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greatly in the war against the Welsh, and stood high in the favour and

affection of Harold. Guy has overshot you, you see, in point of height,

though he is scarce half your breadth," and the baron looked with a

suppressed sigh at the fragile young fellow, who stood with his hand on

Wulf's shoulder.

"He looks better and stronger than I expected, my lord," Wulf said. "You

must remember when I last saw him he could scarce walk across the room, and

in my heart I scarce hoped to ever see him again."

"He gains strength very slowly," De Burg said wistfully; "but although he

has to be careful of himself, he has no ailment."

"He could hardly gain strength while growing so fast," Wulf said; "but now

that he has gained his full height he will, doubtless, gather strength, and

as three years have done so much for him, another three years will I hope

do far more. The Lady Agnes is well, I trust?"

"She is well, and will be here anon," the baroness said.

Guy laughed with something of his former heartiness. "She was here when the

man brought news of your arrival, Wulf, but she fled away like a startled

deer, and has, I suppose, gone to put on her best kirtle in your honour."

As he spoke Agnes entered the room. Considerable as was the change that

three years had wrought in the young men, it was still greater in her case,

for she had grown from a pretty young girl into a very lovely maiden, whose

cheek flushed as she presented it for Wulf's salute.

"Would you have known her again, Wulf?" Guy asked with a smile.

"I should certainly have known her, though she has so greatly changed,"

Wulf replied. "I thought that you would be grown up and altered, but I

scarcely looked for so great an alteration in her, though I might of course

have known that it would be so."

"And now tell me, Wulf," the baron said, abruptly changing the

conversation, "how go things in England--are people united in choosing

Harold as their king?"

"The South, the East, and West are as one man," Wulf said. "Mercia, which

comprises the midlands, has accepted the choice. Northumbria has as yet

held itself aloof, although its earl has sworn allegiance and its primate

has placed the crown on Harold's head; but in time, I am well assured, the

North will also accept him. As I said when we spoke about it after Harold

had been tricked into taking an oath to be William's man, he had no more

power to pledge himself for England than I had. Englishmen are free to

choose their own king, and as Harold has long been their ruler, their

choice naturally fell on him.

"Harold is about to marry the sister of the Earls of Northumbria and

Mercia, the widow of Griffith of Wales, and this will, I hope, bind these

two powerful nobles to him. The only trouble is likely to come from Tostig,

who is, as you know, at the court of Norway. But as he is hated in

Northumbria, and the earl and his brother of Mercia both have personal

enmity against him, he can gather no following there, while Anglia and

Wessex are devoted to Harold. Still he and the King of Norway may cause

trouble."

"The answer of Harold's ambassadors is, of course, a refusal?"

"Assuredly," Wulf said. "I do not know the exact import of the reply, as,

although I have accompanied them, I am not a member of the embassy, being

too young to be intrusted with so weighty a matter. But there can be but

one answer. Harold is powerless to carry out his oath. He had the choice of

becoming King of England, and thus defending our rights and freedom, or of

refusing the crown, in which case he must have fled here, and could have

given no aid whatever to William, as he himself would be regarded as the

worst of traitors by the English. The duke must be perfectly well aware

that a king of England could not, without the assent of the people, accept

a foreign prince as his liege lord."

De Burg nodded.

"That is plainly so, Wulf; and although the duke professes intense

indignation against Harold, he himself has, over and over again, broken his

own oaths of allegiance to the King of France. Breaches of oaths go for

little, except they serve as pretexts for war. It would have been the same

thing if Harold had never taken the oath, except that his breach of it will

be an aid to William in a war against him. We northmen came to France and

conquered a province, simply by the right of the strongest. The duke has

doubled his dominions by the same right. He deems himself now strong enough

to conquer England; whether he is so remains to be seen. At present

methinks that but few of us are disposed to follow him in such an

enterprise, but there is never any saying how things will go at last. When

war is in the air men's minds become heated. There will be dignities,

estates, and titles to be won, and when many are ready to go, few like to

hang back. More than once already William has embarked on a war against the

wishes of the majority, but he has finally carried all with him, and it may

be so again, especially if he can win over the pope to excommunicate Harold

for the breach of an oath sworn on the relics."

"His excommunication will go for little in England," Wulf said sturdily.

"Many of our prelates, and almost all our clergy are Englishmen, and hold

in very small respect the claim of the pope to interfere in the affairs of

England."

"And if Harold died who would be likely to succeed him?"

"I have never thought of that," Wulf said, "and I should think that few

Englishmen have done so. If such a misfortune should happen, methinks that

England would be rent in two, and that while Wessex and Anglia would choose

one of his brothers, Mercia and the North would take Edwin or his brother

Morcar as their king, but assuredly no foreign prince would be chosen."

"No, but with England divided the chance of conquest would be easier. You

are about the king, Wulf. Keep a shrewd guard over him. I say not for a

moment that the duke would countenance any attempt to do him harm, but

there are many rough spirits who might think that they would gain his

favour greatly did they clear his path of Harold, and who would feel all

the less scruple in doing so, should the pope be induced to excommunicate

him. Such things have happened again and again. Mind, I have no warrant for

my speech. Methinks the honour of De Burg is too well known for anyone to

venture to broach such a project before him, but so many kings and great

princes have fallen by an assassin's knife to clear the way for the next

heir or for an ambitious rival, that I cannot close my eyes to the fact

that one in Harold's position might well be made the subject of such an

attempt. The history of your own country will furnish you with examples of

what I say."

"Thank you, my lord," Wulf said gravely. "The thought that an assassin's

knife might be raised against Harold, who is of all men the most beloved in

England, has never once entered my mind, but I see there may be indeed a

danger of such an attempt being made. I do not greatly trust Morcar or his

brother, and the danger may come from them, or, as you say, from one

desirous of gaining favour with your duke. I will lay your warning to

heart."

The conversation now turned on other topics, on the Welsh war and the life

Wulf had been leading since they last met, and upon what had happened to

the many acquaintances Wulf had made in Normandy. They talked until long

past the usual hour for retiring to rest; Wulf slept at the chateau, and

rode into Rouen at an early hour in the morning.

The audience next day was a public one. William was surrounded by his

officers of state, and by a large number of his barons. The English envoys

were ushered in, and the duke asked them in a loud voice what answer they

brought to his just demands on the part of his sworn liegeman, Harold.

"The king of England bids us state, duke, that he holds an oath taken by a

prisoner under force to be invalid, especially when taken in ignorance of

the sanctity of the concealed relics; secondly, he says that he has been

elected by the people of England, and that he has no power whatever to

transfer the rights that they have conferred upon him, and which he has

sworn to maintain, and that they would absolutely refuse to be bound by any

act on his part contrary to the welfare of the kingdom, and to their rights

as freemen; thirdly, as to your demand that he should carry out his promise

to marry your daughter, he points out that the lady whose hand was promised

to him has since that time died; and lastly, that although as Earl of

Wessex he might transfer that engagement to another of your daughters, as

king of England he is unable to do so, as the will of the people is that

their king shall marry no foreign princess, but that the royal family shall

be of unmixed English blood."

William frowned heavily. "You hear, my lords," he said, after a pause, to

the Norman barons, "this English earl who was here as my guest refuses to

carry out the engagements to which he swore upon the holy relics. I cannot,

however, bring myself to believe that he will really persist in this foul

perjury, and shall persevere in my endeavours to bring him to a sense of

his duty, and to show him the foul dishonour that will rest upon him should

he persist in this contempt alike of our holy church and his honour as a

knight and a Christian, conduct that would bring upon him eternal infamy

and the scorn and contempt of all the princes and nobles of Europe, and

draw upon his head the wrath of the church." Then he abruptly turned on his

heel and left the audience-chamber, while the English envoys returned to

their house and made preparations for immediate departure.

A few minutes after his arrival there one of the duke's pages brought word

to Wulf that the duke desired to speak to him in private. He at once went

across to the palace. The duke received him cordially.

"I marked you were with the other thanes, and was glad to see one whom I

count as my friend. Tell me frankly, what think the people of England of

this monstrous act of perjury on the part of Harold?"

"To speak the truth, my lord duke," Wulf replied, "they trouble their heads

in no way about it. They hold that the right of electing their king rests

wholly with them, and that Harold's promise, to do what he had no more

power to do than the lowest born of Englishmen, was but a waste of words.

Harold himself feels the obligation far more than anyone else, and had

there been any other Englishman who could have united the people as well as

he could himself, he would gladly have stood aside; but there is none such,

and he had no choice but to accept the decision of the Witan, and, for the

sake of England, to lay aside his own scruples. The late king, too,

nominated him as his successor, and although his voice had no legal weight,

he is now regarded as almost a saint among the people. The fact, therefore,

that he, full of piety and religion as he was, should have held that

Harold's oath in no way prevented the people from choosing him, has gone

very far to satisfy any scruples that might have been felt."

"Edward at one time named me as his successor," the duke said shortly.

"So I have heard, my lord duke; but as he grew in years and learned more of

English feeling and character he became fully aware that the people would

accept no foreign prince, and that only the man who had for thirteen years

governed in his name could be their choice."

"And the great earls and thanes are likewise of that opinion?"

"Assuredly in Anglia and Wessex they are so. I know not the minds of Earls

Morcar and Edwin, but they were at the Witan and stood by his side at the

coronation, and doubtless felt that they could not rely upon their own

people if they attempted any open opposition to Harold."

"And you will support this usurper against me, Wulf?"

"I shall fight, my lord duke, for the king chosen by the people of England.

Should that choice some day fall on you I should be as faithful a follower

of yours as I am now of Harold."

"Well answered, young thane. You have twice done me loyal service, and I at

least do not forget my promises. As yet my mind is not made up as to my

course, but should fate will it so, William of England will not forget the

services rendered to William of Normandy."

A few minutes later Wulf rejoined his companions, and before nightfall the

ship was far on her way down the river.

"Shall we go back to Steyning, my lord, when we return home?" Osgod asked

as they stood by the bulwark together watching the passing shores.

"No, Osgod. I mean for a time to remain with the king. Baron de Burg

yesterday hinted to me that he thought it possible that some of the duke's

followers might endeavour to remove the obstacle between him and the throne

of England. There are in every country desperate men, who are ready for any

crime or deed of violence if they but think that its committal will bring

them a reward. We have had English kings assassinated before now, and it

has been the same in other countries. Moreover, there are many Normans who

were forced to fly from England when Godwin's family returned from exile.

These having a personal grudge against him would be willing to gratify it,

and at the same time to earn a place in William's favour. Harold is so

frank and unsuspicious that he will never think of taking precautions for

his personal safety. You and I, then, must serve as his watch-dogs. It may

be a difficult task, for we have no idea from what quarter that danger may

come, and yet by chance we may discover some clue or other that will set us

on the right track At any rate, if we are near him, and keep a watchful eye

on any strangers approaching him, we may save him from a treacherous blow."