some of them.  About five or six years before, Duke William
+had been hunting in the forest of Jumieges, when he had suddenly come
+on the ruins of the Abbey, which had been wasted thirty or forty
+years previously by the Sea-King, Hasting.  Two old monks, of the
+original brotherhood, still survived, and came forth to greet the
+Duke, and offer him their hospitality.
+
+"Ay!" said Bernard, "well do I remember their bread; we asked if it
+was made of fir-bark, like that of our brethren of Norway."
+
+William, then an eager, thoughtless young man, turned with disgust
+from this wretched fare, and throwing the old men some gold, galloped
+on to enjoy his hunting.  In the course of the sport, he was left
+alone, and encountered a wild boar, which threw him down, trampled on
+him, and left him stretched senseless on the ground, severely
+injured.  His companions coming up, carried him, as the nearest place
+of shelter, to the ruins of Jumieges, where the two old monks gladly
+received him in the remaining portion of their house.  As soon as he
+recovered his senses, he earnestly asked their pardon for his pride,
+and the scorn he had shown to the poverty and patient suffering which
+he should have reverenced.
+
+William had always been a man who chose the good and refused the
+evil, but this accident, and the long illness that followed it, made
+him far more thoughtful and serious than he had ever been before; he
+made preparing for death and eternity his first object, and thought
+less of his worldly affairs, his wars, and his ducal state.  He
+rebuilt the old Abbey, endowed it richly, and sent for Martin himself
+from France, to become the Abbot; he delighted in nothing so much as
+praying there, conversing with the Abbot, and hearing him read holy
+books; and he felt his temporal affairs, and the state and splendour
+of his rank, so great a temptation, that he had one day come to the
+Abbot, and entreated to be allowed to lay them aside, and become a
+brother of the order.  But Martin had refused to receive his vows.
+He had told him that he had no right to neglect or forsake the duties
+of the station which God had appointed him; that it would be a sin to
+leave the post which had been given him to defend; and that the way
+marked out for him to serve God was by doing justice among his
+people, and using his power to defend the right.  Not till he had
+done his allotted work, and his son was old enough to take his place
+as ruler of the Normans, might he cease from his active duties, quit
+the turmoil of the world, and seek the repose of the cloister.  It
+was in this hope of peaceful retirement, that William had delighted
+to treasure up the humble garments that he hoped one day to wear in
+peace and holiness.
+
+"And oh! my noble Duke!" exclaimed Abbot Martin, bursting into tears,
+as he finished his narration, "the Lord hath been very gracious unto
+thee!  He has taken thee home to thy rest, long before thou didst
+dare to hope for it."
+
+Slowly, and with subdued feelings, the Norman Barons left the
+chamber; Richard, whom they seemed to have almost forgotten, wandered
+to the stairs, to find his way to the room where he had slept last
+night.  He had not made many steps before he heard Osmond's voice
+say, "Here, my Lord;" he looked up, saw a white cap at a doorway a
+little above him, he bounded up and flew into Dame Astrida's
+outstretched arms.
+
+How glad he was to sit in her lap, and lay his wearied head on her
+bosom, while, with a worn-out voice, he exclaimed, "Oh, Fru Astrida!
+I am very, very tired of being Duke of Normandy!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+
+Richard of Normandy was very anxious to know more of the little boy
+whom he had seen among his vassals.
+
+"Ah! the young Baron de Montemar," said Sir Eric.  "I knew his father
+well, and a brave man he was, though not of northern blood.  He was
+warden of the marches of the Epte, and was killed by your father's
+side in the inroad of the Viscount du Cotentin, {10} at the time when
+you were born, Lord Richard."
+
+"But where does he live?  Shall I not see him again?"
+
+"Montemar is on the bank of the Epte, in the domain that the French
+wrongfully claim from us.  He lives there with his mother, and if he
+be not yet returned, you shall see him presently.  Osmond, go you and
+seek out the lodgings of the young Montemar, and tell him the Duke
+would see him."
+
+Richard had never had a playfellow of his own age, and his eagerness
+to see Alberic de Montemar was great.  He watched from the window,
+and at length beheld Osmond entering the court with a boy of ten
+years old by his side, and an old grey-headed Squire, with a golden
+chain to mark him as a Seneschal or Steward of the Castle, walking
+behind.
+
+Richard ran to the door to meet them, holding out his hand eagerly.
+Alberic uncovered his bright dark hair, bowed low and gracefully, but
+stood as if he did not exactly know what to do next.  Richard grew
+shy at the same moment, and the two boys stood looking at each other
+somewhat awkwardly.  It was easy to see that they were of different
+races, so unlike were the blue eyes, flaxen hair, and fair face of
+the young Duke, to the black flashing eyes and olive cheek of his
+French vassal, who, though two years older, was scarcely above him in
+height; and his slight figure, well-proportioned, active and agile as
+it was, did not give the same promise of strength as the round limbs
+and large-boned frame of Richard, which even now seemed likely to
+rival the gigantic stature of his grandfather, Earl Rollo, the
+Ganger.
+
+For some minutes the little Duke and the young Baron stood surveying
+each other without a word, and old Sir Eric did not improve matters
+by saying, "Well, Lord Duke, here he is.  Have you no better greeting
+for him?"
+
+"The children are shame-faced," said Fru Astrida, seeing how they
+both coloured.  "Is your Lady mother in good health, my young sir?"
+
+Alberic blushed more deeply, bowed to the old northern lady, and
+answered fast and low in French, "I cannot speak the Norman tongue."
+
+Richard, glad to say something, interpreted Fru Astrida's speech, and
+Alberic readily made courteous reply that his mother was well, and he
+thanked the Dame de Centeville, a French title which sounded new to
+Fru Astrida's ears.  Then came the embarrassment again, and Fru
+Astrida at last said, "Take him out, Lord Richard; take him to see
+the horses in the stables, or the hounds, or what not."
+
+Richard was not sorry to obey, so out they went into the court of
+Rollo's tower, and in the open air the shyness went off.  Richard
+showed his own pony, and Alberic asked if he could leap into the
+saddle without putting his foot in the stirrup.  No, Richard could
+not; indeed, even Osmond had never seen it done, for the feats of
+French chivalry had scarcely yet spread into Normandy.
+
+"Can you?" said Richard; "will you show us?"
+
+"I know I can with my own pony," said Alberic, "for Bertrand will not
+let me mount in any other way; but I will try with yours, if you
+desire it, my Lord."
+
+So the pony was led out.  Alberic laid one hand on its mane, and
+vaulted on its back in a moment.  Both Osmond and Richard broke out
+loudly into admiration.  "Oh, this is nothing!" said Alberic.
+"Bertrand says it is nothing.  Before he grew old and stiff he could
+spring into the saddle in this manner fully armed.  I ought to do
+this much better."
+
+Richard begged to be shown how to perform the exploit, and Alberic
+repeated it; then Richard wanted to try, but the pony's patience
+would not endure any longer, and Alberic said he had learnt on a
+block of wood, and practised on the great wolf-hound.  They wandered
+about a little longer in the court, and then climbed up the spiral
+stone stairs to the battlements at the top of the tower, where they
+looked at the house-tops of Rouen close beneath, and the river Seine,
+broadening and glittering on one side in its course to the sea, and
+on the other narrowing to a blue ribbon, winding through the green
+expanse of fertile Normandy.  They threw the pebbles and bits of
+mortar down that they might hear them fall, and tried which could
+stand nearest to the edge of the battlement without being giddy.
+Richard was pleased to find that he could go the nearest, and began
+to tell some of Fru Astrida's stories about the precipices of Norway,
+among which when she was a young girl she used to climb about and
+tend the cattle in the long light summer time.  When the two boys
+came down again into the hall to dinner, they felt as if they had
+known each other all their lives.  The dinner was laid out in full
+state, and Richard had, as before, to sit in the great throne-like
+chair with the old Count of Harcourt on one side, but, to his
+comfort, Fru Astrida was on the other.
+
+After the dinner, Alberic de Montemar rose to take his leave, as he
+was to ride half way to his home that afternoon.  Count Bernard, who
+all dinner time had been watching him intently from under his shaggy
+eye-brows, at this moment turned to Richard, whom he hardly ever
+addressed, and said to him, "Hark ye, my Lord, what should you say to
+have him yonder for a comrade?"
+
+"To stay with me?" cried Richard, eagerly.  "Oh, thanks, Sir Count;
+and may he stay?"
+
+"You are Lord here."
+
+"Oh, Alberic!" cried Richard, jumping out of his chair of state, and
+running up to him, "will you not stay with me, and be my brother and
+comrade?"
+
+Alberic looked down hesitating.
+
+"Oh, say that you will!  I will give you horses, and hawks, and
+hounds, and I will love you--almost as well as Osmond.  Oh, stay with
+me, Alberic."
+
+"I must obey you, my Lord," said Alberic, "but--"
+
+"Come, young Frenchman, out with it," said Bernard,--"no buts!  Speak
+honestly, and at once, like a Norman, if you can."
+
+This rough speech seemed to restore the little Baron's self-
+possession, and he looked up bright and bold at the rugged face of
+the old Dane, while he said, "I had rather not stay here."
+
+"Ha! not do service to your Lord?"
+
+"I would serve him with all my heart, but I do not want to stay here.
+I love the Castle of Montemar better, and my mother has no one but
+me."
+
+"Brave and true, Sir Frenchman," said the old Count, laying his great
+hand on Alberic's head, and looking better pleased than Richard
+thought his grim features could have appeared.  Then turning to
+Bertrand, Alberic's Seneschal, he said, "Bear the Count de Harcourt's
+greetings to the noble Dame de Montemar, and say to her that her son
+is of a free bold spirit, and if she would have him bred up with my
+Lord Duke, as his comrade and brother in arms, he will find a ready
+welcome."
+
+"So, Alberic, you will come back, perhaps?" said Richard.
+
+"That must be as my mother pleases," answered Alberic bluntly, and
+with all due civilities he and his Seneschal departed.
+
+Four or five times a day did Richard ask Osmond and Fru Astrida if
+they thought Alberic would return, and it was a great satisfaction to
+him to find that every one agreed that it would be very foolish in
+the Dame de Montemar to refuse so good an offer, only Fru Astrida
+could not quite believe she would part with her son.  Still no Baron
+de Montemar arrived, and the little Duke was beginning to think less
+about his hopes, when one evening, as he was returning from a ride
+with Sir Eric and Osmond, he saw four horsemen coming towards them,
+and a little boy in front.
+
+"It is Alberic himself, I am sure of it!" he exclaimed, and so it
+proved; and while the Seneschal delivered his Lady's message to Sir
+Eric, Richard rode up and greeted the welcome guest.
+
+"Oh, I am very glad your mother has sent you!"
+
+"She said she was not fit to bring up a young warrior of the
+marches," said Alberic.
+
+"Were you very sorry to come?"
+
+"I dare say I shall not mind it soon; and Bertrand is to come and
+fetch me home to visit her every three months, if you will let me go,
+my Lord."
+
+Richard was extremely delighted, and thought he could never do enough
+to make Rouen pleasant to Alberic, who after the first day or two
+cheered up, missed his mother less, managed to talk something between
+French and Norman to Sir Eric and Fru Astrida, and became a very
+animated companion and friend.  In one respect Alberic was a better
+playfellow for the Duke than Osmond de Centeville, for Osmond,
+playing as a grown up man, not for his own amusement, but the
+child's, had left all the advantages of the game to Richard, who was
+growing not a little inclined to domineer.  This Alberic did not
+like, unless, as he said, "it was to be always Lord and vassal, and
+then he did not care for the game," and he played with so little
+animation that Richard grew vexed.
+
+"I can't help it," said Alberic; "if you take all the best chances to
+yourself, 'tis no sport for me.  I will do your bidding, as you are
+the Duke, but I cannot like it."
+
+"Never mind my being Duke, but play as we used to do."
+
+"Then let us play as I did with Bertrand's sons at Montemar.  I was
+their Baron, as you are my Duke, but my mother said there would be no
+sport unless we forgot all that at play."
+
+"Then so we will.  Come, begin again, Alberic, and you shall have the
+first turn."
+
+However, Alberic was quite as courteous and respectful to the Duke
+when they were not at play, as the difference of their rank required;
+indeed, he had learnt much more of grace and courtliness of demeanour
+from his mother, a Provencal lady, than was yet to be found among the
+Normans.  The Chaplain of Montemar had begun to teach him to read and
+write, and he liked learning much better than Richard, who would not
+have gone on with Father Lucas's lessons at all, if Abbot Martin of
+Jumieges had not put him in mind that it had been his father's
+especial desire.
+
+What Richard most disliked was, however, the being obliged to sit in
+council.  The Count of Harcourt did in truth govern the dukedom, but
+nothing could be done without the Duke's consent, and once a week at
+least, there was held in the great hall of Rollo's tower, what was
+called a Parlement, or "a talkation," where Count Bernard, the
+Archbishop, the Baron de Centeville, the Abbot of Jumieges, and such
+other Bishops, Nobles, or Abbots, as might chance to be at Rouen,
+consulted on the affairs of Normandy; and there the little Duke
+always was forced to be present, sitting up in his chair of state,
+and hearing rather than listening to, questions about the repairing
+and guarding of Castles, the asking of loans from the vassals, the
+appeals from the Barons of the Exchequer, who were then Nobles sent
+through the duchy to administer justice, and the discussions about
+the proceedings of his neighbours, King Louis of France, Count
+Foulques of Anjou, and Count Herluin of Montreuil, and how far the
+friendship of Hugh of Paris, and Alan of Brittany might be trusted.
+
+Very tired of all this did Richard grow, especially when he found
+that the Normans had made up their minds not to attempt a war against
+the wicked Count of Flanders.  He sighed most wearily, yawned again
+and again, and moved restlessly about in his chair; but whenever
+Count Bernard saw him doing so, he received so severe a look and sign
+that he grew perfectly to dread the eye of the fierce old Dane.
+Bernard never spoke to him to praise him, or to enter into any of his
+pursuits; he only treated him with the grave distant respect due to
+him as a Prince, or else now and then spoke a few stern words to him
+of reproof for this restlessness, or for some other childish folly.
+
+Used as Richard was to be petted and made much of by the whole house
+of Centeville, he resented this considerably in secret, disliked and
+feared the old Count, and more than once told Alberic de Montemar,
+that as soon as he was fourteen, when he would be declared of age, he
+should send Count Bernard to take care of his own Castle of Harcourt,
+instead of letting him sit gloomy and grim in the Castle hall in the
+evening, spoiling all their sport.
+
+Winter had set in, and Osmond used daily to take the little Duke and
+Alberic to the nearest sheet of ice, for the Normans still prided
+themselves on excelling in skating, though they had long since left
+the frost-bound streams and lakes of Norway.
+
+One day, as they were returning from the ice, they were surprised,
+even before they entered the Castle court, by hearing the trampling
+of horses' feet, and a sound of voices.
+
+"What may this mean?" said Osmond.  "There must surely be a great
+arrival of the vassals.  The Duke of Brittany, perhaps."
+
+"Oh," said Richard, piteously, "we have had one council already this
+week.  I hope another is not coming!"
+
+"It must import something extraordinary," proceeded Osmond.  "It is a
+mischance that the Count of Harcourt is not at Rouen just now."
+
+Richard thought this no mischance at all, and just then, Alberic, who
+had run on a little before, came back exclaiming, "They are French.
+It is the Frank tongue, not the Norman, that they speak."
+
+"So please you, my Lord," said Osmond, stopping short, "we go not
+rashly into the midst of them.  I would I knew what were best to do."
+
+Osmond rubbed his forehead and stood considering, while the two boys
+looked at him anxiously.  In a few seconds, before he had come to any
+conclusion, there came forth from the gate a Norman Squire,
+accompanied by two strangers.
+
+"My Lord Duke," said he to Richard, in French, "Sir Eric has sent me
+to bring you tidings that the King of France has arrived to receive
+your homage."
+
+"The King!" exclaimed Osmond.
+
+"Ay!" proceeded the Norman, in his own tongue, "Louis himself, and
+with a train looking bent on mischief.  I wish it may portend good to
+my Lord here.  You see I am accompanied.  I believe from my heart
+that Louis meant to prevent you from receiving a warning, and taking
+the boy out of his clutches."
+
+"Ha! what?" said Richard, anxiously.  "Why is the King come?  What
+must I do?"
+
+"Go on now, since there is no help for it," said Osmond.
+
+"Greet the king as becomes you, bend the knee, and pay him homage."
+
+Richard repeated over to himself the form of homage that he might be
+perfect in it, and walked on into the court; Alberic, Osmond, and the
+rest falling back as he entered.  The court was crowded with horses
+and men, and it was only by calling out loudly, "The Duke, the Duke,"
+that Osmond could get space enough made for them to pass.  In a few
+moments Richard had mounted the steps and stood in the great hall.
+
+In the chair of state, at the upper end of the room, sat a small
+spare man, of about eight or nine-and-twenty, pale, and of a light
+complexion, with a rich dress of blue and gold.  Sir Eric and several
+other persons stood respectfully round him, and he was conversing
+with the Archbishop, who, as well as Sir Eric, cast several anxious
+glances at the little Duke as he advanced up the hall.  He came up to
+the King, put his knee to the ground, and was just beginning, "Louis,
+King of France, I--" when he found himself suddenly lifted from the
+ground in the King's arms, and kissed on both cheeks.  Then setting
+him on his knee, the King exclaimed, "And is this the son of my brave
+and noble friend, Duke William?  Ah!  I should have known it from his
+likeness.  Let me embrace you again, dear child, for your father's
+sake."
+
+Richard was rather overwhelmed, but he thought the King very kind,
+especially when Louis began to admire his height and free-spirited
+bearing, and to lament that his own sons, Lothaire and Carloman, were
+so much smaller and more backward.  He caressed Richard again and
+again, praised every word he said--Fru Astrida was nothing to him;
+and Richard began to say to himself how strange and unkind it was of
+Bernard de Harcourt to like to find fault with him, when, on the
+contrary, he deserved all this praise from the King himself.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+
+Duke Richard of Normandy slept in the room which had been his
+father's; Alberic de Montemar, as his page, slept at his feet, and
+Osmond de Centeville had a bed on the floor, across the door, where
+he lay with his sword close at hand, as his young Lord's guard and
+protector.
+
+All had been asleep for some little time, when Osmond was startled by
+a slight movement of the door, which could not be pushed open without
+awakening him.  In an instant he had grasped his sword, while he
+pressed his shoulder to the door to keep it closed; but it was his
+father's voice that answered him with a few whispered words in the
+Norse tongue, "It is I, open."  He made way instantly, and old Sir
+Eric entered, treading cautiously with bare feet, and sat down on the
+bed motioning him to do the same, so that they might be able to speak
+lower.  "Right, Osmond," he said.  "It is well to be on the alert,
+for peril enough is around him--The Frank means mischief!  I know
+from a sure hand that Arnulf of Flanders was in council with him just
+before he came hither, with his false tongue, wiling and coaxing the
+poor child!"
+
+"Ungrateful traitor!" murmured Osmond.  "Do you guess his purpose?"
+
+"Yes, surely, to carry the boy off with him, and so he trusts
+doubtless to cut off all the race of Rollo!  I know his purpose is to
+bear off the Duke, as a ward of the Crown forsooth.  Did you not hear
+him luring the child with his promises of friendship with the
+Princes?  I could not understand all his French words, but I saw it
+plain enough."
+
+"You will never allow it?"
+
+"If he does, it must be across our dead bodies; but taken as we are
+by surprise, our resistance will little avail.  The Castle is full of
+French, the hall and court swarm with them.  Even if we could draw
+our Normans together, we should not be more than a dozen men, and
+what could we do but die?  That we are ready for, if it may not be
+otherwise, rather than let our charge be thus borne off without a
+pledge for his safety, and without the knowledge of the states."
+
+"The king could not have come at a worse time," said Osmond.
+
+"No, just when Bernard the Dane is absent.  If he only knew what has
+befallen, he could raise the country, and come to the rescue."
+
+"Could we not send some one to bear the tidings to-night?"
+
+"I know not," said Sir Eric, musingly.  "The French have taken the
+keeping of the doors; indeed they are so thick through the Castle
+that I can hardly reach one of our men, nor could I spare one hand
+that may avail to guard the boy to-morrow."
+
+"Sir Eric;" a bare little foot was heard on the floor, and Alberic de
+Montemar stood before him.  "I did not mean to listen, but I could
+not help hearing you.  I cannot fight for the Duke yet, but I could
+carry a message."
+
+"How would that be?" said Osmond, eagerly.  "Once out of the Castle,
+and in Rouen, he could easily find means of sending to the Count.  He
+might go either to the Convent of St. Ouen, or, which would be
+better, to the trusty armourer, Thibault, who would soon find man and
+horse to send after the Count."
+
+"Ha! let me see," said Sir Eric.  "It might be.  But how is he to get
+out?"
+
+"I know a way," said Alberic.  "I scrambled down that wide buttress
+by the east wall last week, when our ball was caught in a branch of
+the ivy, and the drawbridge is down."
+
+"If Bernard knew, it would be off my mind, at least!" said Sir Eric.
+"Well, my young Frenchman, you may do good service."
+
+"Osmond," whispered Alberic, as he began hastily to dress himself,
+"only ask one thing of Sir Eric--never to call me young Frenchman
+again!"
+
+Sir Eric smiled, saying, "Prove yourself Norman, my boy."
+
+"Then," added Osmond, "if it were possible to get the Duke himself
+out of the castle to-morrow morning.  If I could take him forth by
+the postern, and once bring him into the town, he would be safe.  It
+would be only to raise the burghers, or else to take refuge in the
+Church of Our Lady till the Count came up, and then Louis would find
+his prey out of his hands when he awoke and sought him."
+
+"That might be," replied Sir Eric; "but I doubt your success.  The
+French are too eager to hold him fast, to let him slip out of their
+hands.  You will find every door guarded."
+
+"Yes, but all the French have not seen the Duke, and the sight of a
+squire and a little page going forth, will scarcely excite their
+suspicion."
+
+"Ay, if the Duke would bear himself like a little page; but that you
+need not hope for.  Besides, he is so taken with this King's
+flatteries, that I doubt whether he would consent to leave him for
+the sake of Count Bernard.  Poor child, he is like to be soon taught
+to know his true friends."
+
+"I am ready," said Alberic, coming forward.
+
+The Baron de Centeville repeated his instructions, and then undertook
+to guard the door, while his son saw Alberic set off on his
+expedition.  Osmond went with him softly down the stairs, then
+avoiding the hall, which was filled with French, they crept silently
+to a narrow window, guarded by iron bars, placed at such short
+intervals apart that only so small and slim a form as Alberic's could
+have squeezed out between them.  The distance to the ground was not
+much more than twice his own height, and the wall was so covered with
+ivy, that it was not a very dangerous feat for an active boy, so that
+Alberic was soon safe on the ground, then looking up to wave his cap,
+he ran on along the side of the moat, and was soon lost to Osmond's
+sight in the darkness.
+
+Osmond returned to the Duke's chamber, and relieved his father's
+guard, while Richard slept soundly on, little guessing at the plots
+of his enemies, or at the schemes of his faithful subjects for his
+protection.
+
+Osmond thought this all the better, for he had small trust in
+Richard's patience and self-command, and thought there was much more
+chance of getting him unnoticed out of the Castle, if he did not know
+how much depended on it, and how dangerous his situation was.
+
+When Richard awoke, he was much surprised at missing Alberic, but
+Osmond said he was gone into the town to Thibault the armourer, and
+this was a message on which he was so likely to be employed that
+Richard's suspicion was not excited.  All the time he was dressing he
+talked about the King, and everything he meant to show him that day;
+then, when he was ready, the first thing was as usual to go to attend
+morning mass.
+
+"Not by that way, to-day, my Lord," said Osmond, as Richard was about
+to enter the great hall.  "It is crowded with the French who have
+been sleeping there all night; come to the postern."
+
+Osmond turned, as he spoke, along the passage, walking fast, and not
+sorry that Richard was lingering a little, as it was safer for him to
+be first.  The postern was, as he expected, guarded by two tall
+steel-cased figures, who immediately held their lances across the
+door-way, saying, "None passes without warrant."
+
+"You will surely let us of the Castle attend to our daily business,"
+said Osmond.  "You will hardly break your fast this morning if you
+stop all communication with the town."
+
+"You must bring warrant," repeated one of the men-at-arms.  Osmond
+was beginning to say that he was the son of the Seneschal of the
+Castle, when Richard came hastily up.  "What?  Do these men want to
+stop us?" he exclaimed in the imperious manner he had begun to take
+up since his accession.  "Let us go on, sirs."
+
+The men-at-arms looked at each other, and guarded the door more
+closely.  Osmond saw it was hopeless, and only wanted to draw his
+young charge back without being recognised, but Richard exclaimed
+loudly, "What means this?"
+
+"The King has given orders that none should pass without warrant,"
+was Osmond's answer.  "We must wait."
+
+"I will pass!" said Richard, impatient at opposition, to which he was
+little accustomed.  "What mean you, Osmond?  This is my Castle, and
+no one has a right to stop me.  Do you hear, grooms? let me go.  I am
+the Duke!"
+
+The sentinels bowed, but all they said was, "Our orders are express."
+
+"I tell you I am Duke of Normandy, and I will go where I please in my
+own city!" exclaimed Richard, passionately pressing against the
+crossed staves of the weapons, to force his way between them, but he
+was caught and held fast in the powerful gauntlet of one of the men-
+at-arms.  "Let me go, villain!" cried he, struggling with all his
+might.  "Osmond, Osmond, help!"
+
+Even as he spoke Osmond had disengaged him from the grasp of the
+Frenchman, and putting his hand on his arm, said, "Nay, my Lord, it
+is not for you to strive with such as these."
+
+"I will strive!" cried the boy.  "I will not have my way barred in my
+own Castle.  I will tell the King how these rogues of his use me.  I
+will have them in the dungeon.  Sir Eric! where is Sir Eric?"
+
+Away he rushed to the stairs, Osmond hurrying after him, lest he
+should throw himself into some fresh danger, or by his loud calls
+attract the French, who might then easily make him prisoner.
+However, on the very first step of the stairs stood Sir Eric, who was
+too anxious for the success of the attempt to escape, to be very far
+off.  Richard, too angry to heed where he was going, dashed up
+against him without seeing him, and as the old Baron took hold of
+him, began, "Sir Eric, Sir Eric, those French are villains! they will
+not let me pass--"
+
+"Hush, hush! my Lord," said Sir Eric.  "Silence! come here."
+
+However imperious with others, Richard from force of habit always
+obeyed Sir Eric, and now allowed himself to be dragged hastily and
+silently by him, Osmond following closely, up the stairs, up a second
+and a third winding flight, still narrower, and with broken steps, to
+a small round, thick-walled turret chamber, with an extremely small
+door, and loop-holes of windows high up in the tower.  Here, to his
+great surprise, he found Dame Astrida, kneeling and telling her
+beads, two or three of her maidens, and about four of the Norman
+Squires and men-at-arms.
+
+"So you have failed, Osmond?" said the Baron.
+
+"But what is all this?  How did Fru Astrida come up here?  May I not
+go to the King and have those insolent Franks punished?"
+
+"Listen to me, Lord Richard," said Sir Eric:  "that smooth-spoken
+King whose words so charmed you last night is an ungrateful deceiver.
+The Franks have always hated and feared the Normans, and not being
+able to conquer us fairly, they now take to foul means.  Louis came
+hither from Flanders, he has brought this great troop of French to
+surprise us, claim you as a ward of the crown, and carry you away
+with him to some prison of his own."
+
+"You will not let me go?" said Richard.
+
+"Not while I live," said Sir Eric.  "Alberic is gone to warn the
+Count of Harcourt, to call the Normans together, and here we are
+ready to defend this chamber to our last breath, but we are few, the
+French are many, and succour may be far off."
+
+"Then you meant to have taken me out of their reach this morning,
+Osmond?"
+
+"Yes, my Lord."
+
+"And if I had not flown into a passion and told who I was, I might
+have been safe!  O Sir Eric!  Sir Eric! you will not let me be
+carried off to a French prison!"
+
+"Here, my child," said Dame Astrida, holding out her arms, "Sir Eric
+will do all he can for you, but we are in God's hands!"
+
+Richard came and leant against her.  "I wish I had not been in a
+passion!" said he, sadly, after a silence; then looking at her in
+wonder--"But how came you up all this way?"
+
+"It is a long way for my old limbs," said Fru Astrida, smiling, "but
+my son helped me, and he deems it the only safe place in the Castle."
+
+"The safest," said Sir Eric, "and that is not saying much for it."
+
+"Hark!" said Osmond, "what a tramping the Franks are making.  They
+are beginning to wonder where the Duke is."
+
+"To the stairs, Osmond," said Sir Eric.  "On that narrow step one man
+may keep them at bay a long time.  You can speak their jargon too,
+and hold parley with them."
+
+"Perhaps they will think I am gone," whispered Richard, "if they
+cannot find me, and go away."
+
+Osmond and two of the Normans were, as he spoke, taking their stand
+on the narrow spiral stair, where there was just room for one man on
+the step.  Osmond was the lowest, the other two above him, and it
+would have been very hard for an enemy to force his way past them.
+
+Osmond could plainly hear the sounds of the steps and voices of the
+French as they consulted together, and sought for the Duke.  A man at
+length was heard clanking up these very stairs, till winding round,
+he suddenly found himself close upon young de Centeville.
+
+"Ha!  Norman!" he cried, starting back in amazement, "what are you
+doing here?"
+
+"My duty," answered Osmond, shortly.  "I am here to guard this
+stair;" and his drawn sword expressed the same intention.
+
+The Frenchman drew back, and presently a whispering below was heard,
+and soon after a voice came up the stairs, saying, "Norman--good
+Norman--"
+
+"What would you say?" replied Osmond, and the head of another Frank
+appeared.  "What means all this, my friend?" was the address.  "Our
+King comes as a guest to you, and you received him last evening as
+loyal vassals.  Wherefore have you now drawn out of the way, and
+striven to bear off your young Duke into secret places?  Truly it
+looks not well that you should thus strive to keep him apart, and
+therefore the King requires to see him instantly."
+
+"Sir Frenchman," replied Osmond, "your King claims the Duke as his
+ward.  How that may be my father knows not, but as he was committed
+to his charge by the states of Normandy, he holds himself bound to
+keep him in his own hands until further orders from them."
+
+"That means, insolent Norman, that you intend to shut the boy up and
+keep him in your own rebel hands.  You had best yield--it will be the
+better for you and for him.  The child is the King's ward, and he
+shall not be left to be nurtured in rebellion by northern pirates."
+
+At this moment a cry from without arose, so loud as almost to drown
+the voices of the speakers on the turret stair, a cry welcome to the
+ears of Osmond, repeated by a multitude of voices, "Haro!  Haro! our
+little Duke!"
+
+It was well known as a Norman shout.  So just and so ready to redress
+all grievances had the old Duke Rollo been, that his very name was an
+appeal against injustice, and whenever wrong was done, the Norman
+outcry against the injury was always "Ha Rollo!" or as it had become
+shortened, "Haro."  And now Osmond knew that those whose affection
+had been won by the uprightness of Rollo, were gathering to protect
+his helpless grandchild.
+
+The cry was likewise heard by the little garrison in the turret
+chamber, bringing hope and joy.  Richard thought himself already
+rescued, and springing from Fru Astrida, danced about in ecstasy,
+only longing to see the faithful Normans, whose voices he heard
+ringing out again and again, in calls for their little Duke, and
+outcries against the Franks.  The windows were, however, so high,
+that nothing could be seen from them but the sky; and, like Richard,
+the old Baron de Centeville was almost beside himself with anxiety to
+know what force was gathered together, and what measures were being
+taken.  He opened the door, called to his son, and asked if he could
+tell what was passing, but Osmond knew as little--he could see
+nothing but the black, cobwebbed, dusty steps winding above his head,
+while the clamours outside, waxing fiercer and louder, drowned all
+the sounds which might otherwise have come up to him from the French
+within the Castle.  At last, however, Osmond called out to his
+father, in Norse, "There is a Frank Baron come to entreat, and this
+time very humbly, that the Duke may come to the King."
+
+"Tell him," replied Sir Eric, "that save with consent of the council
+of Normandy, the child leaves not my hands."
+
+"He says," called back Osmond, after a moment, "that you shall guard
+him yourself, with as many as you choose to bring with you.  He
+declares on the faith of a free Baron, that the King has no thought
+of ill--he wants to show him to the Rouennais without, who are
+calling for him, and threaten to tear down the tower rather than not
+see their little Duke.  Shall I bid him send a hostage?"
+
+"Answer him," returned the Baron, "that the Duke leaves not this
+chamber unless a pledge is put into our hands for his safety.  There
+was an oily-tongued Count, who sat next the King at supper--let him
+come hither, and then perchance I may trust the Duke among them."
+
+Osmond gave the desired reply, which was carried to the King.
+Meantime the uproar outside grew louder than ever, and there were new
+sounds, a horn was winded, and there was a shout of "Dieu aide!" the
+Norman war-cry, joined with "Notre Dame de Harcourt!"
+
+"There, there!" cried Sir Eric, with a long breath, as if relieved of
+half his anxieties, "the boy has sped well.  Bernard is here at last!
+Now his head and hand are there, I doubt no longer."
+
+"Here comes the Count," said Osmond, opening the door, and admitting
+a stout, burly man, who seemed sorely out of breath with the ascent
+of the steep, broken stair, and very little pleased to find himself
+in such a situation.  The Baron de Centeville augured well from the
+speed with which he had been sent, thinking it proved great
+perplexity and distress on the part of Louis.  Without waiting to
+hear his hostage speak, he pointed to a chest on which he had been
+sitting, and bade two of his men-at-arms stand on each side of the
+Count, saying at the same time to Fru Astrida, "Now, mother, if aught
+of evil befalls the child, you know your part.  Come, Lord Richard."
+
+Richard moved forward.  Sir Eric held his hand.  Osmond kept close
+behind him, and with as many of the men-at-arms as could be spared
+from guarding Fru Astrida and her hostage, he descended the stairs,
+not by any means sorry to go, for he was weary of being besieged in
+that turret chamber, whence he could see nothing, and with those
+friendly cries in his ears, he could not be afraid.
+
+He was conducted to the large council-room which was above the hall.
+There, the King was walking up and down anxiously, looking paler than
+his wont, and no wonder, for the uproar sounded tremendous there--and
+now and then a stone dashed against the sides of the deep window.
+
+Nearly at the same moment as Richard entered by one door, Count
+Bernard de Harcourt came in from the other, and there was a slight
+lull in the tumult.
+
+"What means this, my Lords?" exclaimed the King.  "Here am I come in
+all good will, in memory of my warm friendship with Duke William, to
+take on me the care of his orphan, and hold council with you for
+avenging his death, and is this the greeting you afford me?  You
+steal away the child, and stir up the rascaille of Rouen against me.
+Is this the reception for your King?"
+
+"Sir King," replied Bernard, "what your intentions may be, I know
+not.  All I do know is, that the burghers of Rouen are fiercely
+incensed against you--so much so, that they were almost ready to tear
+me to pieces for being absent at this juncture.  They say that you
+are keeping the child prisoner in his own Castle and that they will
+have him restored if they tear it down to the foundations."
+
+"You are a true man, a loyal man--you understand my good intentions,"
+said Louis, trembling, for the Normans were extremely dreaded.  "You
+would not bring the shame of rebellion on your town and people.
+Advise me--I will do just as you counsel me--how shall I appease
+them?"
+
+"Take the child, lead him to the window, swear that you mean him no
+evil, that you will not take him from us," said Bernard.  "Swear it
+on the faith of a King."
+
+"As a King--as a Christian, it is true!" said Louis.  "Here, my boy!
+Wherefore shrink from me?  What have I done, that you should fear me?
+You have been listening to evil tales of me, my child.  Come hither."
+
+At a sign from the Count de Harcourt, Sir Eric led Richard forward,
+and put his hand into the King's.  Louis took him to the window,
+lifted him upon the sill, and stood there with his arm round him,
+upon which the shout, "Long live Richard, our little Duke!" arose
+again.  Meantime, the two Centevilles looked in wonder at the old
+Harcourt, who shook his head and muttered in his own tongue, "I will
+do all I may, but our force is small, and the King has the best of
+it.  We must not yet bring a war on ourselves."
+
+"Hark! he is going to speak," said Osmond.
+
+"Fair Sirs!--excellent burgesses!" began the King, as the cries
+lulled a little. {11}  "I rejoice to see the love ye bear to our
+young Prince!  I would all my subjects were equally loyal!  But
+wherefore dread me, as if I were come to injure him?  I, who came but
+to take counsel how to avenge the death of his father, who brought me
+back from England when I was a friendless exile.  Know ye not how
+deep is the debt of gratitude I owe to Duke William?  He it was who
+made me King--it was he who gained me the love of the King of
+Germany; he stood godfather for my son--to him I owe all my wealth
+and state, and all my care is to render guerdon for it to his child,
+since, alas!  I may not to himself.  Duke William rests in his bloody
+grave!  It is for me to call his murderers to account, and to cherish
+his son, even as mine own!"
+
+So saying, Louis tenderly embraced the little boy, and the Rouennais
+below broke out into another cry, in which "Long live King Louis,"
+was joined with "Long live Richard!"
+
+"You will not let the child go?" said Eric, meanwhile, to Harcourt.
+
+"Not without provision for his safety, but we are not fit for war as
+yet, and to let him go is the only means of warding it off."
+
+Eric groaned and shook his head; but the Count de Harcourt's judgment
+was of such weight with him, that he never dreamt of disputing it.
+
+"Bring me here," said the King, "all that you deem most holy, and you
+shall see me pledge myself to be your Duke's most faithful friend."
+
+There was some delay, during which the Norman Nobles had time for
+further counsel together, and Richard looked wistfully at them,
+wondering what was to happen to him, and wishing he could venture to
+ask for Alberic.
+
+Several of the Clergy of the Cathedral presently appeared in
+procession, bringing with them the book of the Gospels on which
+Richard had taken his installation oath, with others of the sacred
+treasures of the Church, preserved in gold cases.  The Priests were
+followed by a few of the Norman Knights and Nobles, some of the
+burgesses of Rouen, and, to Richard's great joy, by Alberic de
+Montemar himself.  The two boys stood looking eagerly at each other,
+while preparation was made for the ceremony of the King's oath.
+
+The stone table in the middle of the room was cleared, and arranged
+so as in some degree to resemble the Altar in the Cathedral; then the
+Count de Harcourt, standing before it, and holding the King's hand,
+demanded of him whether he would undertake to be the friend,
+protector, and good Lord of Richard, Duke of Normandy, guarding him
+from all his enemies, and ever seeking his welfare.  Louis, with his
+hand on the Gospels, "swore that so he would."
+
+"Amen!" returned Bernard the Dane, solemnly, "and as thou keepest
+that oath to the fatherless child, so may the Lord do unto thine
+house!"
+
+Then followed the ceremony, which had been interrupted the night
+before, of the homage and oath of allegiance which Richard owed to
+the King, and, on the other hand, the King's formal reception of him
+as a vassal, holding, under him, the two dukedoms of Normandy and
+Brittany.  "And," said the King, raising him in his arms and kissing
+him, "no dearer vassal do I hold in all my realm than this fair
+child, son of my murdered friend and benefactor--precious to me as my
+own children, as so on my Queen and I hope to testify."
+
+Richard did not much like all this embracing; but he was sure the
+King really meant him no ill, and he wondered at all the distrust the
+Centevilles had shown.
+
+"Now, brave Normans," said the King, "be ye ready speedily, for an
+onset on the traitor Fleming.  The cause of my ward is my own cause.
+Soon shall the trumpet be sounded, the ban and arriere ban of the
+realm be called forth, and Arnulf, in the flames of his cities, and
+the blood of his vassals, shall learn to rue the day when his foot
+trod the Isle of Pecquigny!  How many Normans can you bring to the
+muster, Sir Count?"
+
+"I cannot say, within a few hundreds of lances," replied the old
+Dane, cautiously; "it depends on the numbers that may be engaged in
+the Italian war with the Saracens, but of this be sure, Sir King,
+that every man in Normandy and Brittany who can draw a sword or bend
+a bow, will stand forth in the cause of our little Duke; ay, and that
+his blessed father's memory is held so dear in our northern home,
+that it needs but a message to King Harold Blue-tooth to bring a
+fleet of long keels into the Seine, with stout Danes enough to carry
+fire and sword, not merely through Flanders, but through all France.
+We of the North are not apt to forget old friendships and favours,
+Sir King."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know the Norman faith of old," returned Louis, uneasily,
+"but we should scarcely need such wild allies as you propose; the
+Count of Paris, and Hubert of Senlis may be reckoned on, I suppose."
+
+"No truer friend to Normandy than gallant and wise old Hugh the
+White!" said Bernard, "and as to Senlis, he is uncle to the boy, and
+doubly bound to us."
+
+"I rejoice to see your confidence," said Louis.  "You shall soon hear
+from me.  In the meantime I must return to gather my force together,
+and summon my great vassals, and I will, with your leave, brave
+Normans, take with me my dear young ward.  His presence will plead
+better in his cause than the finest words; moreover, he will grow up
+in love and friendship with my two boys, and shall be nurtured with
+them in all good learning and chivalry, nor shall he ever be reminded
+that he is an orphan while under the care of Queen Gerberge and
+myself."
+
+"Let the child come to me, so please you, my Lord the King," answered
+Harcourt, bluntly.  "I must hold some converse with him, ere I can
+reply."
+
+"Go then, Richard," said Louis, "go to your trusty vassal--happy are
+you in possessing such a friend; I hope you know his value."
+
+"Here then, young Sir," said the Count, in his native tongue, when
+Richard had crossed from the King's side, and stood beside him, "what
+say you to this proposal?"
+
+"The King is very kind," said Richard.  "I am sure he is kind; but I
+do not like to go from Rouen, or from Dame Astrida."
+
+"Listen, my Lord," said the Dane, stooping down and speaking low.
+"The King is resolved to have you away; he has with him the best of
+his Franks, and has so taken us at unawares, that though I might yet
+rescue you from his hands, it would not be without a fierce struggle,
+wherein you might be harmed, and this castle and town certainly
+burnt, and wrested from us.  A few weeks or months, and we shall have
+time to draw our force together, so that Normandy need fear no man,
+and for that time you must tarry with him."
+
+"Must I--and all alone?"
+
+"No, not alone, not without the most trusty guardian that can be
+found for you.  Friend Eric, what say you?" and he laid his hand on
+the old Baron's shoulder.  "Yet, I know not; true thou art, as a
+Norwegian mountain, but I doubt me if thy brains are not too dull to
+see through the French wiles and disguises, sharp as thou didst show
+thyself last night."
+
+"That was Osmond, not I," said Sir Eric.  "He knows their mincing
+tongue better than I.  He were the best to go with the poor child, if
+go he must."
+
+"Bethink you, Eric," said the Count, in an undertone, "Osmond is the
+only hope of your good old house--if there is foul play, the guardian
+will be the first to suffer."
+
+"Since you think fit to peril the only hope of all Normandy, I am not
+the man to hold back my son where he may aid him," said old Eric,
+sadly.  "The poor child will be lonely and uncared-for there, and it
+were hard he should not have one faithful comrade and friend with
+him."
+
+"It is well," said Bernard:  "young as he is, I had rather trust
+Osmond with the child than any one else, for he is ready of counsel,
+and quick of hand."
+
+"Ay, and a pretty pass it is come to," muttered old Centeville, "that
+we, whose business it is to guard the boy, should send him where you
+scarcely like to trust my son."
+
+Bernard paid no further attention to him, but, coming forward,
+required another oath from the King, that Richard should be as safe
+and free at his court as at Rouen, and that on no pretence whatsoever
+should he be taken from under the immediate care of his Esquire,
+Osmond Fitz Eric, heir of Centeville.
+
+After this, the King was impatient to depart, and all was
+preparation.  Bernard called Osmond aside to give full instructions
+on his conduct, and the means of communicating with Normandy, and
+Richard was taking leave of Fru Astrida, who had now descended from
+her turret, bringing her hostage with her.  She wept much over her
+little Duke, praying that he might safely be restored to Normandy,
+even though she might not live to see it; she exhorted him not to
+forget the good and holy learning in which he had been brought up, to
+rule his temper, and, above all, to say his prayers constantly, never
+leaving out one, as the beads of his rosary reminded him of their
+order.  As to her own grandson, anxiety for him seemed almost lost in
+her fears for Richard, and the chief things she said to him, when he
+came to take leave of her, were directions as to the care he was to
+take of the child, telling him the honour he now received was one
+which would make his name forever esteemed if he did but fulfil his
+trust, the most precious that Norman had ever yet received.
+
+"I will, grandmother, to the very best of my power," said Osmond; "I
+may die in his cause, but never will I be faithless!"
+
+"Alberic!" said Richard, "are you glad to be going back to Montemar?"
+
+"Yes, my Lord," answered Alberic, sturdily, "as glad as you will be
+to come back to Rouen."
+
+"Then I shall send for you directly, Alberic, for I shall never love
+the Princes Carloman and Lothaire half as well as you!"
+
+"My Lord the King is waiting for the Duke," said a Frenchman, coming
+forward.
+
+"Farewell then, Fru Astrida.  Do not weep.  I shall soon come back.
+Farewell, Alberic.  Take the bar-tailed falcon back to Montemar, and
+keep him for my sake.  Farewell, Sir Eric--Farewell, Count Bernard.
+When the Normans come to conquer Arnulf you will lead them.  O dear,
+dear Fru Astrida, farewell again."
+
+"Farewell, my own darling.  The blessing of Heaven go with you, and
+bring you safe home!  Farewell, Osmond.  Heaven guard you and
+strengthen you to be his shield and his defence!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+
+Away from the tall narrow gateway of Rollo's Tower, with the cluster
+of friendly, sorrowful faces looking forth from it, away from the
+booth-like shops of Rouen, and the stout burghers shouting with all
+the power of their lungs, "Long live Duke Richard!  Long live King
+Louis!  Death to the Fleming!"--away from the broad Seine--away from
+home and friends, rode the young Duke of Normandy, by the side of the
+palfrey of the King of France.
+
+The King took much notice of him, kept him by his side, talked to
+him, admired the beautiful cattle grazing in security in the green
+pastures, and, as he looked at the rich dark brown earth of the
+fields, the Castles towering above the woods, the Convents looking
+like great farms, the many villages round the rude Churches, and the
+numerous population who came out to gaze at the party, and repeat the
+cry of "Long live the King!  Blessings on the little Duke!" he told
+Richard, again and again, that his was the most goodly duchy in
+France and Germany to boot.
+
+When they crossed the Epte, the King would have Richard in the same
+boat with him, and sitting close to Louis, and talking eagerly about
+falcons and hounds, the little Duke passed the boundary of his own
+dukedom.
+
+The country beyond was not like Normandy.  First they came to a great
+forest, which seemed to have no path through it.  The King ordered
+that one of the men, who had rowed them across, should be made to
+serve as guide, and two of the men-at-arms took him between them, and
+forced him to lead the way, while others, with their swords and
+battle-axes, cut down and cleared away the tangled branches and
+briars that nearly choked the path.  All the time, every one was
+sharply on the look-out for robbers, and the weapons were all held
+ready for use at a moment's notice.  On getting beyond the forest a
+Castle rose before them, and, though it was not yet late in the day,
+they resolved to rest there, as a marsh lay not far before them,
+which it would not have been safe to traverse in the evening
+twilight.
+
+The Baron of the Castle received them with great respect to the King,
+but without paying much attention to the Duke of Normandy, and
+Richard did not find the second place left for him at the board.  He
+coloured violently, and looked first at the King, and then at Osmond,
+but Osmond held up his finger in warning; he remembered how he had
+lost his temper before, and what had come of it, and resolved to try
+to bear it better; and just then the Baron's daughter, a gentle-
+looking maiden of fifteen or sixteen, came and spoke to him, and
+entertained him so well, that he did not think much more of his
+offended dignity.--When they set off on their journey again, the
+Baron and several of his followers came with them to show the only
+safe way across the morass, and a very slippery, treacherous, quaking
+road it was, where the horses' feet left pools of water wherever they
+trod.  The King and the Baron rode together, and the other French
+Nobles closed round them; Richard was left quite in the background,
+and though the French men-at-arms took care not to lose sight of him,
+no one offered him any assistance, excepting Osmond, who, giving his
+own horse to Sybald, one of the two Norman grooms who accompanied
+him, led Richard's horse by the bridle along the whole distance of
+the marshy path, a business that could scarcely have been pleasant,
+as Osmond wore his heavy hauberk, and his pointed, iron-guarded boots
+sunk deep at every step into the bog.  He spoke little, but seemed to
+be taking good heed of every stump of willow or stepping-stone that
+might serve as a note of remembrance of the path.
+
+At the other end of the morass began a long tract of dreary-looking,
+heathy waste, without a sign of life.  The Baron took leave of the
+King, only sending three men-at-arms, to show him the way to a
+monastery, which was to be the next halting-place.  He sent three,
+because it was not safe for one, even fully armed, to ride alone, for
+fear of the attacks of the followers of a certain marauding Baron,
+who was at deadly feud with him, and made all that border a most
+perilous region.  Richard might well observe that he did not like the
+Vexin half as well as Normandy, and that the people ought to learn
+Fru Astrida's story of the golden bracelets, which, in his
+grandfather's time, had hung untouched for a year, in a tree in a
+forest.
+
+It was pretty much the same through the whole journey, waste lands,
+marshes, and forests alternated.  The Castles stood on high mounds
+frowning on the country round, and villages were clustered round
+them, where the people either fled away, driving off their cattle
+with them at the first sight of an armed band, or else, if they
+remained, proved to be thin, wretched-looking creatures, with wasted
+limbs, aguish faces, and often iron collars round their necks.
+Wherever there was anything of more prosperous appearance, such as a
+few cornfields, vineyards on the slopes of the hills, fat cattle, and
+peasantry looking healthy and secure, there was sure to be seen a
+range of long low stone buildings, surmounted with crosses, with a
+short square Church tower rising in the midst, and interspersed with
+gnarled hoary old apple-trees, or with gardens of pot-herbs spreading
+before them to the meadows.  If, instead of two or three men-at-arms
+from a Castle, or of some trembling serf pressed into the service,
+and beaten, threatened, and watched to prevent treachery, the King
+asked for a guide at a Convent, some lay brother would take his
+staff; or else mount an ass, and proceed in perfect confidence and
+security as to his return homewards, sure that his poverty and his
+sacred character would alike protect him from any outrage from the
+most lawless marauder of the neighbourhood.
+
+Thus they travelled until they reached the royal Castle of Laon,
+where the Fleur-de-Lys standard on the battlements announced the
+presence of Gerberge, Queen of France, and her two sons.  The King
+rode first into the court with his Nobles, and before Richard could
+follow him through the narrow arched gateway, he had dismounted,
+entered the Castle, and was out of sight.  Osmond held the Duke's
+stirrup, and followed him up the steps which led to the Castle Hall.
+It was full of people, but no one made way, and Richard, holding his
+Squire's hand, looked up in his face, inquiring and bewildered.
+
+"Sir Seneschal," said Osmond, seeing a broad portly old man, with
+grey hair and a golden chain, "this is the Duke of Normandy--I pray
+you conduct him to the King's presence."
+
+Richard had no longer any cause to complain of neglect, for the
+Seneschal instantly made him a very low bow, and calling "Place--
+place for the high and mighty Prince, my Lord Duke of Normandy!"
+ushered him up to the dais or raised part of the floor, where the
+King and Queen stood together talking.  The Queen looked round, as
+Richard was announced, and he saw her face, which was sallow, and
+with a sharp sour expression that did not please him, and he backed
+and looked reluctant, while Osmond, with a warning hand pressed on
+his shoulder, was trying to remind him that he ought to go forward,
+kneel on one knee, and kiss her hand.
+
+"There he is," said the King.
+
+"One thing secure!" said the Queen; "but what makes that northern
+giant keep close to his heels?"
+
+Louis answered something in a low voice, and, in the meantime, Osmond
+tried in a whisper to induce his young Lord to go forward and perform
+his obeisance.
+
+"I tell you I will not," said Richard.  "She looks cross, and I do
+not like her."
+
+Luckily he spoke his own language; but his look and air expressed a
+good deal of what he said, and Gerberge looked all the more
+unattractive.
+
+"A thorough little Norwegian bear," said the King; "fierce and unruly
+as the rest.  Come, and perform your courtesy--do you forget where
+you are?" he added, sternly.
+
+Richard bowed, partly because Osmond forced down his shoulder; but he
+thought of old Rollo and Charles the Simple, and his proud heart
+resolved that he would never kiss the hand of that sour-looking
+Queen.  It was a determination made in pride and defiance, and he
+suffered for it afterwards; but no more passed now, for the Queen
+only saw in his behaviour that of an unmannerly young Northman:  and
+though she disliked and despised him, she did not care enough about
+his courtesy to insist on its being paid.  She sat down, and so did
+the King, and they went on talking; the King probably telling her his
+adventures at Rouen, while Richard stood on the step of the dais,
+swelling with sullen pride.
+
+Nearly a quarter of an hour had passed in this manner when the
+servants came to set the table for supper, and Richard, in spite of
+his indignant looks, was forced to stand aside.  He wondered that all
+this time he had not seen the two Princes, thinking how strange he
+should have thought it, to let his own dear father be in the house so
+long without coming to welcome him.  At last, just as the supper had
+been served up, a side door opened, and the Seneschal called, "Place
+for the high and mighty Princes, my Lord Lothaire and my Lord
+Carloman!" and in walked two boys, one about the same age as Richard,
+the other rather less than a year younger.  They were both thin,
+pale, sharp-featured children, and Richard drew himself up to his
+full height, with great satisfaction at being so much taller than
+Lothaire.
+
+They came up ceremoniously to their father and kissed his hand, while
+he kissed their foreheads, and then said to them, "There is a new
+play-fellow for you."
+
+"Is that the little Northman?" said Carloman, turning to stare at
+Richard with a look of curiosity, while Richard in his turn felt
+considerably affronted that a boy so much less than himself should
+call him little.
+
+"Yes," said the Queen; "your father has brought him home with him."
+
+Carloman stepped forward, shyly holding out his hand to the stranger,
+but his brother pushed him rudely aside.  "I am the eldest; it is my
+business to be first.  So, young Northman, you are come here for us
+to play with."
+
+Richard was too much amazed at being spoken to in this imperious way
+to make any answer.  He was completely taken by surprise, and only
+opened his great blue eyes to their utmost extent.
+
+"Ha! why don't you answer?  Don't you hear?  Can you speak only your
+own heathen tongue?" continued Lothaire.
+
+"The Norman is no heathen tongue!" said Richard, at once breaking
+silence in a loud voice.  "We are as good Christians as you are--ay,
+and better too."
+
+"Hush! hush! my Lord!" said Osmond.
+
+"What now, Sir Duke," again interfered the King, in an angry tone,
+"are you brawling already?  Time, indeed, I should take you from your
+own savage court.  Sir Squire, look to it, that you keep your charge
+in better rule, or I shall send him instantly to bed, supperless."
+
+"My Lord, my Lord," whispered Osmond, "see you not that you are
+bringing discredit on all of us?"
+
+"I would be courteous enough, if they would be courteous to me,"
+returned Richard, gazing with eyes full of defiance at Lothaire, who,
+returning an angry look, had nevertheless shrunk back to his mother.
+She meanwhile was saying, "So strong, so rough, the young savage is,
+he will surely harm our poor boys!"
+
+"Never fear," said Louis; "he shall be watched.  And," he added in a
+lower tone, "for the present, at least, we must keep up appearances.
+Hubert of Senlis, and Hugh of Paris, have their eyes on us, and were
+the boy to be missed, the grim old Harcourt would have all the
+pirates of his land on us in the twinkling of an eye.  We have him,
+and there we must rest content for the present.  Now to supper."
+
+At supper, Richard sat next little Carloman, who peeped at him every
+now and then from under his eyelashes, as if he was afraid of him;
+and presently, when there was a good deal of talking going on, so
+that his voice could not be heard, half whispered, in a very grave
+tone, "Do you like salt beef or fresh?"
+
+"I like fresh," answered Richard, with equal gravity, "only we eat
+salt all the winter."
+
+There was another silence, and then Carloman, with the same
+solemnity, asked, "How old are you?"
+
+"I shall be nine on the eve of St. Boniface.  How old are you?"
+
+"Eight.  I was eight at Martinmas, and Lothaire was nine three days
+since."
+
+Another silence; then, as Osmond waited on Richard, Carloman returned
+to the charge, "Is that your Squire?"
+
+"Yes, that is Osmond de Centeville."
+
+"How tall he is!"
+
+"We Normans are taller than you French."
+
+"Don't say so to Lothaire, or you will make him angry."
+
+"Why? it is true."
+
+"Yes; but--" and Carloman sunk his voice--"there are some things
+which Lothaire will not hear said.  Do not make him cross, or he will
+make my mother displeased with you.  She caused Thierry de Lincourt
+to be scourged, because his ball hit Lothaire's face."
+
+"She cannot scourge me--I am a free Duke," said Richard.  "But why?
+Did he do it on purpose?"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"And was Lothaire hurt?"
+
+"Hush! you must say Prince Lothaire.  No; it was quite a soft ball."
+
+"Why?" again asked Richard--"why was he scourged?"
+
+"I told you, because he hit Lothaire."
+
+"Well, but did he not laugh, and say it was nothing?  Alberic quite
+knocked me down with a great snowball the other day, and Sir Eric
+laughed, and said I must stand firmer."
+
+"Do you make snowballs?"
+
+"To be sure I do!  Do not you?"
+
+"Oh, no! the snow is so cold."
+
+"Ah! you are but a little boy," said Richard, in a superior manner.
+Carloman asked how it was done; and Richard gave an animated
+description of the snowballing, a fortnight ago, at Rouen, when
+Osmond and some of the other young men built a snow fortress, and
+defended it against Richard, Alberic, and the other Squires.
+Carloman listened with delight, and declared that next time it
+snowed, they would have a snow castle; and thus, by the time supper
+was over, the two little boys were very good friends.
+
+Bedtime came not long after supper.  Richard's was a smaller room
+than he had been used to at Rouen; but it amazed him exceedingly when
+he first went into it:  he stood gazing in wonder, because, as he
+said, "It was as if he had been in a church."
+
+"Yes, truly!" said Osmond.  "No wonder these poor creatures of French
+cannot stand before a Norman lance, if they cannot sleep without
+glass to their windows.  Well! what would my father say to this?"
+
+"And see! see, Osmond! they have put hangings up all round the walls,
+just like our Lady's church on a great feast-day.  They treat us just
+as if we were the holy saints; and here are fresh rushes strewn about
+the floor, too.  This must be a mistake--it must be an oratory,
+instead of my chamber."
+
+"No, no, my Lord; here is our gear, which I bade Sybald and Henry see
+bestowed in our chamber.  Well, these Franks are come to a pass,
+indeed!  My grandmother will never believe what we shall have to tell
+her.  Glass windows and hangings to sleeping chambers! I do not like
+it I am sure we shall never be able to sleep, closed up from the free
+air of heaven in this way:  I shall be always waking, and fancying I
+am in the chapel at home, hearing Father Lucas chanting his matins.
+Besides, my father would blame me for letting you be made as tender
+as a Frank.  I'll have out this precious window, if I can."
+
+Luxurious as the young Norman thought the King, the glazing of Laon
+was not permanent.  It consisted of casements, which could be put up
+or removed at pleasure; for, as the court possessed only one set of
+glass windows, they were taken down, and carried from place to place,
+as often as Louis removed from Rheims to Soissons, Laon, or any other
+of his royal castles; so that Osmond did not find much difficulty in
+displacing them, and letting in the sharp, cold, wintry breeze.  The
+next thing he did was to give his young Lord a lecture on his want of
+courtesy, telling him that "no wonder the Franks thought he had no
+more culture than a Viking (or pirate), fresh caught from Norway.  A
+fine notion he was giving them of the training he had at Centeville,
+if he could not even show common civility to the Queen--a lady!  Was
+that the way Alberic had behaved when he came to Rouen?"
+
+"Fru Astrida did not make sour faces at him, nor call him a young
+savage," replied Richard.
+
+"No, and he gave her no reason to do so; he knew that the first
+teaching of a young Knight is to be courteous to ladies--never mind
+whether fair and young, or old and foul of favour.  Till you learn
+and note that, Lord Richard, you will never be worthy of your golden
+spurs."
+
+"And the King told me she would treat me as a mother," exclaimed
+Richard.  "Do you think the King speaks the truth, Osmond?"
+
+"That we shall see by his deeds," said Osmond.
+
+"He was very kind while we were in Normandy.  I loved him so much
+better than the Count de Harcourt; but now I think that the Count is
+best!  I'll tell you, Osmond, I will never call him grim old Bernard
+again."
+
+"You had best not, sir, for you will never have a more true-hearted
+vassal."
+
+"Well, I wish we were back in Normandy, with Fru Astrida and Alberic.
+I cannot bear that Lothaire.  He is proud, and unknightly, and cruel.
+I am sure he is, and I will never love him."
+
+"Hush, my Lord!--beware of speaking so loud.  You are not in your own
+Castle."
+
+"And Carloman is a chicken-heart," continued Richard, unheeding.  "He
+does not like to touch snow, and he cannot even slide on the ice, and
+he is afraid to go near that great dog--that beautiful wolf-hound."
+
+"He is very little," said Osmond.
+
+"I am sure I was not as cowardly at his age, now was I, Osmond?
+Don't you remember?"
+
+"Come, Lord Richard, I cannot let you wait to remember everything;
+tell your beads and pray that we may be brought safe back to Rouen;
+and that you may not forget all the good that Father Lucas and holy
+Abbot Martin have laboured to teach you."
+
+So Richard told the beads of his rosary--black polished wood, with
+amber at certain spaces--he repeated a prayer with every bead, and
+Osmond did the same; then the little Duke put himself into a narrow
+crib of richly carved walnut; while Osmond, having stuck his dagger
+so as to form an additional bolt to secure the door, and examined the
+hangings that no secret entrance might be concealed behind them,
+gathered a heap of rushes together, and lay down on them, wrapped in
+his mantle, across the doorway.  The Duke was soon asleep; but the
+Squire lay long awake, musing on the possible dangers that surrounded
+his charge, and on the best way of guarding against them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+
+Osmond de Centeville was soon convinced that no immediate peril
+threatened his young Duke at the Court of Laon.  Louis seemed to
+intend to fulfil his oaths to the Normans by allowing the child to be
+the companion of his own sons, and to be treated in every respect as
+became his rank.  Richard had his proper place at table, and all due
+attendance; he learnt, rode, and played with the Princes, and there
+was nothing to complain of, excepting the coldness and inattention
+with which the King and Queen treated him, by no means fulfilling the
+promise of being as parents to their orphan ward.  Gerberge, who had
+from the first dreaded his superior strength and his roughness with
+her puny boys, and who had been by no means won by his manners at
+their first meeting, was especially distant and severe with him,
+hardly ever speaking to him except with some rebuke, which, it must
+be confessed, Richard often deserved.
+
+As to the boys, his constant companions, Richard was on very friendly
+terms with Carlo-man, a gentle, timid, weakly child.  Richard looked
+down upon him; but he was kind, as a generous-tempered boy could not
+fail to be, to one younger and weaker than himself.  He was so much
+kinder than Lothaire, that Carloman was fast growing very fond of
+him, and looked up to his strength and courage as something noble and
+marvellous.
+
+It was very different with Lothaire, the person from whom, above all
+others, Richard would have most expected to meet with affection, as
+his father's god-son, a relationship which in those times was thought
+almost as near as kindred by blood.  Lothaire had been brought up by
+an indulgent mother, and by courtiers who never ceased flattering
+him, as the heir to the crown, and he had learnt to think that to
+give way to his naturally imperious and violent disposition was the
+way to prove his power and assert his rank.  He had always had his
+own way, and nothing had ever been done to check his faults; somewhat
+weakly health had made him fretful and timid; and a latent
+consciousness of this fearfulness made him all the more cruel,
+sometimes because he was frightened, sometimes because he fancied it
+manly.
+
+He treated his little brother in a way which in these times boys
+would call bullying; and, as no one ever dared to oppose the King's
+eldest son, it was pretty much the same with every one else, except
+now and then some dumb creature, and then all Lothaire's cruelty was
+shown.  When his horse kicked, and ended by throwing him, he stood
+by, and caused it to be beaten till the poor creature's back streamed
+with blood; when his dog bit his hand in trying to seize the meat
+with which he was teazing it, he insisted on having it killed, and it
+was worse still when a falcon pecked one of his fingers.  It really
+hurt him a good deal, and, in a furious rage, he caused two nails to
+be heated red hot in the fire, intending to have them thrust into the
+poor bird's eyes.
+
+"I will not have it done!" exclaimed Richard, expecting to be obeyed
+as he was at home; but Lothaire only laughed scornfully, saying, "Do
+you think you are master here, Sir pirate?"
+
+"I will not have it done!" repeated Richard.  "Shame on you, shame on
+you, for thinking of such an unkingly deed."
+
+"Shame on me! Do you know to whom you speak, master savage?" cried
+Lothaire, red with passion.
+
+"I know who is the savage now!" said Richard.  "Hold!" to the servant
+who was bringing the red-hot irons in a pair of tongs.
+
+"Hold?" exclaimed Lothaire.  "No one commands here but I and my
+father.  Go on Charlot--where is the bird?  Keep her fast, Giles."
+
+"Osmond.  You I can command--"
+
+"Come away, my Lord," said Osmond, interrupting Richard's order,
+before it was issued. "We have no right to interfere here, and cannot
+hinder it.  Come away from such a foul sight."
+
+"Shame on you too, Osmond, to let such a deed be done without
+hindering it!" exclaimed Richard, breaking from him, and rushing on
+the man who carried the hot irons.  The French servants were not very
+willing to exert their strength against the Duke of Normandy, and
+Richard's onset, taking the man by surprise, made him drop the tongs.
+Lothaire, both afraid and enraged, caught them up as a weapon of
+defence, and, hardly knowing what he did, struck full at Richard's
+face with the hot iron.  Happily it missed his eye, and the heat had
+a little abated; but, as it touched his cheek, it burnt him
+sufficiently to cause considerable pain.  With a cry of passion, he
+flew at Lothaire, shook him with all his might, and ended by throwing
+him at his length on the pavement.  But this was the last of
+Richard's exploits, for he was at the same moment captured by his
+Squire, and borne off, struggling and kicking as if Osmond had been
+his greatest foe; but the young Norman's arms were like iron round
+him; and he gave over his resistance sooner, because at that moment a
+whirring flapping sound was heard, and the poor hawk rose high,
+higher, over their heads in ever lessening circles, far away from her
+enemies.  The servant who held her, had relaxed his grasp in the
+consternation caused by Lothaire's fall, and she was mounting up and
+up, spying, it might be, her way to her native rocks in Iceland, with
+the yellow eyes which Richard had saved.
+
+"Safe! safe!" cried Richard, joyfully, ceasing his struggles.  "Oh,
+how glad I am!  That young villain should never have hurt her.  Put
+me down, Osmond, what are you doing with me?"
+
+"Saving you from your--no, I cannot call it folly,--I would hardly
+have had you stand still to see such--but let me see your face."
+
+"It is nothing.  I don't care now the hawk is safe," said Richard,
+though he could hardly keep his lips in order, and was obliged to
+wink very hard with his eyes to keep the tears out, now that he had
+leisure to feel the smarting; but it would have been far beneath a
+Northman to complain, and he stood bearing it gallantly, and pinching
+his fingers tightly together, while Osmond knelt down to examine the
+hurt.  "'Tis not much," said he, talking to himself, "half bruise,
+half burn--I wish my grandmother was here--however, it can't last
+long!  'Tis right, you bear it like a little Berserkar, and it is no
+bad thing that you should have a scar to show, that they may not be
+able to say you did ALL the damage."
+
+"Will it always leave a mark?" said Richard.  "I am afraid they will
+call me Richard of the scarred cheek, when we get back to Normandy."
+
+"Never mind, if they do--it will not be a mark to be ashamed of, even
+if it does last, which I do not believe it will."
+
+"Oh, no, I am so glad the gallant falcon is out of his reach!"
+replied Richard, in a somewhat quivering voice.
+
+"Does it smart much?  Well, come and bathe it with cold water--or
+shall I take you to one of the Queen's women?"
+
+"No--the water," said Richard, and to the fountain in the court they
+went; but Osmond had only just begun to splash the cheek with the
+half-frozen water, with a sort of rough kindness, afraid at once of
+teaching the Duke to be effeminate, and of not being as tender to him
+as Dame Astrida would have wished, when a messenger came in haste
+from the King, commanding the presence of the Duke of Normandy and
+his Squire.
+
+Lothaire was standing between his father and mother on their throne-
+like seat, leaning against the Queen, who had her arm round him; his
+face was red and glazed with tears, and he still shook with subsiding
+sobs.  It was evident he was just recovering from a passionate crying
+fit.
+
+"How is this?" began the King, as Richard entered.  "What means this
+conduct, my Lord of Normandy?  Know you what you have done in
+striking the heir of France?  I might imprison you this instant in a
+dungeon where you would never see the light of day."
+
+"Then Bernard de Harcourt would come and set me free," fearlessly
+answered Richard.
+
+"Do you bandy words with me, child? Ask Prince Lothaire's pardon
+instantly, or you shall rue it."
+
+"I have done nothing to ask his pardon for.  It would have been cruel
+and cowardly in me to let him put out the poor hawk's eyes," said
+Richard, with a Northman's stern contempt for pain, disdaining to
+mention his own burnt cheek, which indeed the King might have seen
+plainly enough.
+
+"Hawk's eyes!" repeated the King.  "Speak the truth, Sir Duke; do not
+add slander to your other faults."
+
+"I have spoken the truth--I always speak it!" cried Richard.
+"Whoever says otherwise lies in his throat."
+
+Osmond here hastily interfered, and desired permission to tell the
+whole story.  The hawk was a valuable bird, and Louis's face darkened
+when he heard what Lothaire had purposed, for the Prince had, in
+telling his own story, made it appear that Richard had been the
+aggressor by insisting on letting the falcon fly.  Osmond finished by
+pointing to the mark on Richard's cheek, so evidently a burn, as to
+be proof that hot iron had played a part in the matter.  The King
+looked at one of his own Squires and asked his account, and he with
+some hesitation could not but reply that it was as the young Sieur de
+Centeville had said.  Thereupon Louis angrily reproved his own people
+for having assisted the Prince in trying to injure the hawk, called
+for the chief falconer, rated him for not better attending to his
+birds, and went forth with him to see if the hawk could yet be
+recaptured, leaving the two boys neither punished nor pardoned.
+
+"So you have escaped for this once," said Gerberge, coldly, to
+Richard; "you had better beware another time.  Come with me, my poor
+darling Lothaire."  She led her son away to her own apartments, and
+the French Squires began to grumble to each other complaints of the
+impossibility of pleasing their Lords, since, if they contradicted
+Prince Lothaire, he was so spiteful that he was sure to set the Queen
+against them, and that was far worse in the end than the King's
+displeasure.  Osmond, in the meantime, took Richard to re-commence
+bathing his face, and presently Carloman ran out to pity him, wonder
+at him for not crying, and say he was glad the poor hawk had escaped.
+
+The cheek continued inflamed and painful for some time, and there was
+a deep scar long after the pain had ceased, but Richard thought
+little of it after the first, and would have scorned to bear ill-will
+to Lothaire for the injury.
+
+Lothaire left off taunting Richard with his Norman accent, and
+calling him a young Sea-king.  He had felt his strength, and was
+afraid of him; but he did not like him the better--he never played
+with him willingly--scowled, and looked dark and jealous, if his
+father, or if any of the great nobles took the least notice of the
+little Duke, and whenever he was out of hearing, talked against him
+with all his natural spitefulness.
+
+Richard liked Lothaire quite as little, contemning almost equally his
+cowardly ways and his imperious disposition.  Since he had been Duke,
+Richard had been somewhat inclined to grow imperious himself, though
+always kept under restraint by Fru Astrida's good training, and Count
+Bernard's authority, and his whole generous nature would have
+revolted against treating Alberic, or indeed his meanest vassal, as
+Lothaire used the unfortunate children who were his playfellows.
+Perhaps this made him look on with great horror at the tyranny which
+Lothaire exercised; at any rate he learnt to abhor it more, and to
+make many resolutions against ordering people about uncivilly when
+once he should be in Normandy again.  He often interfered to protect
+the poor boys, and generally with success, for the Prince was afraid
+of provoking such another shake as Richard had once given him, and
+though he generally repaid himself on his victim in the end, he
+yielded for the time.
+
+Carloman, whom Richard often saved from his brother's unkindness,
+clung closer and closer to him, went with him everywhere, tried to do
+all he did, grew very fond of Osmond, and liked nothing better than
+to sit by Richard in some wide window-seat, in the evening, after
+supper, and listen to Richard's version of some of Fru Astrida's
+favourite tales, or hear the never-ending history of sports at
+Centeville, or at Rollo's Tower, or settle what great things they
+would both do when they were grown up, and Richard was ruling
+Normandy--perhaps go to the Holy Land together, and slaughter an
+unheard-of host of giants and dragons on the way.  In the meantime,
+however, poor Carloman gave small promise of being able to perform
+great exploits, for he was very small for his age and often ailing;
+soon tired, and never able to bear much rough play.  Richard, who had
+never had any reason to learn to forbear, did not at first understand
+this, and made Carloman cry several times with his roughness and
+violence, but this always vexed him so much that he grew careful to
+avoid such things for the future, and gradually learnt to treat his
+poor little weakly friend with a gentleness and patience at which
+Osmond used to marvel, and which he would hardly have been taught in
+his prosperity at home.
+
+Between Carloman and Osmond he was thus tolerably happy at Laon, but
+he missed his own dear friends, and the loving greetings of his
+vassals, and longed earnestly to be at Rouen, asking Osmond almost
+every night when they should go back, to which Osmond could only
+answer that he must pray that Heaven would be pleased to bring them
+home safely.
+
+Osmond, in the meantime, kept a vigilant watch for anything that
+might seem to threaten danger to his Lord; but at present there was
+no token of any evil being intended; the only point in which Louis
+did not seem to be fulfilling his promises to the Normans was, that
+no preparations were made for attacking the Count of Flanders.
+
+At Easter the court was visited by Hugh the White, the great Count of
+Paris, the most powerful man in France, and who was only prevented by
+his own loyalty and forbearance, from taking the crown from the
+feeble and degenerate race of Charlemagne.  He had been a firm friend
+of William Longsword, and Osmond remarked how, on his arrival, the
+King took care to bring Richard forward, talk of him affectionately,
+and caress him almost as much as he had done at Rouen.  The Count
+himself was really kind and affectionate to the little Duke; he kept
+him by his side, and seemed to like to stroke down his long flaxen
+hair, looking in his face with a grave mournful expression, as if
+seeking for a likeness to his father.  He soon asked about the scar
+which the burn had left, and the King was obliged to answer hastily,
+it was an accident, a disaster that had chanced in a boyish quarrel.
+Louis, in fact, was uneasy, and appeared to be watching the Count of
+Paris the whole time of his visit, so as to prevent him from having
+any conversation in private with the other great vassals assembled at
+the court.  Hugh did not seem to perceive this, and acted as if he
+was entirely at his ease, but at the same time he watched his
+opportunity.  One evening, after supper, he came up to the window
+where Richard and Carloman were, as usual, deep in story telling; he
+sat down on the stone seat, and taking Richard on his knee, he asked
+if he had any greetings for the Count de Harcourt.
+
+How Richard's face lighted up!  "Oh, Sir," he cried, "are you going
+to Normandy?"
+
+"Not yet, my boy, but it may be that I may have to meet old Harcourt
+at the Elm of Gisors."
+
+"Oh, if I was but going with you."
+
+"I wish I could take you, but it would scarcely do for me to steal
+the heir of Normandy.  What shall I tell him?"
+
+"Tell him," whispered Richard, edging himself close to the Count, and
+trying to reach his ear, "tell him that I am sorry, now, that I was
+sullen when he reproved me.  I know he was right.  And, sir, if he
+brings with him a certain huntsman with a long hooked nose, whose
+name is Walter, {12} tell him I am sorry I used to order him about so
+unkindly.  And tell him to bear my greetings to Fru Astrida and Sir
+Eric, and to Alberic."
+
+"Shall I tell him how you have marked your face?"
+
+"No," said Richard, "he would think me a baby to care about such a
+thing as that!"
+
+The Count asked how it happened, and Richard told the story, for he
+felt as if he could tell the kind Count anything--it was almost like
+that last evening that he had sat on his father's knee.  Hugh ended
+by putting his arm round him, and saying, "Well, my little Duke, I am
+as glad as you are the gallant bird is safe--it will be a tale for my
+own little Hugh and Eumacette {13} at home--and you must one day be
+friends with them as your father has been with me.  And now, do you
+think your Squire could come to my chamber late this evening when the
+household is at rest?"
+
+Richard undertook that Osmond should do so, and the Count, setting
+him down again, returned to the dais.  Osmond, before going to the
+Count that evening, ordered Sybald to come and guard the Duke's door.
+It was a long conference, for Hugh had come to Laon chiefly for the
+purpose of seeing how it went with his friend's son, and was anxious
+to know what Osmond thought of the matter.  They agreed that at
+present there did not seem to be any evil intended, and that it
+rather appeared as if Louis wished only to keep him as a hostage for
+the tranquillity of the borders of Normandy; but Hugh advised that
+Osmond should maintain a careful watch, and send intelligence to him
+on the first token of mischief.
+
+The next morning the Count of Paris quitted Laon, and everything went
+on in the usual course till the feast of Whitsuntide, when there was
+always a great display of splendour at the French court.  The crown
+vassals generally came to pay their duty and go with the King to
+Church; and there was a state banquet, at which the King and Queen
+wore their crowns, and every one sat in great magnificence according
+to their rank.
+
+The grand procession to Church was over.  Richard had walked with
+Carloman, the Prince richly dressed in blue, embroidered with golden
+fleur-de-lys, and Richard in scarlet, with a gold Cross on his
+breast; the beautiful service was over, they had returned to the
+Castle, and there the Seneschal was marshalling the goodly and noble
+company to the banquet, when horses' feet were heard at the gate
+announcing some fresh arrival.  The Seneschal went to receive the
+guests, and presently was heard ushering in the noble Prince, Arnulf,
+Count of Flanders.
+
+Richard's face became pale--he turned from Carloman by whose side he
+had been standing, and walked straight out of the hall and up the
+stairs, closely followed by Osmond.  In a few minutes there was a
+knock at the door of his chamber, and a French Knight stood there
+saying, "Comes not the Duke to the banquet?"
+
+"No," answered Osmond:  "he eats not with the slayer of his father."
+
+"The King will take it amiss; for the sake of the child you had
+better beware," said the Frenchman, hesitating.
+
+"He had better beware himself," exclaimed Osmond, indignantly, "how
+he brings the treacherous murderer of William Longsword into the
+presence of a free-born Norman, unless he would see him slain where
+he stands.  Were it not for the boy, I would challenge the traitor
+this instant to single combat."
+
+"Well, I can scarce blame you," said the Knight, "but you had best
+have a care how you tread.  Farewell."
+
+Richard had hardly time to express his indignation, and his wishes
+that he was a man, before another message came through a groom of
+Lothaire's train, that the Duke must fast, if he would not consent to
+feast with the rest.
+
+"Tell Prince Lothaire," replied Richard, "that I am not such a
+glutton as he--I had rather fast than be choked with eating with
+Arnulf."
+
+All the rest of the day, Richard remained in his own chamber,
+resolved not to run the risk of meeting with Arnulf.  The Squire
+remained with him, in this voluntary imprisonment, and they occupied
+themselves, as best they could, with furbishing Osmond's armour, and
+helping each other out in repeating some of the Sagas.  They once
+heard a great uproar in the court, and both were very anxious to
+learn its cause, but they did not know it till late in the afternoon.
+
+Carloman crept up to them--"Here I am at last!" he exclaimed.  "Here,
+Richard, I have brought you some bread, as you had no dinner:  it was
+all I could bring.  I saved it under the table lest Lothaire should
+see it."
+
+Richard thanked Carloman with all his heart, and being very hungry
+was glad to share the bread with Osmond.  He asked how long the
+wicked Count was going to stay, and rejoiced to hear he was going
+away the next morning, and the King was going with him.
+
+"What was that great noise in the court?" asked Richard.
+
+"I scarcely like to tell you," returned Carloman.
+
+Richard, however, begged to hear, and Carloman was obliged to tell
+that the two Norman grooms, Sybald and Henry, had quarrelled with the
+Flemings of Arnulf's train; there had been a fray, which had ended in
+the death of three Flemings, a Frank, and of Sybald himself--And
+where was Henry?  Alas! there was more ill news--the King had
+sentenced Henry to die, and he had been hanged immediately.
+
+Dark with anger and sorrow grew young Richard's face; he had been
+fond of his two Norman attendants, he trusted to their attachment,
+and he would have wept for their loss even if it had happened in any
+other way; but now, when it had been caused by their enmity to his
+father's foes, the Flemings,--when one had fallen overwhelmed by
+numbers, and the other been condemned hastily, cruelly, unjustly, it
+was too much, and he almost choked with grief and indignation.  Why
+had he not been there, to claim Henry as his own vassal, and if he
+could not save him, at least bid him farewell?  Then he would have
+broken out in angry threats, but he felt his own helplessness, and
+was ashamed, and he could only shed tears of passionate grief,
+refusing all Carloman's attempts to comfort him.  Osmond was even
+more concerned; he valued the two Normans extremely for their courage
+and faithfulness, and had relied on sending intelligence by their
+means to Rouen, in case of need.  It appeared to him as if the first
+opportunity had been seized of removing these protectors from the
+little Duke, and as if the designs, whatever they might be, which had
+been formed against him, were about to take effect.  He had little
+doubt that his own turn would be the next; but he was resolved to
+endure anything, rather than give the smallest opportunity of
+removing him, to bear even insults with patience, and to remember
+that in his care rested the sole hope of safety for his charge.
+
+That danger was fast gathering around them became more evident every
+day, especially after the King and Arnulf had gone away together.  It
+was very hot weather, and Richard began to weary after the broad cool
+river at Rouen, where he used to bathe last summer; and one evening
+he persuaded his Squire to go down with him to the Oise, which flowed
+along some meadow ground about a quarter of a mile from the Castle;
+but they had hardly set forth before three or four attendants came
+running after them, with express orders from the Queen that they
+should return immediately.  They obeyed, and found her standing in
+the Castle hall, looking greatly incensed.
+
+"What means this?" she asked, angrily.  "Knew you not that the King
+has left commands that the Duke quits not the Castle in his absence?"
+
+"I was only going as far as the river--" began Richard, but Gerberge
+cut him short.  "Silence, child--I will hear no excuses.  Perhaps you
+think, Sieur de Centeville, that you may take liberties in the King's
+absence, but I tell you that if you are found without the walls
+again, it shall be at your peril; ay, and his!  I'll have those
+haughty eyes put out, if you disobey!"
+
+She turned away, and Lothaire looked at them with his air of
+gratified malice.  "You will not lord it over your betters much
+longer, young pirate!" said he, as he followed his mother, afraid to
+stay to meet the anger he might have excited by the taunt he could
+not deny himself the pleasure of making; but Richard, who, six months
+ago could not brook a slight disappointment or opposition, had, in
+his present life of restraint, danger, and vexation, learnt to curb
+the first outbreak of temper, and to bear patiently instead of
+breaking out into passion and threats, and now his only thought was
+of his beloved Squire.
+
+"Oh, Osmond!  Osmond!" he exclaimed, "they shall not hurt you.  I
+will never go out again.  I will never speak another hasty word.  I
+will never affront the Prince, if they will but leave you with me!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+
+It was a fine summer evening, and Richard and Carloman were playing
+at ball on the steps of the Castle-gate, when a voice was heard from
+beneath, begging for alms from the noble Princes in the name of the
+blessed Virgin, and the two boys saw a pilgrim standing at the gate,
+wrapt in a long robe of serge, with a staff in his hand, surmounted
+by a Cross, a scrip at his girdle, and a broad shady hat, which he
+had taken off, as he stood, making low obeisances, and asking
+charity.
+
+"Come in, holy pilgrim," said Carloman.  "It is late, and you shall
+sup and rest here to-night."
+
+"Blessings from Heaven light on you, noble Prince," replied the
+pilgrim, and at that moment Richard shouted joyfully, "A Norman, a
+Norman! 'tis my own dear speech!  Oh, are you not from Normandy?
+Osmond, Osmond! he comes from home!"
+
+"My Lord! my own Lord!" exclaimed the pilgrim, and, kneeling on one
+knee at the foot of the steps, he kissed the hand which his young
+Duke held out to him--"This is joy unlooked for!"
+
+"Walter!--Walter, the huntsman!" cried Richard.  "Is it you?  Oh, how
+is Fru Astrida, and all at home?"
+
+"Well, my Lord, and wearying to know how it is with you--" began
+Walter--but a very different tone exclaimed from behind the pilgrim,
+"What is all this?  Who is stopping my way?  What!  Richard would be
+King, and more, would he?  More insolence!"  It was Lothaire,
+returning with his attendants from the chase, in by no means an
+amiable mood, for he had been disappointed of his game.
+
+"He is a Norman--a vassal of Richard's own," said Carloman.
+
+"A Norman, is he?  I thought we had got rid of the robbers!  We want
+no robbers here!  Scourge him soundly, Perron, and teach him how to
+stop my way!"
+
+"He is a pilgrim, my Lord," suggested one of the followers.
+
+"I care not; I'll have no Normans here, coming spying in disguise.
+Scourge him, I say, dog that he is!  Away with him!  A spy, a spy!"
+
+"No Norman is scourged in my sight!" said Richard, darting forwards,
+and throwing himself between Walter and the woodsman, who was
+preparing to obey Lothaire, just in time to receive on his own bare
+neck the sharp, cutting leathern thong, which raised a long red
+streak along its course.  Lothaire laughed.
+
+"My Lord Duke!  What have you done?  Oh, leave me--this befits you
+not!" cried Walter, extremely distressed; but Richard had caught hold
+of the whip, and called out, "Away, away! run! haste, haste!" and the
+words were repeated at once by Osmond, Carloman, and many of the
+French, who, though afraid to disobey the Prince, were unwilling to
+violate the sanctity of a pilgrim's person; and the Norman, seeing
+there was no help for it, obeyed:  the French made way for him and he
+effected his escape; while Lothaire, after a great deal of storming
+and raging, went up to his mother to triumph in the cleverness with
+which he had detected a Norman spy in disguise.
+
+Lothaire was not far wrong; Walter had really come to satisfy himself
+as to the safety of the little Duke, and try to gain an interview
+with Osmond.  In the latter purpose he failed, though he lingered in
+the neighbourhood of Laon for several days; for Osmond never left the
+Duke for an instant, and he was, as has been shown, a close prisoner,
+in all but the name, within the walls of the Castle.  The pilgrim
+had, however, the opportunity of picking up tidings which made him
+perceive the true state of things:  he learnt the deaths of Sybald
+and Henry, the alliance between the King and Arnulf, and the
+restraint and harshness with which the Duke was treated; and with
+this intelligence he went in haste to Normandy.
+
+Soon after his arrival, a three days' fast was observed throughout
+the dukedom, and in every church, from the Cathedral of Bayeux to the
+smallest and rudest village shrine, crowds of worshippers were
+kneeling, imploring, many of them with tears, that God would look on
+them in His mercy, restore to them their Prince, and deliver the
+child out of the hands of his enemies.  How earnest and sorrowful
+were the prayers offered at Centeville may well be imagined; and at
+Montemar sur Epte the anxiety was scarcely less.  Indeed, from the
+time the evil tidings arrived, Alberic grew so restless and unhappy,
+and so anxious to do something, that at last his mother set out with
+him on a pilgrimage to the Abbey of Jumieges, to pray for the rescue
+of his dear little Duke.
+
+In the meantime, Louis had sent notice to Laon that he should return
+home in a week's time; and Richard rejoiced at the prospect, for the
+King had always been less unkind to him than the Queen, and he hoped
+to be released from his captivity within the Castle.  Just at this
+time he became very unwell; it might have been only the effect of the
+life of unwonted confinement which he had lately led that was
+beginning to tell on his health; but, after being heavy and
+uncomfortable for a day or two, without knowing what was the matter
+with him, he was one night attacked with high fever.
+
+Osmond was dreadfully alarmed, knowing nothing at all of the
+treatment of illness, and, what was worse, fully persuaded that the
+poor child had been poisoned, and therefore resolved not to call any
+assistance; he hung over him all night, expecting each moment to see
+him expire--ready to tear his hair with despair and fury, and yet
+obliged to restrain himself to the utmost quietness and gentleness,
+to soothe the suffering of the sick child.
+
+Through that night, Richard either tossed about on his narrow bed,
+or, when his restlessness desired the change, sat, leaning his aching
+head on Osmond's breast, too oppressed and miserable to speak or
+think.  When the day dawned on them, and he was still too ill to
+leave the room, messengers were sent for him, and Osmond could no
+longer conceal the fact of his sickness, but parleyed at the door,
+keeping out every one he could, and refusing all offers of
+attendance.  He would not even admit Carloman, though Richard,
+hearing his voice, begged to see him; and when a proposal was sent
+from the Queen, that a skilful old nurse should visit and prescribe
+for the patient, he refused with all his might, and when he had shut
+the door, walked up and down, muttering, "Ay, ay, the witch! coming
+to finish what she has begun!"
+
+All that day and the next, Richard continued very ill, and Osmond
+waited on him very assiduously, never closing his eyes for a moment,
+but constantly telling his beads whenever the boy did not require his
+attendance.  At last Richard fell asleep, slept long and soundly for
+some hours, and waked much better.  Osmond was in a transport of joy:
+"Thanks to Heaven, they shall fail for this time and they shall never
+have another chance!  May Heaven be with us still!"  Richard was too
+weak and weary to ask what he meant, and for the next few days Osmond
+watched him with the utmost care.  As for food, now that Richard
+could eat again, Osmond would not hear of his touching what was sent
+for him from the royal table, but always went down himself to procure
+food in the kitchen, where he said he had a friend among the cooks,
+who would, he thought, scarcely poison him intentionally.  When
+Richard was able to cross the room, he insisted on his always
+fastening the door with his dagger, and never opening to any summons
+but his own, not even Prince Carloman's.  Richard wondered, but he
+was obliged to obey; and he knew enough of the perils around him to
+perceive the reasonableness of Osmond's caution.
+
+Thus several days had passed, the King had returned, and Richard was
+so much recovered, that he had become very anxious to be allowed to
+go down stairs again, instead of remaining shut up there; but still
+Osmond would not consent, though Richard had done nothing all day but
+walk round the room, to show how strong he was.
+
+"Now, my Lord, guard the door--take care," said Osmond; "you have no
+loss to-day, for the King has brought home Herluin of Montreuil, whom
+you would be almost as loth to meet as the Fleming.  And tell your
+beads while I am gone, that the Saints may bring us out of our
+peril."
+
+Osmond was absent nearly half an hour, and, when he returned, brought
+on his shoulders a huge bundle of straw.  "What is this for?"
+exclaimed Richard.  "I wanted my supper, and you have brought straw!"
+
+"Here is your supper," said Osmond, throwing down the straw, and
+producing a bag with some bread and meat.  "What should you say, my
+Lord, if we should sup in Normandy to-morrow night?"
+
+"In Normandy!" cried Richard, springing up and clapping his hands.
+"In Normandy!  Oh, Osmond, did you say in Normandy?  Shall we, shall
+we really?  Oh, joy! joy!  Is Count Bernard come?  Will the King let
+us go?"
+
+"Hush! hush, sir!  It must be our own doing; it will all fail if you
+are not silent and prudent, and we shall be undone."
+
+"I will do anything to get home again!"
+
+"Eat first," said Osmond.
+
+"But what are you going to do?  I will not be as foolish as I was
+when you tried to get me safe out of Rollo's tower.  But I should
+like to wish Carloman farewell."
+
+"That must not be," said Osmond; "we should not have time to escape,
+if they did not still believe you very ill in bed."
+
+"I am sorry not to wish Carloman good-bye," repeated Richard; "but we
+shall see Fru Astrida again, and Sir Eric; and Alberic must come
+back!  Oh, do let us go!  O Normandy, dear Normandy!"
+
+Richard could hardly eat for excitement, while Osmond hastily made
+his arrangements, girding on his sword, and giving Richard his dagger
+to put into his belt.  He placed the remainder of the provisions in
+his wallet, threw a thick purple cloth mantle over the Duke, and then
+desired him to lie down on the straw which he had brought in.  "I
+shall hide you in it," he said, "and carry you through the hall, as
+if I was going to feed my horse."
+
+"Oh, they will never guess!" cried Richard, laughing.  "I will be
+quite still--I will make no noise--I will hold my breath."
+
+"Yes, mind you do not move hand or foot, or rustle the straw.  It is
+no play--it is life or death," said Osmond, as he disposed the straw
+round the little boy.  "There, can you breathe?"
+
+"Yes," said Richard's voice from the midst.  "Am I quite hidden?"
+
+"Entirely.  Now, remember, whatever happens, do not move.  May Heaven
+protect us!  Now, the Saints be with us!"
+
+Richard, from the interior of the bundle heard Osmond set open the
+door; then he felt himself raised from the ground; Osmond was
+carrying him along down the stairs, the ends of the straw crushing
+and sweeping against the wall.  The only way to the outer door was
+through the hall, and here was the danger.  Richard heard voices,
+steps, loud singing and laughter, as if feasting was going on; then
+some one said, "Tending your horse, Sieur de Centeville?"
+
+"Yes," Osmond made answer.  "You know, since we lost our grooms, the
+poor black would come off badly, did I not attend to him."
+
+Presently came Carloman's voice:  "O Osmond de Centeville! is Richard
+better?"
+
+"He is better, my Lord, I thank you, but hardly yet out of danger."
+
+"Oh, I wish he was well!  And when will you let me come to him,
+Osmond?  Indeed, I would sit quiet, and not disturb him."
+
+"It may not be yet, my Lord, though the Duke loves you well--he told
+me so but now."
+
+"Did he?  Oh, tell him I love him very much--better than any one
+here--and it is very dull without him.  Tell him so, Osmond."
+
+Richard could hardly help calling out to his dear little Carloman;
+but he remembered the peril of Osmond's eyes and the Queen's threat,
+and held his peace, with some vague notion that some day he would
+make Carloman King of France.  In the meantime, half stifled with the
+straw, he felt himself carried on, down the steps, across the court;
+and then he knew, from the darkness and the changed sound of Osmond's
+tread, that they were in the stable.  Osmond laid him carefully down,
+and whispered--"All right so far.  You can breathe?"
+
+"Not well.  Can't you let me out?"
+
+"Not yet--not for worlds.  Now tell me if I put you face downwards,
+for I cannot see."
+
+He laid the living heap of straw across the saddle, bound it on, then
+led out the horse, gazing round cautiously as he did so; but the
+whole of the people of the Castle were feasting, and there was no one
+to watch the gates.  Richard heard the hollow sound of the hoofs, as
+the drawbridge was crossed, and knew that he was free; but still
+Osmond held his arm over him, and would not let him move, for some
+distance.  Then, just as Richard felt as if he could endure the
+stifling of the straw, and his uncomfortable position, not a moment
+longer, Osmond stopped the horse, took him down, laid him on the
+grass, and released him.  He gazed around; they were in a little
+wood; evening twilight was just coming on, and the birds sang
+sweetly.
+
+"Free! free!--this is freedom!" cried Richard, leaping up in the
+delicious cool evening breeze; "the Queen and Lothaire, and that grim
+room, all far behind."
+
+"Not so far yet," said Osmond; "you must not call yourself safe till
+the Epte is between us and them.  Into the saddle, my Lord; we must
+ride for our lives."
+
+Osmond helped the Duke to mount, and sprang to the saddle behind him,
+set spurs to the horse, and rode on at a quick rate, though not at
+full speed, as he wished to spare the horse.  The twilight faded, the
+stars came out, and still he rode, his arm round the child, who, as
+night advanced, grew weary, and often sunk into a sort of half doze,
+conscious all the time of the trot of the horse.  But each step was
+taking him further from Queen Gerberge, and nearer to Normandy; and
+what recked he of weariness?  On--on; the stars grew pale again, and
+the first pink light of dawn showed in the eastern sky; the sun rose,
+mounted higher and higher, and the day grew hotter; the horse went
+more slowly, stumbled, and though Osmond halted and loosed the girth,
+he only mended his pace for a little while.
+
+Osmond looked grievously perplexed; but they had not gone much
+further before a party of merchants came in sight, winding their way
+with a long train of loaded mules, and stout men to guard them,
+across the plains, like an eastern caravan in the desert.  They gazed
+in surprise at the tall young Norman holding the child upon the worn-
+out war-horse.
+
+"Sir merchant," said Osmond to the first, "see you this steed?
+Better horse never was ridden; but he is sorely spent, and we must
+make speed.  Let me barter him with you for yonder stout palfrey.  He
+is worth twice as much, but I cannot stop to chaffer--ay or no at
+once."
+
+The merchant, seeing the value of Osmond's gallant black, accepted
+the offer; and Osmond removing his saddle, and placing Richard on his
+new steed, again mounted, and on they went through the country which
+Osmond's eye had marked with the sagacity men acquire by living in
+wild, unsettled places.  The great marshes were now far less
+dangerous than in the winter, and they safely crossed them.  There
+had, as yet, been no pursuit, and Osmond's only fear was for his
+little charge, who, not having recovered his full strength since his
+illness, began to suffer greatly from fatigue in the heat of that
+broiling summer day, and leant against Osmond patiently, but very
+wearily, without moving or looking up.  He scarcely revived when the
+sun went down, and a cool breeze sprang up, which much refreshed
+Osmond himself; and still more did it refresh the Squire to see, at
+length, winding through the green pastures, a blue river, on the
+opposite bank of which rose a high rocky mound, bearing a castle with
+many a turret and battlement.
+
+"The Epte! the Epte!  There is Normandy, sir!  Look up, and see your
+own dukedom."  "Normandy!" cried Richard, sitting upright.  "Oh, my
+own home!"  Still the Epte was wide and deep, and the peril was not
+yet ended.  Osmond looked anxiously, and rejoiced to see marks of
+cattle, as if it had been forded.  "We must try it," he said, and
+dismounting, he waded in, leading the horse, and firmly holding
+Richard in the saddle.  Deep they went; the water rose to Richard's
+feet, then to the horse's neck; then the horse was swimming, and
+Osmond too, still keeping his firm hold; then there was ground again,
+the force of the current was less, and they were gaining the bank.
+At that instant, however, they perceived two men aiming at them with
+cross-bows from the castle, and another standing on the bank above
+them, who called out, "Hold!  None pass the ford of Montemar without
+permission of the noble Dame Yolande."  "Ha! Bertrand, the Seneschal,
+is that you?" returned Osmond.  "Who calls me by my name?" replied
+the Seneschal.  "It is I, Osmond de Centeville.  Open your gates
+quickly, Sir Seneschal; for here is the Duke, sorely in need of rest
+and refreshment."
+
+"The Duke!" exclaimed Bertrand, hurrying down to the landing-place,
+and throwing off his cap.  "The Duke! the Duke!" rang out the shout
+from the men-at-arms on the battlements above and in an instant more
+Osmond had led the horse up from the water, and was exclaiming, "Look
+up, my Lord, look up!  You are in your own dukedom again, and this is
+Alberic's castle."
+
+"Welcome, indeed, most noble Lord Duke!  Blessings on the day!" cried
+the Seneschal.  "What joy for my Lady and my young Lord!"
+
+"He is sorely weary," said Osmond, looking anxiously at Richard, who,
+even at the welcome cries that showed so plainly that he was in his
+own Normandy, scarcely raised himself or spoke.  "He had been very
+sick ere I brought him away.  I doubt me they sought to poison him,
+and I vowed not to tarry at Laon another hour after he was fit to
+move.  But cheer up, my Lord; you are safe and free now, and here is
+the good Dame de Montemar to tend you, far better than a rude Squire
+like me."
+
+"Alas, no!" said the Seneschal; "our Dame is gone with young Alberic
+on a pilgrimage to Jumieges to pray for the Duke's safety.  What joy
+for them to know that their prayers have been granted!"
+
+Osmond, however, could scarcely rejoice, so alarmed was he at the
+extreme weariness and exhaustion of his charge, who, when they
+brought him into the Castle hall, hardly spoke or looked, and could
+not eat.  They carried him up to Alberic's bed, where he tossed about
+restlessly, too tired to sleep.
+
+"Alas! alas!" said Osmond, "I have been too hasty.  I have but saved
+him from the Franks to be his death by my own imprudence."
+
+"Hush!  Sieur de Centeville," said the Seneschal's wife, coming into
+the room.  "To talk in that manner is the way to be his death,
+indeed.  Leave the child to me--he is only over-weary."
+
+Osmond was sure his Duke was among friends, and would have been glad
+to trust him to a woman; but Richard had but one instinct left in all
+his weakness and exhaustion--to cling close to Osmond, as if he felt
+him his only friend and protector; for he was, as yet, too much worn
+out to understand that he was in Normandy and safe.  For two or three
+hours, therefore, Osmond and the Seneschal's wife watched on each
+side of his bed, soothing his restlessness, until at length he became
+quiet, and at last dropped sound asleep.
+
+The sun was high in the heavens when Richard awoke.  He turned on his
+straw-filled crib, and looked up.  It was not the tapestried walls of
+his chamber at Laon that met his opening eyes, but the rugged stone
+and tall loop-hole window of a turret chamber.  Osmond de Centeville
+lay on the floor by his side, in the sound sleep of one overcome by
+long watching and weariness.  And what more did Richard see?
+
+It was the bright face and sparkling eyes of Alberic de Montemar, who
+was leaning against the foot of his bed, gazing earnestly, as he
+watched for his waking.  There was a cry--"Alberic! Alberic!"  "My
+Lord! my Lord!" Richard sat up and held out both arms, and Alberic
+flung himself into them.  They hugged each other, and uttered broken
+exclamations and screams of joy, enough to have awakened any sleeper
+but one so wearied out as Osmond.
+
+"And is it true?  Oh, am I really in Normandy again?" cried Richard.
+
+"Yes, yes!--oh, yes, my Lord!  You are at Montemar.  Everything here
+is yours.  The bar-tailed hawk is quite well, and my mother will be
+here this evening; she let me ride on the instant we heard the news."
+
+"We rode long and late, and I was very weary," said Richard! "but I
+don't care, now we are at home.  But I can hardly believe it!  Oh,
+Alberic, it has been very dreary!"
+
+"See here, my Lord!" said Alberic, standing by the window.  "Look
+here, and you will know you are at home again!"
+
+Richard bounded to the window, and what a sight met his eyes! The
+Castle court was thronged with men-at-arms and horses, the morning
+sun sparkling on many a burnished hauberk and tall conical helmet,
+and above them waved many a banner and pennon that Richard knew full
+well.  "There! there!" he shouted aloud with glee.  "Oh, there is the
+horse-shoe of Ferrieres! and there the chequers of Warenne!  Oh, and
+best of all, there is--there is our own red pennon of Centeville!  O
+Alberic!  Alberic! is Sir Eric here?  I must go down to him!"
+
+"Bertrand sent out notice to them all, as soon as you came, to come
+and guard our Castle," said Alberic, "lest the Franks should pursue
+you; but you are safe now--safe as Norman spears can make you--thanks
+be to God!"
+
+"Yes, thanks to God!" said Richard, crossing himself and kneeling
+reverently for some minutes, while he repeated his Latin prayer;
+then, rising and looking at Alberic, he said, "I must thank Him,
+indeed, for he has saved Osmond and me from the cruel King and Queen,
+and I must try to be a less hasty and overbearing boy than I was when
+I went away; for I vowed that so I would be, if ever I came back.
+Poor Osmond, how soundly he sleeps! Come, Alberic, show me the way to
+Sir Eric!"
+
+And, holding Alberic's hand, Richard left the room, and descended the
+stairs to the Castle hall.  Many of the Norman knights and barons, in
+full armour, were gathered there; but Richard looked only for one.
+He knew Sir Eric's grizzled hair, and blue inlaid armour, though his
+back was towards him, and in a moment, before his entrance had been
+perceived, he sprang towards him, and, with outstretched arms,
+exclaimed:  "Sir Eric--dear Sir Eric, here I am! Osmond is safe!  And
+is Fru Astrida well?"
+
+The old Baron turned.  "My child!" he exclaimed, and clasped him in
+his mailed arms, while the tears flowed down his rugged cheeks.
+"Blessed be God that you are safe, and that my son has done his
+duty!"
+
+"And is Fru Astrida well?"
+
+"Yes, right well, since she heard of your safety.  But look round, my
+Lord; it befits not a Duke to be clinging thus round an old man's
+neck.  See how many of your true vassals be here, to guard you from
+the villain Franks."
+
+Richard stood up, and held out his hand, bowing courteously and
+acknowledging the greetings of each bold baron, with a grace and
+readiness he certainly had not when he left Normandy.  He was taller
+too; and though still pale, and not dressed with much care (since he
+had hurried on his clothes with no help but Alberic's)--though his
+hair was rough and disordered, and the scar of the burn had not yet
+faded from his check--yet still, with his bright blue eyes, glad
+face, and upright form, he was a princely, promising boy, and the
+Norman knights looked at him with pride and joy, more especially
+when, unprompted, he said:  "I thank you, gallant knights, for coming
+to guard me.  I do not fear the whole French host now I am among my
+own true Normans."
+
+Sir Eric led him to the door of the hall to the top of the steps,
+that the men-at-arms might see him; and then such a shout rang out of
+"Long live Duke Richard!"--"Blessings on the little Duke!"--that it
+echoed and came back again from the hills around--it pealed from the
+old tower--it roused Osmond from his sleep--and, if anything more had
+been wanting to do so, it made Richard feel that he was indeed in a
+land where every heart glowed with loyal love for him.
+
+Before the shout had died away, a bugle-horn was heard winding before
+the gate; and Sir Eric, saying, "It is the Count of Harcourt's note,"
+sent Bertrand to open the gates in haste, while Alberic followed, as
+Lord of the Castle, to receive the Count.
+
+The old Count rode into the court, and to the foot of the steps,
+where he dismounted, Alberic holding his stirrup.  He had not taken
+many steps upwards before Richard came voluntarily to meet him (which
+he had never done before), held out his hand, and said, "Welcome,
+Count Bernard, welcome.  Thank you for coming to guard me.  I am very
+glad to see you once more."
+
+"Ah, my young Lord," said Bernard, "I am right glad to see you out of
+the clutches of the Franks! You know friend from foe now, methinks!"
+
+"Yes, indeed I do, Count Bernard.  I know you meant kindly by me, and
+that I ought to have thanked you, and not been angry, when you
+reproved me.  Wait one moment, Sir Count; there is one thing that I
+promised myself to say if ever I came safe to my own dear home.
+Walter--Maurice--Jeannot--all you of my household, and of Sir Eric's-
+-I know, before I went away, I was often no good Lord to you; I was
+passionate, and proud, and overbearing; but God has punished me for
+it, when I was far away among my enemies, and sick and lonely.  I am
+very sorry for it, and I hope you will pardon me; for I will strive,
+and I hope God will help me, never to be proud and passionate again."
+
+"There, Sir Eric," said Bernard, "you hear what the boy says.  If he
+speaks it out so bold and free, without bidding, and if he holds to
+what he says, I doubt it not that he shall not grieve for his journey
+to France, and that we shall see him, in all things, such a Prince as
+his father of blessed memory."
+
+"You must thank Osmond for me," said Richard, as Osmond came down,
+awakened at length.  "It is Osmond who has helped me to bear my
+troubles; and as to saving me, why he flew away with me even like an
+old eagle with its eaglet.  I say, Osmond, you must ever after this
+wear a pair of wings on shield and pennon, to show how well we
+managed our flight." {15}
+
+"As you will, my Lord," said Osmond, half asleep; "but 'twas a good
+long flight at a stretch, and I trust never to have to fly before
+your foes or mine again."
+
+What a glad summer's day was that! Even the three hours spent in
+council did but renew the relish with which Richard visited Alberic's
+treasures, told his adventures, and showed the accomplishments he had
+learnt at Laon.  The evening was more joyous still; for the Castle
+gates were opened, first to receive Dame Yolande Montemar, and not
+above a quarter of an hour afterwards, the drawbridge was lowered to
+admit the followers of Centeville; and in front of them appeared Fru
+Astrida's own high cap.  Richard made but one bound into her arms,
+and was clasped to her breast; then held off at arm's-length, that
+she might see how much he was grown, and pity his scar; then hugged
+closer than ever:  but, taking another look, she declared that Osmond
+left his hair like King Harald Horrid-locks; {16} and, drawing an
+ivory comb from her pouch, began to pull out the thick tangles,
+hurting him to a degree that would once have made him rebel, but now
+he only fondled her the more.
+
+As to Osmond, when he knelt before her, she blessed him, and sobbed
+over him, and blamed him for over-tiring her darling, all in one; and
+assuredly, when night closed in and Richard had, as of old, told his
+beads beside her knee, the happiest boy in Normandy was its little
+Duke.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+
+Montemar was too near the frontier to be a safe abode for the little
+Duke, and his uncle, Count Hubert of Senlis, agreed with Bernard the
+Dane that he would be more secure beyond the limits of his own duchy,
+which was likely soon to be the scene of war; and, sorely against his
+will, he was sent in secret, under a strong escort, first to the
+Castle of Coucy, and afterwards to Senlis.
+
+His consolation was, that he was not again separated from his
+friends; Alberic, Sir Eric, and even Fru Astrida, accompanied him, as
+well as his constant follower, Osmond.  Indeed, the Baron would
+hardly bear that he should be out of his sight; and he was still so
+carefully watched, that it was almost like a captivity.  Never, even
+in the summer days, was he allowed to go beyond the Castle walls; and
+his guardians would fain have had it supposed that the Castle did not
+contain any such guest.
+
+Osmond did not give him so much of his company as usual, but was
+always at work in the armourer's forge--a low, vaulted chamber,
+opening into the Castle court.  Richard and Alberic were very curious
+to know what he did there; but he fastened the door with an iron bar,
+and they were forced to content themselves with listening to the
+strokes of the hammer, keeping time to the voice that sang out, loud
+and cheerily, the song of "Sigurd's sword, and the maiden sleeping
+within the ring of flame."  Fru Astrida said Osmond was quite right--
+no good weapon-smith ever toiled with open doors; and when the boys
+asked him questions as to his work, he only smiled, and said that
+they would see what it was when the call to arms should come.
+
+They thought it near at hand, for tidings came that Louis had
+assembled his army, and marched into Normandy to recover the person
+of the young Duke, and to seize the country.  No summons, however,
+arrived, but a message came instead, that Rouen had been surrendered
+into the bands of the King.  Richard shed indignant tears.  "My
+father's Castle!  My own city in the hands of the foe!  Bernard is a
+traitor then!  None shall hinder me from so calling him.  Why did we
+trust him?"
+
+"Never fear, Lord Duke," said Osmond.  "When you come to the years of
+Knighthood, your own sword shall right you, in spite of all the false
+Danes, and falser Franks, in the land."
+
+"What! you too, son Osmond?  I deemed you carried a cooler brain than
+to miscall one who was true to Rollo's race before you or yon varlet
+were born!" said the old Baron.
+
+"He has yielded my dukedom!  It is mis-calling to say he is aught but
+a traitor!" cried Richard.  "Vile, treacherous, favour-seeking--"
+
+"Peace, peace, my Lord," said the Baron.  "Bernard has more in that
+wary head of his than your young wits, or my old ones, can unwind.
+What he is doing I may not guess, but I gage my life his heart is
+right."
+
+Richard was silent, remembering he had been once unjust, but he
+grieved heartily when he thought of the French in Rollo's tower, and
+it was further reported that the King was about to share Normandy
+among his French vassals.  A fresh outcry broke out in the little
+garrison of Senlis, but Sir Eric still persisted in his trust in his
+friend Bernard, even when he heard that Centeville was marked out as
+the prey of the fat French Count who had served for a hostage at
+Rouen.
+
+"What say you now, my Lord?" said he, after a conference with a
+messenger at the gate.  "The Black Raven has spread its wings.  Fifty
+keels are in the Seine, and Harald Blue-tooth's Long Serpent at the
+head of them."
+
+"The King of Denmark! Come to my aid!"
+
+"Ay, that he is!  Come at Bernard's secret call, to right you, and
+put you on your father's seat.  Now call honest Harcourt a traitor,
+because he gave not up your fair dukedom to the flame and sword!"
+
+"No traitor to me," said Richard, pausing.  "No, verily, but what
+more would you say?"
+
+"I think, when I come to my dukedom, I will not be so politic," said
+Richard.  "I will be an open friend or an open foe."
+
+"The boy grows too sharp for us," said Sir Eric, smiling, "but it was
+spoken like his father."
+
+"He grows more like his blessed father each day," said Fru Astrida.
+
+"But the Danes, father, the Danes!" said Osmond.  "Blows will be
+passing now.  I may join the host and win my spurs?"
+
+"With all my heart," returned the Baron, "so my Lord here gives you
+leave:  would that I could leave him and go with you.  It would do my
+very spirit good but to set foot in a Northern keel once more."
+
+"I would fain see what these men of the North are," said Osmond.
+
+"Oh! they are only Danes, not Norsemen, and there are no Vikings,
+such as once were when Ragnar laid waste--"
+
+"Son, son, what talk is this for the child's ears?" broke in Fru
+Astrida, "are these words for a Christian Baron?"
+
+"Your pardon, mother," said the grey warrior, in all humility, "but
+my blood thrills to hear of a Northern fleet at hand, and to think of
+Osmond drawing sword under a Sea-King."
+
+The next morning, Osmond's steed was led to the door, and such men-
+at-arms as could be spared from the garrison of Senlis were drawn up
+in readiness to accompany him.  The boys stood on the steps, wishing
+they were old enough to be warriors, and wondering what had become of
+him, until at length the sound of an opening door startled them, and
+there, in the low archway of the smithy, the red furnace glowing
+behind him, stood Osmond, clad in bright steel, the links of his
+hauberk reflecting the light, and on his helmet a pair of golden
+wings, while the same device adorned his long pointed kite-shaped
+shield.
+
+"Your wings! our wings!" cried Richard, "the bearing of Centeville!"
+
+"May they fly after the foe, not before him," said Sir Eric.  "Speed
+thee well, my son--let not our Danish cousins say we learn Frank
+graces instead of Northern blows."
+
+With such farewells, Osmond quitted Senlis, while the two boys
+hastened to the battlements to watch him as long as he remained in
+view.
+
+The highest tower became their principal resort, and their eyes were
+constantly on the heath where he had disappeared; but days passed,
+and they grew weary of the watch, and betook themselves to games in
+the Castle court.
+
+One day, Alberic, in the character of a Dragon, was lying on his
+back, panting hard so as to be supposed to cast out volumes of flame
+and smoke at Richard, the Knight, who with a stick for a lance, and a
+wooden sword, was waging fierce war; when suddenly the Dragon paused,
+sat up, and pointed towards the warder on the tower.  His horn was at
+his lips, and in another moment, the blast rang out through the
+Castle.
+
+With a loud shout, both boys rushed headlong up the turret stairs,
+and came to the top so breathless, that they could not even ask the
+warder what he saw.  He pointed, and the keen-eyed Alberic exclaimed,
+"I see!  Look, my Lord, a speck there on the heath!"
+
+"I do not see! where, oh where?"
+
+"He is behind the hillock now, but--oh, there again!  How fast he
+comes!"
+
+"It is like the flight of a bird," said Richard, "fast, fast--"
+
+"If only it be not flight in earnest," said Alberic, a little
+anxiously, looking into the warder's face, for he was a borderer, and
+tales of terror of the inroad of the Vicomte du Contentin were rife
+on the marches of the Epte.
+
+"No, young Sir," said the warder, "no fear of that.  I know how men
+ride when they flee from the battle."
+
+"No, indeed, there is no discomfiture in the pace of that steed,"
+said Sir Eric, who had by this time joined them.
+
+"I see him clearer!  I see the horse," cried Richard, dancing with
+eagerness, so that Sir Eric caught hold of him, exclaiming, "You will
+be over the battlements! hold still! better hear of a battle lost
+than that!"
+
+"He bears somewhat in his hand," said Alberic.
+
+"A banner or pennon," said the warder; "methinks he rides like the
+young Baron."
+
+"He does!  My brave boy!  He has done good service," exclaimed Sir
+Eric, as the figure became more developed.  "The Danes have seen how
+we train our young men."
+
+"His wings bring good tidings," said Richard.  "Let me go, Sir Eric,
+I must tell Fru Astrida."
+
+The drawbridge was lowered, the portcullis raised, and as all the
+dwellers in the Castle stood gathered in the court, in rode the
+warrior with the winged helm, bearing in his hand a drooping banner;
+lowering it as he entered, it unfolded, and displayed, trailing on
+the ground at the feet of the little Duke of Normandy, the golden
+lilies of France.
+
+A shout of amazement arose, and all gathered round him, asking
+hurried questions.  "A great victory--the King a prisoner--Montreuil
+slain!"
+
+Richard would not be denied holding his hand, and leading him to the
+hall, and there, sitting around him, they heard his tidings.  His
+father's first question was, what he thought of their kinsmen, the
+Danes?
+
+"Rude comrades, father, I must own," said Osmond, smiling, and
+shaking his head.  "I could not pledge them in a skull-goblet--set in
+gold though it were."
+
+"None the worse warriors," said Sir Eric.  "Ay, ay, and you were
+dainty, and brooked not the hearty old fashion of tearing the whole
+sheep to pieces.  You must needs cut your portion with the fine
+French knife at your girdle."
+
+Osmond could not see that a man was braver for being a savage, but he
+held his peace; and Richard impatiently begged to hear how the battle
+had gone, and where it had been fought.
+
+"On the bank of the Dive," said Osmond.  "Ah, father, you might well
+call old Harcourt wary--his name might better have been Fox-heart
+than Bear-heart!  He had sent to the Franks a message of distress,
+that the Danes were on him in full force, and to pray them to come to
+his aid."
+
+"I trust there was no treachery.  No foul dealing shall be wrought in
+my name," exclaimed Richard, with such dignity of tone and manner, as
+made all feel he was indeed their Duke, and forget his tender years.
+
+"No, or should I tell the tale with joy like this?" said Osmond.
+"Bernard's view was to bring the Kings together, and let Louis see
+you had friends to maintain your right.  He sought but to avoid
+bloodshed."
+
+"And how chanced it?"
+
+"The Danes were encamped on the Dive, and so soon as the French came
+in sight, Blue-tooth sent a messenger to Louis, to summon him to quit
+Neustria, and leave it to you, its lawful owner.  Thereupon, Louis,
+hoping to win him over with wily words, invited him to hold a
+personal conference."
+
+"Where were you, Osmond?"
+
+"Where I had scarce patience to be.  Bernard had gathered all of us
+honest Normans together, and arranged us beneath that standard of the
+King, as if to repel his Danish inroad.  Oh, he was, in all seeming,
+hand-and-glove with Louis, guiding him by his counsel, and, verily,
+seeming his friend and best adviser!  But in one thing he could not
+prevail.  That ungrateful recreant, Herluin of Montreuil, came with
+the King, hoping, it seems, to get his share of our spoils; and when
+Bernard advised the King to send him home, since no true Norman could
+bear the sight of him, the hot-headed Franks vowed no Norman should
+hinder them from bringing whom they chose.  So a tent was set up by
+the riverside, wherein the two Kings, with Bernard, Alan of Brittany,
+and Count Hugh, held their meeting.  We all stood without, and the
+two hosts began to mingle together, we Normans making acquaintance
+with the Danes.  There was a red-haired, wild-looking fellow, who
+told me he had been with Anlaff in England, and spoke much of the
+doings of Hako in Norway; when, suddenly, he pointed to a Knight who
+was near, speaking to a Cotentinois, and asked me his name.  My blood
+boiled as I answered, for it was Montreuil himself!  'The cause of
+your Duke's death!' said the Dane.  'Ha, ye Normans are fallen sons
+of Odin, to see him yet live!'"
+
+"You said, I trust, my son, that we follow not the laws of Odin?"
+said Fru Astrida.
+
+"I had no space for a word, grandmother; the Danes took the vengeance
+on themselves.  In one moment they rushed on Herluin with their axes,
+and the unhappy man was dead.  All was tumult; every one struck
+without knowing at whom, or for what.  Some shouted, 'Thor Hulfe!'
+some 'Dieu aide!' others 'Montjoie St. Denis!'  Northern blood
+against French, that was all our guide.  I found myself at the foot
+of this standard, and had a hard combat for it; but I bore it away at
+last."
+
+"And the Kings?"
+
+"They hurried out of the tent, it seems, to rejoin their men.  Louis
+mounted, but you know of old, my Lord, he is but an indifferent
+horseman, and the beast carried him into the midst of the Danes,
+where King Harald caught his bridle, and delivered him to four
+Knights to keep.  Whether he dealt secretly with them, or whether
+they, as they declared, lost sight of him whilst plundering his tent,
+I cannot say; but when Harald demanded him of them, he was gone."
+
+"Gone! is this what you call having the King prisoner?"
+
+"You shall hear.  He rode four leagues, and met one of the baser sort
+of Rouennais, whom he bribed to hide him in the Isle of Willows.
+However, Bernard made close inquiries, found the fellow had been seen
+in speech with a French horseman, pounced on his wife and children,
+and threatened they should die if he did not disclose the secret.  So
+the King was forced to come out of his hiding-place, and is now fast
+guarded in Rollo's tower--a Dane, with a battle-axe on his shoulder,
+keeping guard at every turn of the stairs."
+
+"Ha! ha!" cried Richard.  "I wonder how he likes it.  I wonder if he
+remembers holding me up to the window, and vowing that he meant me
+only good!"
+
+"When you believed him, my Lord," said Osmond, slyly.
+
+"I was a little boy then," said Richard, proudly.  "Why, the very
+walls must remind him of his oath, and how Count Bernard said, as he
+dealt with me, so might Heaven deal with him."
+
+"Remember it, my child--beware of broken vows," said Father Lucas;
+"but remember it not in triumph over a fallen foe.  It were better
+that all came at once to the chapel, to bestow their thanksgivings
+where alone they are due."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+
+After nearly a year's captivity, the King engaged to pay a ransom,
+and, until the terms could be arranged, his two sons were to be
+placed as hostages in the hands of the Normans, whilst he returned to
+his own domains.  The Princes were to be sent to Bayeux; whither
+Richard had returned, under the charge of the Centevilles, and was
+now allowed to ride and walk abroad freely, provided he was
+accompanied by a guard.
+
+"I shall rejoice to have Carloman, and make him happy," said Richard;
+"but I wish Lothaire were not coming."
+
+"Perhaps," said good Father Lucas, "he comes that you may have a
+first trial in your father's last lesson, and Abbot Martin's, and
+return good for evil."
+
+The Duke's cheek flushed, and he made no answer.
+
+He and Alberic betook themselves to the watch-tower, and, by and by,
+saw a cavalcade approaching, with a curtained vehicle in the midst,
+slung between two horses.  "That cannot be the Princes," said
+Alberic; "that must surely be some sick lady."
+
+"I only hope it is not the Queen," exclaimed Richard, in dismay.
+"But no; Lothaire is such a coward, no doubt he was afraid to ride,
+and she would not trust her darling without shutting him up like a
+demoiselle.  But come down, Alberic; I will say nothing unkind of
+Lothaire, if I can help it."
+
+Richard met the Princes in the court, his sunny hair uncovered, and
+bowing with such becoming courtesy, that Fru Astrida pressed her
+son's arm, and bade him say if their little Duke was not the fairest
+and noblest child in Christendom.
+
+With black looks, Lothaire stepped from the litter, took no heed of
+the little Duke, but, roughly calling his attendant, Charlot, to
+follow him, he marched into the hall, vouchsafing neither word nor
+look to any as he passed, threw himself into the highest seat, and
+ordered Charlot to bring him some wine.
+
+Meanwhile, Richard, looking into the litter, saw Carloman crouching
+in a corner, sobbing with fright.
+
+"Carloman!--dear Carloman!--do not cry.  Come out!  It is I--your own
+Richard!  Will you not let me welcome you?"
+
+Carloman looked, caught at the outstretched hand, and clung to his
+neck.
+
+"Oh, Richard, send us back!  Do not let the savage Danes kill us!"
+
+"No one will hurt you.  There are no Danes here.  You are my guest,
+my friend, my brother.  Look up! here is my own Fru Astrida."
+
+"But my mother said the Northmen would kill us for keeping you
+captive.  She wept and raved, and the cruel men dragged us away by
+force.  Oh, let us go back!"
+
+"I cannot do that," said Richard; "for you are the King of Denmark's
+captives, not mine; but I will love you, and you shall have all that
+is mine, if you will only not cry, dear Carloman.  Oh, Fru Astrida,
+what shall I do?  You comfort him--" as the poor boy clung sobbing to
+him.
+
+Fru Astrida advanced to take his hand, speaking in a soothing voice,
+but he shrank and started with a fresh cry of terror--her tall
+figure, high cap, and wrinkled face, were to him witch-like, and as
+she knew no French, he understood not her kind words.  However, he
+let Richard lead him into the hall, where Lothaire sat moodily in the
+chair, with one leg tucked under him, and his finger in his mouth.
+
+"I say, Sir Duke," said he, "is there nothing to be had in this old
+den of yours?  Not a drop of Bordeaux?"
+
+Richard tried to repress his anger at this very uncivil way of
+speaking, and answered, that he thought there was none, but there was
+plenty of Norman cider.
+
+"As if I would taste your mean peasant drinks! I bade them bring my
+supper--why does it not come?"
+
+"Because you are not master here," trembled on Richard's lips, but he
+forced it back, and answered that it would soon be ready, and
+Carloman looked imploringly at his brother, and said, "Do not make
+them angry, Lothaire."
+
+"What, crying still, foolish child?" said Lothaire.  "Do you not know
+that if they dare to cross us, my father will treat them as they
+deserve?  Bring supper, I say, and let me have a pasty of ortolans."
+
+"There are none--they are not in season," said Richard.
+
+"Do you mean to give me nothing I like?  I tell you it shall be the
+worse for you."
+
+"There is a pullet roasting," began Richard.
+
+"I tell you, I do not care for pullets--I will have ortolans."
+
+"If I do not take order with that boy, my name is not Eric," muttered
+the Baron.
+
+"What must he not have made our poor child suffer!" returned Fru
+Astrida, "but the little one moves my heart.  How small and weakly he
+is, but it is worth anything to see our little Duke so tender to
+him."
+
+"He is too brave not to be gentle," said Osmond; and, indeed, the
+high-spirited, impetuous boy was as soft and kind as a maiden, with
+that feeble, timid child.  He coaxed him to eat, consoled him, and,
+instead of laughing at his fears, kept between him and the great
+bloodhound Hardigras, and drove it off when it came too near.
+
+"Take that dog away," said Lothaire, imperiously.  No one moved to
+obey him, and the dog, in seeking for scraps, again came towards him.
+
+"Take it away," he repeated, and struck it with his foot.  The dog
+growled, and Richard started up in indignation.
+
+"Prince Lothaire," he said, "I care not what else you do, but my dogs
+and my people you shall not maltreat."
+
+"I tell you I am Prince!  I do what I will!  Ha! who laughs there?"
+cried the passionate boy, stamping on the floor.
+
+"It is not so easy for French Princes to scourge free-born Normans
+here," said the rough voice of Walter the huntsman:  "there is a
+reckoning for the stripe my Lord Duke bore for me."
+
+"Hush, hush, Walter," began Richard; but Lothaire had caught up a
+footstool, and was aiming it at the huntsman, when his arm was
+caught.
+
+Osmond, who knew him well enough to be prepared for such outbreaks,
+held him fast by both hands, in spite of his passionate screams and
+struggles, which were like those of one frantic.
+
+Sir Eric, meanwhile, thundered forth in his Norman patois, "I would
+have you to know, young Sir, Prince though you be, you are our
+prisoner, and shall taste of a dungeon, and bread and water, unless
+you behave yourself."
+
+Either Lothaire did not hear, or did not believe, and fought more
+furiously in Osmond's arms, but he had little chance with the
+stalwart young warrior, and, in spite of Richard's remonstrances, he
+was carried from the hall, roaring and kicking, and locked up alone
+in an empty room.
+
+"Let him alone for the present," said Sir Eric, putting the Duke
+aside, "when he knows his master, we shall have peace."
+
+Here Richard had to turn, to reassure Carloman, who had taken refuge
+in a dark corner, and there shook like an aspen leaf, crying
+bitterly, and starting with fright, when Richard touched him.
+
+"Oh, do not put me in the dungeon.  I cannot bear the dark."
+
+Richard again tried to comfort him, but he did not seem to hear or
+heed.  "Oh! they said you would beat and hurt us for what we did to
+you! but, indeed, it was not I that burnt your cheek!"
+
+"We would not hurt you for worlds, dear Carloman; Lothaire is not in
+the dungeon--he is only shut up till he is good."
+
+"It was Lothaire that did it," repeated Carloman, "and, indeed, you
+must not be angry with me, for my mother was so cross with me for not
+having stopped Osmond when I met him with the bundle of straw, that
+she gave me a blow, that knocked me down.  And were you really there,
+Richard?"
+
+Richard told his story, and was glad to find Carloman could smile at
+it; and then Fru Astrida advised him to take his little friend to
+bed.  Carloman would not lie down without still holding Richard's
+hand, and the little Duke spared no pains to set him at rest, knowing
+what it was to be a desolate captive far from home.
+
+"I thought you would be good to me," said Carloman.  "As to Lothaire,
+it serves him right, that you should use him as he used you."
+
+"Oh, no, Carloman; if I had a brother I would never speak so of him."
+
+"But Lothaire is so unkind."
+
+"Ah! but we must be kind to those who are unkind to us."
+
+The child rose on his elbow, and looked into Richard's face.  "No one
+ever told me so before."
+
+"Oh, Carloman, not Brother Hilary?"
+
+"I never heed Brother Hilary--he is so lengthy, and wearisome;
+besides, no one is ever kind to those that hate them."
+
+"My father was," said Richard.
+
+"And they killed him!" said Carloman.
+
+"Yes," said Richard, crossing himself, "but he is gone to be in
+peace."
+
+"I wonder if it is happier there, than here," said Carloman.  "I am
+not happy.  But tell me why should we be good to those that hate us?"
+
+"Because the holy Saints were--and look at the Crucifix, Carloman.
+That was for them that hated Him.  And, don't you know what our Pater
+Noster says?"
+
+Poor little Carloman could only repeat the Lord's Prayer in Latin--he
+had not the least notion of its meaning--in which Richard had been
+carefully instructed by Father Lucas.  He began to explain it, but
+before many words had passed his lips, little Carloman was asleep.
+
+The Duke crept softly away to beg to be allowed to go to Lothaire; he
+entered the room, already dark, with a pine torch in his hand, that
+so flickered in the wind, that he could at first see nothing, but
+presently beheld a dark lump on the floor.
+
+"Prince Lothaire," he said, "here is--"
+
+Lothaire cut him short.  "Get away," he said.  "If it is your turn
+now, it will be mine by and by.  I wish my mother had kept her word,
+and put your eyes out."
+
+Richard's temper did not serve for such a reply.  "It is a foul shame
+of you to speak so, when I only came out of kindness to you--so I
+shall leave you here all night, and not ask Sir Eric to let you out."
+
+And he swung back the heavy door with a resounding clang.  But his
+heart smote him when he told his beads, and remembered what he had
+said to Carloman.  He knew he could not sleep in his warm bed when
+Lothaire was in that cold gusty room.  To be sure, Sir Eric said it
+would do him good, but Sir Eric little knew how tender the French
+Princes were.
+
+So Richard crept down in the dark, slid back the bolt, and called,
+"Prince, Prince, I am sorry I was angry.  Come out, and let us try to
+be friends."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Lothaire.
+
+"Come out of the cold and dark.  Here am I.  I will show you the way.
+Where is your hand?  Oh, how cold it is.  Let me lead you down to the
+hall fire."
+
+Lothaire was subdued by fright, cold, and darkness, and quietly
+allowed Richard to lead him down.  Round the fire, at the lower end
+of the hall, snored half-a-dozen men-at-arms; at the upper hearth
+there was only Hardigras, who raised his head as the boys came in.
+Richard's whisper and soft pat quieted him instantly, and the two
+little Princes sat on the hearth together, Lothaire surprised, but
+sullen.  Richard stirred the embers, so as to bring out more heat,
+then spoke:  "Prince, will you let us be friends?"
+
+"I must, if I am in your power."
+
+"I wish you would be my guest and comrade."
+
+"Well, I will; I can't help it."
+
+Richard thought his advances might have been more graciously met,
+and, having little encouragement to say more, took Lothaire to bed,
+as soon as he was warm.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+
+As the Baron had said, there was more peace now that Lothaire had
+learnt to know that he must submit, and that no one cared for his
+threats of his father's or his mother's vengeance.  He was very sulky
+and disagreeable, and severely tried Richard's forbearance; but there
+were no fresh outbursts, and, on the whole, from one week to another,
+there might be said to be an improvement.  He could not always hold
+aloof from one so good-natured and good-humoured as the little Duke;
+and the fact of being kept in order could not but have some
+beneficial effect on him, after such spoiling as his had been at
+home.
+
+Indeed, Osmond was once heard to say, it was a pity the boy was not
+to be a hostage for life; to which Sir Eric replied, "So long as we
+have not the training of him."
+
+Little Carloman, meanwhile, recovered from his fears of all the
+inmates of the Castle excepting Hardigras, at whose approach he
+always shrank and trembled.
+
+He renewed his friendship with Osmond, no longer started at the
+entrance of Sir Eric, laughed at Alberic's merry ways, and liked to
+sit on Fru Astrida's lap, and hear her sing, though he understood not
+one word; but his especial love was still for his first friend, Duke
+Richard.  Hand-in-hand they went about together, Richard sometimes
+lifting him up the steep steps, and, out of consideration for him,
+refraining from rough play; and Richard led him to join with him in
+those lessons that Father Lucas gave the children of the Castle,
+every Friday and Sunday evening in the Chapel.  The good Priest stood
+on the Altar steps, with the children in a half circle round him--the
+son and daughter of the armourer, the huntsman's little son, the
+young Baron de Montemar, the Duke of Normandy, and the Prince of
+France, all were equal there--and together they learnt, as he
+explained to them the things most needful to believe; and thus
+Carloman left off wondering why Richard thought it right to be good
+to his enemies; and though at first he had known less than even the
+little leather-coated huntsman, he seemed to take the holy lessons in
+faster than any of them--yes, and act on them, too.  His feeble
+health seemed to make him enter into their comfort and meaning more
+than even Richard; and Alberic and Father Lucas soon told Fru Astrida
+that it was a saintly-minded child.
+
+Indeed, Carloman was more disposed to thoughtfulness, because he was
+incapable of joining in the sports of the other boys.  A race round
+the court was beyond his strength, the fresh wind on the battlements
+made him shiver and cower, and loud shouting play was dreadful to
+him.  In old times, he used to cry when Lothaire told him he must
+have his hair cut, and be a priest; now, he only said quietly, he
+should like it very much, if he could be good enough.
+
+Fru Astrida sighed and shook her head, and feared the poor child
+would never grow up to be anything on this earth.  Great as had been
+the difference at first between him and Richard, it was now far
+greater.  Richard was an unusually strong boy for ten years old,
+upright and broad-chested, and growing very fast; while Carloman
+seemed to dwindle, stooped forward from weakness, had thin pinched
+features, and sallow cheeks, looking like a plant kept in the dark.
+
+The old Baron said that hardy, healthy habits would restore the puny
+children; and Lothaire improved in health, and therewith in temper;
+but his little brother had not strength enough to bear the seasoning.
+He pined and drooped more each day; and as the autumn came on, and
+the wind was chilly, he grew worse, and was scarcely ever off the lap
+of the kind Lady Astrida.  It was not a settled sickness, but he grew
+weaker, and wasted away.  They made up a little couch for him by the
+fire, with the high settle between it and the door, to keep off the
+draughts; and there he used patiently to lie, hour after hour,
+speaking feebly, or smiling and seeming pleased, when any one of
+those he loved approached.  He liked Father Lucas to come and say
+prayers with him; and he never failed to have a glad look, when his
+dear little Duke came to talk to him, in his cheerful voice, about
+his rides and his hunting and hawking adventures.  Richard's sick
+guest took up much of his thoughts, and he never willingly spent many
+hours at a distance from him, softening his step and lowering his
+voice, as he entered the hall, lest Carloman should be asleep.
+
+"Richard, is it you?" said the little boy, as the young figure came
+round the settle in the darkening twilight.
+
+"Yes.  How do you feel now, Carloman; are you better?"
+
+"No better, thanks, dear Richard;" and the little wasted fingers were
+put into his.
+
+"Has the pain come again?"
+
+"No; I have been lying still, musing; Richard, I shall never be
+better."
+
+"Oh, do not say so!  You will, indeed you will, when spring comes."
+
+"I feel as if I should die," said the little boy; "I think I shall.
+But do not grieve, Richard.  I do not feel much afraid.  You said it
+was happier there than here, and I know it now."
+
+"Where my blessed father is," said Richard, thoughtfully.  "But oh,
+Carloman, you are so young to die!"
+
+"I do not want to live.  This is a fighting, hard world, full of
+cruel people; and it is peace there.  You are strong and brave, and
+will make them better; but I am weak and fearful--I could only sigh
+and grieve."
+
+"Oh, Carloman!  Carloman!  I cannot spare you.  I love you like my
+own brother.  You must not die--you must live to see your father and
+mother again!"
+
+"Commend me to them," said Carloman.  "I am going to my Father in
+heaven.  I am glad I am here, Richard; I never was so happy before.
+I should have been afraid indeed to die, if Father Lucas had not
+taught me how my sins are pardoned.  Now, I think the Saints and
+Angels are waiting for me."
+
+He spoke feebly, and his last words faltered into sleep.  He slept
+on; and when supper was brought, and the lamps were lighted, Fru
+Astrida thought the little face looked unusually pale and waxen; but
+he did not awake.  At night, they carried him to his bed, and he was
+roused into a half conscious state, moaning at being disturbed.  Fru
+Astrida would not leave him, and Father Lucas shared her watch.
+
+At midnight, all were wakened by the slow notes, falling one by one
+on the ear, of the solemn passing-bell, calling them to waken, that
+their prayers might speed a soul on its way.  Richard and Lothaire
+were soon at the bedside.  Carloman lay still asleep, his hands
+folded on his breast, but his breath came in long gasps.  Father
+Lucas was praying over him, and candles were placed on each side of
+the bed.  All was still, the boys not daring to speak or move.  There
+came a longer breath--then they heard no more.  He was, indeed, gone
+to a happier home--a truer royalty than ever had been his on earth.
+
+Then the boys' grief burst out.  Lothaire screamed for his mother,
+and sobbed out that he should die too--he must go home.  Richard
+stood by the bed, large silent tears rolling down his cheeks, and his
+chest heaving with suppressed sobs.
+
+Fru Astrida led them from the room, back to their beds.  Lothaire
+soon cried himself to sleep.  Richard lay awake, sorrowful, and in
+deep thought; while that scene in St. Mary's, at Rouen, returned
+before his eyes, and though it had passed nearly two years ago, its
+meaning and its teaching had sunk deep into his mind, and now stood
+before him more completely.
+
+"Where shall I go, when I come to die, if I have not returned good
+for evil?"  And a resolution was taken in the mind of the little
+Duke.
+
+Morning came, and brought back the sense that his gentle little
+companion was gone from him; and Richard wept again, as if he could
+not be consoled, as he beheld the screened couch where the patient
+smile would never again greet him.  He now knew that he had loved
+Carloman all the more for his weakness and helplessness; but his
+grief was not like Lothaire's, for with the Prince's was still joined
+a selfish fear:  his cry was still, that he should die too, if not
+set free, and violent weeping really made him heavy and ill.
+
+The little corpse, embalmed and lapped in lead, was to be sent back
+to France, that it might rest with its forefathers in the city of
+Rheims; and Lothaire seemed to feel this as an additional stroke of
+desertion.  He was almost beside himself with despair, imploring
+every one, in turn, to send him home, though he well knew they were
+unable to do so.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+
+"Sir Eric," said Richard, "you told me there was a Parlement to be
+held at Falaise, between Count Bernard and the King of Denmark.  I
+mean to attend it.  Will you come with me, or shall Osmond go, and
+you remain in charge of the Prince?"
+
+"How now, Lord Richard, you were not wont to love a Parlement?"
+
+"I have something to say," replied Richard.  The Baron made no
+objection, only telling his mother that the Duke was a marvellous
+wise child, and that he would soon be fit to take the government
+himself.
+
+Lothaire lamented the more when he found that Richard was going away;
+his presence seemed to him a protection, and he fancied, now Carloman
+was dead, that his former injuries were about to be revenged.  The
+Duke assured him, repeatedly, that he meant him nothing but kindness,
+adding, "When I return, you will see, Lothaire;" then, commending him
+to the care and kindness of Fru Astrida, Osmond, and Alberic, Richard
+set forth upon his pony, attended by Sir Eric and three men-at-arms.
+
+Richard felt sad when he looked back at Bayeux, and thought that it
+no longer contained his dear little friend; but it was a fresh bright
+frosty morning, the fields were covered with a silvery-white coating,
+the flakes of hoar-frost sparkled on every bush, and the hard ground
+rung cheerily to the tread of the horses' feet.  As the yellow sun
+fought his way through the grey mists that dimmed his brightness, and
+shone out merrily in the blue heights of the sky, Richard's spirits
+rose, and he laughed and shouted, as hare or rabbit rushed across the
+heath, or as the plover rose screaming above his head, flapping her
+broad wings across the wintry sky.
+
+One night they slept at a Convent, where they heard that Hugh of
+Paris had passed on to join the conference at Falaise.  The next day
+they rode on, and, towards the afternoon, the Baron pointed to a
+sharp rocky range of hills, crowned by a tall solid tower, and told
+Richard, yonder was his keep of Falaise, the strongest Castle in
+Normandy.
+
+The country was far more broken as they advanced--narrow valleys and
+sharp hills, each little vale full of wood, and interspersed with
+rocks.  "A choice place for game," Sir Eric said and Richard, as he
+saw a herd of deer dash down a forest glade, exclaimed, "that they
+must come here to stay, for some autumn sport."
+
+There seemed to be huntsmen abroad in the woods; for through the
+frosty air came the baying of dogs, the shouts and calls of men, and,
+now and then, the echoing, ringing notes of a bugle.  Richard's eyes
+and cheeks glowed with excitement, and he pushed his brisk little
+pony on faster and faster, unheeding that the heavier men and horses
+of his suite were not keeping pace with him on the rough ground and
+through the tangled boughs.
+
+Presently, a strange sound of growling and snarling was heard close
+at hand:  his pony swerved aside, and could not be made to advance;
+so Richard, dismounting, dashed through some briars, and there, on an
+open space, beneath a precipice of dark ivy-covered rock, that rose
+like a wall, he beheld a huge grey wolf and a large dog in mortal
+combat.  It was as if they had fallen or rolled down the precipice
+together, not heeding it in their fury.  Both were bleeding, and the
+eyes of both glared like red fiery glass in the dark shadow of the
+rock.  The dog lay undermost, almost overpowered, making but a feeble
+resistance; and the wolf would, in another moment, be at liberty to
+spring on the lonely child.
+
+But not a thought of fear passed through his breast; to save the dog
+was Richard's only idea.  In one moment he had drawn the dagger he
+wore at his girdle, ran to the two struggling animals, and with all
+his force, plunged it into the throat of the wolf, which, happily,
+was still held by the teeth of the hound.
+
+The struggles relaxed, the wolf rolled heavily aside, dead; the dog
+lay panting and bleeding, and Richard feared he was cruelly torn.
+"Poor fellow! noble dog! what shall I do to help you?" and he gently
+smoothed the dark brindled head.
+
+A voice was now heard shouting aloud, at which the dog raised and
+crested his head, as a figure in a hunting dress was coming down a
+rocky pathway, an extremely tall, well-made man, of noble features.
+"Ha! holla!  Vige!  Vige!  How now, my brave hound?" he said in the
+Northern tongue, though not quite with the accent Richard was
+accustomed to hear "Art hurt?"
+
+"Much torn, I fear," Richard called out, as the faithful creature
+wagged his tail, and strove to rise and meet his master.
+
+"Ha, lad! what art thou?" exclaimed the hunter, amazed at seeing the
+boy between the dead wolf and wounded dog.  "You look like one of
+those Frenchified Norman gentilesse, with your smooth locks and
+gilded baldrick, yet your words are Norse.  By the hammer of Thor!
+that is a dagger in the wolf's throat!"
+
+"It is mine," said Richard.  "I found your dog nearly spent, and I
+made in to the rescue."
+
+"You did?  Well done!  I would not have lost Vige for all the plunder
+of Italy.  I am beholden to you, my brave young lad," said the
+stranger, all the time examining and caressing the hound.  "What is
+your name?  You cannot be Southern bred?"
+
+As he spoke, more shouts came near; and the Baron de Centeville
+rushed through the trees holding Richard's pony by the bridle.  "My
+Lord, my Lord!--oh, thank Heaven, I see you safe!"  At the same
+moment a party of hunters also approached by the path, and at the
+head of them Bernard the Dane.
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed he, "what do I see?  My young Lord! what brought you
+here?"  And with a hasty obeisance, Bernard took Richard's
+outstretched hand.
+
+"I came hither to attend your council," replied Richard.  "I have a
+boon to ask of the King of Denmark."
+
+"Any boon the King of Denmark has in his power will be yours," said
+the dog's master, slapping his hand on the little Duke's shoulder,
+with a rude, hearty familiarity, that took him by surprise; and he
+looked up with a shade of offence, till, on a sudden flash of
+perception, he took off his cap, exclaiming, "King Harald himself!
+Pardon me, Sir King!"
+
+"Pardon, Jarl Richart!  What would you have me pardon?--your saving
+the life of Vige here?  No French politeness for me.  Tell me your
+boon, and it is yours.  Shall I take you a voyage, and harry the fat
+monks of Ireland?"
+
+Richard recoiled a little from his new friend.
+
+"Oh, ha!  I forgot.  They have made a Christian of you--more's the
+pity.  You have the Northern spirit so strong.  I had forgotten it.
+Come, walk by my side, and let me hear what you would ask.  Holla,
+you Sweyn! carry Vige up to the Castle, and look to his wounds.  Now
+for it, young Jarl."
+
+"My boon is, that you would set free Prince Lothaire."
+
+"What?--the young Frank?  Why they kept you captive, burnt your face,
+and would have made an end of you but for your clever Bonder."
+
+"That is long past, and Lothaire is so wretched.  His brother is
+dead, and he is sick with grief, and he says he shall die, if he does
+not go home."
+
+"A good thing too for the treacherous race to die out in him!  What
+should you care for him? he is your foe."
+
+"I am a Christian," was Richard's answer.
+
+"Well, I promised you whatever you might ask.  All my share of his
+ransom, or his person, bond or free, is yours.  You have only to
+prevail with your own Jarls and Bonders."
+
+Richard feared this would be more difficult; but Abbot Martin came to
+the meeting, and took his part.  Moreover, the idea of their hostage
+dying in their hands, so as to leave them without hold upon the King,
+had much weight with them; and, after long deliberation, they
+consented that Lothaire should be restored to his father, without
+ransom but only on condition that Louis should guarantee to the Duke
+the peaceable possession of the country, as far as St. Clair sur
+Epte, which had been long in dispute; so that Alberic became,
+indisputably, a vassal of Normandy.
+
+Perhaps it was the happiest day in Richard's life when he rode back
+to Bayeux, to desire Lothaire to prepare to come with him to St.
+Clair, there to be given back into the hands of his father.
+
+And then they met King Louis, grave and sorrowful for the loss of his
+little Carloman, and, for the time, repenting of his misdeeds towards
+the orphan heir of Normandy.
+
+He pressed the Duke in his arms, and his kiss was a genuine one as he
+said, "Duke Richard, we have not deserved this of you.  I did not
+treat you as you have treated my children.  We will be true lord and
+vassal from henceforth."
+
+Lothaire's last words were, "Farewell, Richard.  If I lived with you,
+I might be good like you.  I will never forget what you have done for
+me."
+
+When Richard once more entered Rouen in state, his subjects shouting
+round him in transports of joy, better than all his honour and glory
+was the being able to enter the Church of our Lady, and kneel by his
+father's grave, with a clear conscience, and the sense that he had
+tried to keep that last injunction.
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+Years had passed away.  The oaths of Louis, and promises of Lothaire,
+had been broken; and Arnulf of Flanders, the murderer of Duke
+William, had incited them to repeated and treacherous inroads on
+Normandy; so that Richard's life, from fourteen to five or six-and-
+twenty, had been one long war in defence of his country.  But it had
+been a glorious war for him, and his gallant deeds had well earned
+for him the title of "Richard the Fearless"--a name well deserved;
+for there was but one thing he feared, and that was, to do wrong.
+
+By and by, success and peace came; and then Arnulf of Flanders,
+finding open force would not destroy him, three times made attempts
+to assassinate him, like his father, by treachery.  But all these had
+failed; and now Richard had enjoyed many years of peace and honour,
+whilst his enemies had vanished from his sight.
+
+King Louis was killed by a fall from his horse; Lothaire died in
+early youth, and in him ended the degenerate line of Charlemagne;
+Hugh Capet, the son of Richard's old friend, Hugh the White, was on
+the throne of France, his sure ally and brother-in-law, looking to
+him for advice and aid in all his undertakings.
+
+Fru Astrida and Sir Eric had long been in their quiet graves; Osmond
+and Alberic were among Richard's most trusty councillors and
+warriors; Abbot Martin, in extreme old age, still ruled the Abbey of
+Jumieges, where Richard, like his father, loved to visit him, hold
+converse with him, and refresh himself in the peaceful cloister,
+after the affairs of state and war.
+
+And Richard himself was a grey-headed man, of lofty stature and
+majestic bearing.  His eldest son was older than he had been himself
+when he became the little Duke, and he had even begun to remember his
+father's project, of an old age to be spent in retirement and peace.
+
+It was on a summer eve, that Duke Richard sat beside the white-
+bearded old Abbot, within the porch, looking at the sun shining with
+soft declining beams on the arches and columns.  They spoke together
+of that burial at Rouen, and of the silver key; the Abbot delighting
+to tell, over and over again, all the good deeds and good sayings of
+William Longsword.
+
+As they sat, a man, also very old and shrivelled and bent, came up to
+the cloister gate, with the tottering, feeble step of one pursued
+beyond his strength, coming to take sanctuary.
+
+"What can be the crime of one so aged and feeble?" said the Duke, in
+surprise.
+
+At the sight of him, a look of terror shot from the old man's eye.
+He clasped his hands together, and turned as if to flee; then,
+finding himself incapable of escape, he threw himself on the ground
+before him.
+
+"Mercy, mercy! noble, most noble Duke!" was all he said.
+
+"Rise up--kneel not to me.  I cannot brook this from one who might be
+my father," said Richard, trying to raise him; but at those words the
+old man groaned and crouched lower still.
+
+"Who art thou?" said the Duke.  "In this holy place thou art secure,
+be thy deed what it may.  Speak!--who art thou?"
+
+"Dost thou not know me?" said the suppliant.  "Promise mercy, ere
+thou dost hear my name."
+
+"I have seen that face under a helmet," said the Duke.  "Thou art
+Arnulf of Flanders!"
+
+There was a deep silence.
+
+"And wherefore art thou here?"
+
+"I delayed to own the French King Hugh.  He has taken my towns and
+ravaged my lands.  Each Frenchman and each Norman vows to slay me, in
+revenge for your wrongs, Lord Duke.  I have been driven hither and
+thither, in fear of my life, till I thought of the renown of Duke
+Richard, not merely the most fearless, but the most merciful of
+Princes.  I sought to come hither, trusting that, when the holy
+Father Abbot beheld my bitter repentance, he would intercede for me
+with you, most noble Prince, for my safety and forgiveness.  Oh,
+gallant Duke, forgive and spare!"
+
+"Rise up, Arnulf," said Richard.  "Where the hand of the Lord hath
+stricken, it is not for man to exact his own reckoning.  My father's
+death has been long forgiven, and what you may have planned against
+myself has, by the blessing of Heaven, been brought to nought.  From
+Normans at least you are safe; and it shall be my work to ensure your
+pardon from my brother the King.  Come into the refectory:  you need
+refreshment.  The Lord Abbot makes you welcome." {17}
+
+Tears of gratitude and true repentance choked Arnulf's speech, and he
+allowed himself to be raised from the ground, and was forced to
+accept the support of the Duke's arm.
+
+The venerable Abbot slowly rose, and held up his hand in an attitude
+of blessing:  "The blessing of a merciful God be upon the sinner who
+turneth from his evil way; and ten thousand blessings of pardon and
+peace are already on the head of him who hath stretched out his hand
+to forgive and aid him who was once his most grievous foe!"
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+
+{1}  Richard's place of education was Bayeaux; for, as Duke William
+says in the rhymed Chronicle of Normandy, -
+
+"Si a Roem le faz garder
+E norir, gaires longement
+Il ne saura parlier neiant
+Daneis, kar nul n l'i parole.
+Si voil qu'il seit a tele escole
+Qu l'en le sache endoctriner
+Que as Daneis sache parler.
+Ci ne sevent riens fors Romanz
+Mais a Baieux en a tanz
+Qui ne sevent si Daneis non."
+
+{2}  Bernard was founder of the family of Harcourt of Nuneham.
+Ferrieres, the ancestor of that of Ferrars.
+
+{3}  In the same Chronicle, William Longsword directs that, -
+
+"Tant seit apris qu'il lise un bref
+Kar ceo ne li ert pas trop gref."
+
+{4}  Hako of Norway was educated by Ethelstane of England.  It was
+Foulques le Bon, the contemporary Count of Anjou, who, when derided
+by Louis IV. for serving in the choir of Tours, wrote the following
+retort:  "The Count of Anjou to the King of France.  Apprenez,
+Monseigneur, qu'un roi sans lettres est une ane couronne."
+
+{5}  The Banner of Normandy was a cross till William the Conqueror
+adopted the lion.
+
+{6}  "Sire, soies mon escus, soies mes defendemens."
+Histoire des Ducs de Normandie (MICHEL).
+
+{7}  The Cathedral was afterwards built by Richard himself.
+
+{8}  Sus le maistre autel del iglise
+Li unt sa feaute juree.
+
+{9}  Une clef d'argent unt trovee
+A sun braiol estreit noee.
+Tout la gent se merveillont
+Que cete clef signifiont.
+* * * *
+Ni la cuoule e l'estamine
+En aveit il en un archete,
+Que disfermeront ceste clavete
+De sol itant ert tresorier
+Kar nul tresor n'vait plus cher.
+
+The history of the adventures of Jumieges is literally true, as is
+Martin's refusal to admit the Duke to the cloister:-
+
+Dun ne t'a Deus mis e pose
+Prince gardain de sainte iglise
+E cur tenir leial justise.
+
+{10}  An attack, in which Riouf, Vicomte du Cotentin, placed Normandy
+in the utmost danger.  He was defeated on the banks of the Seine, in
+a field still called the "Pre de Battaille," on the very day of
+Richard's birth; so that the Te Deum was sung at once for the victory
+and the birth of the heir of Normandy.
+
+{11}  "Biaus Segnors, vees chi vo segneur, je ne le vous voel tolir,
+mais je estoie venus en ceste ville, prendre consel a vous, comment
+je poroie vengier la mort son pere, qui me rapiela d'Engletiere.  Il
+me fist roi, il me fist avoir l'amour le roi d'Alemaigne, il leva mon
+fil de fons, il me fist toz les biens, et jou en renderai au fill le
+guerredon se je puis."--MICHEL.
+
+{12}  In a battle fought with Lothaire at Charmenil, Richard saved
+the life of Walter the huntsman, who had been with him from his
+youth.
+
+{13}  At fourteen years of age, Richard was betrothed to Eumacette of
+Paris, then but eight years old.  In such esteem did Hugues la Blanc
+hold his son-in-law, that, on his death-bed, he committed his son
+Hugues Capet to his guardianship, though the Duke was then scarcely
+above twenty, proposing him as the model of wisdom and of chivalry.
+
+{14}  "Osmons, qui l'enfant enseognoit l'eu mena i jour en riviere,
+et quant il revint, la reine Gerberge dist que se il jamais
+l'enmenait fors des murs, elle li ferait les jeix crever."--MICHEL.
+
+{15}  "Gules, two wings conjoined in lure, or," is the original coat
+of St. Maur, or Seymour, said to be derived from Osmond de
+Centeville, who assumed them in honour of his flight with Duke
+Richard.  His direct descendants in Normandy were the Marquises of
+Osmond, whose arms were gules, two wings ermine.  In 1789 there were
+two survivors of the line of Centeville, one a Canon of Notre Dame,
+the other a Chevalier de St. Louis, who died childless.
+
+{16}  Harald of Norway, who made a vow never to trim his hair till he
+had made himself sole king of the country.  The war lasted ten years,
+and he thus might well come to deserve the title of Horrid-locks,
+which was changed to that of Harfagre, or fair-haired, when he
+celebrated his final victory, by going into a bath at More, and
+committing his shaggy hair to be cut and arranged by his friend Jarl
+Rognwald, father of Rollo.
+
+{17}  Richard obtained for Arnulf the restitution of Arras, and
+several other Flemish towns.  He died eight years afterwards, in 996,
+leaving several children, among whom his daughter Emma is connected
+with English history, by her marriage, first, with Ethelred the
+Unready, and secondly, with Knute, the grandson of his firm friend
+and ally, Harald Blue-tooth.   His son was Richard, called the Good;
+his grandson, Robert the Magnificent; his great-grandson, William the
+Conqueror, who brought the Norman race to England.  Few names in
+history shine with so consistent a lustre as that of Richard; at
+first the little Duke, afterwards Richard aux longues jambes, but
+always Richard sans peur.  This little sketch has only brought
+forward the perils of his childhood, but his early manhood was
+likewise full of adventures, in which he always proved himself brave,
+honourable, pious, and forbearing.  But for these our readers must
+search for themselves into early French history, where all they will
+find concerning our hero will only tend to exalt his character.
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg eText The Little Duke
+
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