第 17 页

and a Norman sentry stands at my door. I must go through with it

now, and if need be promise all that William asks. This time there

is nowhere to send you to fetch aid for me. You have heard, I

suppose, that William has promised me his daughter in marriage?"

"Yes, my lord, I have heard it. Is the marriage to take place soon?"

Harold smiled. "The duke will not wish it to take place until he

sees that he can secure my services by the marriage. If that time

should never come I shall probably hear no more of it. Engagements

have been broken off before now many a time, and absolution for a

broken promise of that kind is not hard to obtain. You must attend

the court this evening, Wulf."

Wulf bowed and withdrew, and in the evening attended the court in

the suite of Harold. As soon as the duke's eye fell upon him he

called him up.

"Messieurs," he said to the barons present, "this lad is Wulf, Thane

of Steyning, and a follower of Earl Harold. He it was who, with the

young Guy de Burg, and aided only by a Saxon man-at-arms, withstood

the first rush of the Bretons, and so gained time by which I myself

and my barons were able to prepare ourselves to resist the attack.

Had it not been for them we should all have been taken by surprise,

and maybe slain. The Saxon and the two lads, Wulf and De Burg, all

fell wounded well-nigh to death, but not before twenty-one Bretons

lay dead around them. This was indeed a feat of arms that any of

you, valiant knights and barons as you are, might have been proud

to perform.

"Already I had promised him any boon that in reason he may ask for

having borne to me the news that Earl Harold, my honoured guest and

brother-in-arms, had been cast on our shores, and I promise him

now, that should at any time it happen that I have any power or

influence in England, his estates shall remain to him and to his

heirs free from all service or dues, even though he has withstood

me in arms;--nay, more, that they shall be largely added to. Should

such issue never arise, and aught occur to render him desirous of

crossing the seas hither, I promise him a baron's feu as a token

of my gratitude for the great service he rendered me; and I am well

assured that, whether to a King of England or to a Duke of Normandy,

he will prove himself a true and faithful follower. I call on you

all here to witness this promise that I have made, and should there

be need, to recall it to my memory."

The Normans above all things admired valour, and when Wulf, after

kneeling and kissing the duke's hand, retired shamefacedly to a

corner of the room, where he was joined by Beorn, one after another

came up to him and said a few words of approbation.

"You have done well, young sir," Fitz-Osberne, one of the duke's

most trusted councillors said to him. "The duke is not given to

overpraise, and assuredly no one of your age has ever won such

commendation from his lips. After making so fair a commencement,

it will be your own fault indeed if you do not make a great name

for yourself in the future. There is not one of us who was in the

duke's camp that evening but feels that he owes you much for the

few minutes' delay that saved us from being taken altogether by

surprise. You are young, and may think but little of the promise the

duke has given you this evening, but the day may come when you will find

it stand you in good stead."

Harold said nearly the same thing to Wulf when he saw him the next morning.

"But there is no chance of the duke ever having power in England, my lord,"

Wulf said.

"I trust not, Wulf, but there is no doubt that his whole mind is bent upon

obtaining the throne of England. He has spoken to me openly about it, and

has more than hinted to me that I, if married to his daughter, would still,

as Earl of Wessex, be the foremost man in the land next to its sovereign

should he ever gain the kingdom."

"And what said you, my lord, if I may be so bold as to ask?"

"I said but little, lad. I am a prisoner, and I am well assured that I

shall never return to England until William thinks that he can depend upon

me. It is needful that I should return, and that quickly, for I hear that

there is fresh trouble in Wales, and I have received an urgent message from

the king to hasten to his side. It is hard to see what it is best to do."

Four days later a grand ceremony was announced to take place, but few knew

what its nature was to be. That it was something beyond the ordinary was

certain by the number of barons and knights that were bidden to attend. A

dais was erected in the courtyard of the palace, and on this a table

covered with a cloth was placed.

"I don't like this business," Wulf said to Beorn, as with the other Saxons

they took their place near the dais. "There is something very mysterious

about it, and I believe that at last we are going to see what William's

full intentions are."

A religious ceremony was first held, and then the duke rose to his feet and

addressed the barons. He first recalled to them the promise that Edward of

England had made to him, and then went on: "The saints have worked in my

favour," he said, "by sending here as my guest my well-beloved

brother-in-arms, the great Earl of Wessex. Between us there is the closest

friendship, and to cement and make even closer the bonds between us, he has

become betrothed to my daughter, and through the lands I shall bestow upon

her he will become a baron of Normandy. Relying upon his affection and

friendship, I have called you here together to hear him swear in public

that which he has already told me privately--that he will be my faithful

feudatory, and will in all ways aid me to gain my lawful rights."

Harold changed colour. The matter had come upon him as a surprise.

Doubtless he had in a vague way when discussing his future relations as

son-in-law to the duke, expressed his warm friendship and a general

willingness to be of service to him, but to be called upon to take an oath

publicly was a different matter. Most of those present had taken oaths of

allegiance to William and had broken them again and again, and William

himself had not less frequently broken his feudal oaths to his suzerain,

the King of France. But Harold was a man with a deep sense of religion, and

did not esteem as lightly as these Norman barons an oath thus sworn; but he

felt that he had fallen into a trap, and that resistance would but consign

him to a prison, if not a grave.

He at once understood how hollow had been the pretended friendship of his

host; but he was in William's power, and unless as a friend the duke would

never permit so formidable a rival to quit his shores. As he hesitated he

saw a movement on the part of the Norman knights near the dais, and

understood that they had been previously informed of William's intentions,

and were there to enforce them. Their brows were bent on him angrily as he

hesitated, and more than one hand went to the hilt of the wearer's sword.

There was no drawing back, and placing his hand on the table he swore the

oath William had dictated. When he concluded William snatched the cloth

from the table, and below it were seen a number of bones and sacred relics

that had been brought from the cathedral.

Enlightened as Harold was, he was not altogether free from the

superstitions of the age. For a moment he shuddered slightly and grew paler

than before, then he drew himself up to his full height, and looked calmly

into the exulting face of William.

"I call you all to witness," the duke said in a loud voice, "that Harold,

Earl of Wessex, has taken a solemn oath upon the holy relics to be my

faithful feudatory."

The shout that answered him was by no means universal, for there were many

among the Norman nobles who were shocked at the base trick that the duke

had played upon a guest for whom he had professed the warmest friendship.

The Saxon thanes could scarce contain their expressions of indignation, but

Harold as he sat down among them made a gesture commanding silence.

"We sail for England to-morrow night," he said in low tones. "The duke told

me so as we came hither. The two ships will be in readiness for us to

embark in the morning. I did not understand then the price I was to pay.

Restrain yourselves now; when we are free men we can talk this over."

An hour later they returned to the palace, where there was a brief and

formal interview between Harold and the duke. Both dissembled their real

feelings. The duke said that he regretted that the King of England's wishes

forced his guest to start so suddenly, and that he much regretted his

departure. Harold thanked him for the hospitality he had shown him, but

neither made any allusion whatever to the scene that had taken place in the

courtyard. Wulf rode over to say good-bye to Guy and his father. The latter

was walking up and down the hall with a gloomy face.

"I blush for what has taken place to-day, Wulf," he said. "Tell the earl

that had we known what was going to occur there are few indeed who would

have attended at the ceremony, and that I for one shall hold him in no way

dishonoured if he breaks the vow that has thus been dishonourably extorted

from him. It was a trick and a base one, and I would tell Duke William so

to his face. What will men think of Norman faith when guests are thus

tricked to their disadvantage?"

For an hour Wulf remained talking with the baron and his family.

"I hope to see you again, Wulf," De Burg said, as the lad rose to take

leave. "Guy regards you as a brother, and though assuredly no Saxon will

set foot on Norman soil after to-day's doings, we may yet meet again."

"I shall come over to England to see you, Wulf, if you come not here," Guy

said. "I begin to think that I shall get over this, although I may never be

really strong again. We shall often think and talk of you, Agnes and I; and

I should like, of all things, to come and stay in your Saxon home."

"No one would be so welcome, Guy. If we are never to be brothers-in-arms as

we once talked of, we shall surely be brothers in heart, whether absent or

present."

A few more words and Wulf took leave of them all and rode back to Rouen. In

the morning the duke accompanied Harold to the river bank and there took a

courteous farewell of him. It is not probable that he thought for a moment

that Harold would observe the oath, but he saw that its breach would be

almost as useful to him as its fulfilment, for it would enable him to

denounce his rival as a perjured and faithless man, and to represent any

expedition against England as being a sort of crusade to punish one who had

broken the most solemn vows made on the holy relics. Harold himself

preserved his usual calmness of demeanour, and stood talking quietly to the

duke while the latter's presents of hawks and hounds were taken on board

the ship, and the Saxons, silent and sullen, had passed over the gangway.

Then an apparently affectionate embrace was exchanged between the two

rivals. Harold crossed on to the ship, the great sails were hoisted, and

the two vessels proceeded down the river.

CHAPTER VIII.

TROUBLE WITH WALES.

Harold took his place on the poop as the vessel started, and remained

looking fixedly at the duke, until the latter with the group of barons

turned and entered the town.

"Farewell, William of Normandy," he said; "false friend and dishonoured

host. How shall we meet next time, I wonder, and where?"

Hitherto the presence of the Norman attendants had prevented any private

converse between Harold and his followers, but having the poop to

themselves they now broke out into angry exclamations against the duke.

"It was an unworthy and unknightly trick," Harold said calmly; "but let us

not talk of it now; it will be for the English people to decide the

question some day, and for English bishops to determine whether I am bound

by a vow thus extorted. Better at all events that I should be held for all

time to have been false and perjured, than that the English people should

fall under the Norman yoke. But maybe there will be no occasion for the

oath ever to come in question, William of Normandy or I may die before the

king, and then there will be an end of it. Let us talk of other things.

Thank God we are free men again, and our faces are set towards England,

where, from what I hear, we may have to meet open foes instead of false

friends, and may have to teach the Welsh, once and for all, that they and

their king cannot with impunity continually rise in rebellion against

England.

"Well, Wulf, you are the only one among us who has brought back aught from

Normandy, at least you and Beorn, for you have your horses and chains, and

the promise of the duke to grant you a boon. But these are small things.

You have gained great credit, and have shown yourself a gallant fighter,

and have further promises from the duke."

"I care not for his promises," Wulf said hotly. "I hold him to be a

dishonoured noble, and I would take naught from his hands."

"You are young yet, Wulf," Harold smiled, "and the duke's promise, made

before his nobles, will be held binding by him if ever the time should come

for you to claim it. Do not refuse benefits, lad, because you do not like

the hands that grant them. You rendered him a service, and need feel no

shame at receiving the reward for it. As soon as we return I shall take

steps to raise you and Beorn to the full dignity of thanes, with all rights

and privileges. My brother and my friends here can all testify to the

service you rendered to us, for much as I may have to complain of the

ending of my visit, it has at least been vastly better than our lot would

have been had we remained in the hands of Conrad of Ponthieu. You are both

very young to be placed in the position of rulers of your people, and in