No words can express the excitement which this rough minstrelsymarred as it is by our poor translation from the Romance-tongue in which it was chantedproduced amongst the Norman guests; less perhaps, indeed, the song itself, than the recognition of the minstrel; and as he closed, from more than a hundred voices came the loud murmur, only subdued from a shout by the royal presence, Taillefer, our Norman Taillefer!
By our joint saint, Peter, my cousin the King, exclaimed William, after a frank cordial laugh; Well I wot, no tongue less free than my warrior minstrels could have so shocked our ears. Excuse his bold theme, for the sake of his bold heart, I pray thee; and since I know well (here the Dukes face grew grave and anxious) that nought save urgent and weighty news from my stormy realm could have brought over this rhyming petrel, permit the officer behind me to lead hither a bird, I fear, of omen as well as of song.
Whatever pleases thee, pleases me, said Edward, drily; and he gave the order to the attendant. In a few moments, up the space in the hall, between either table, came the large stride of the famous minstrel, preceded by the officer and followed by the ecclesiastic. The hoods of both were now thrown back, and discovered countenances in strange contrast, but each equally worthy of the attention it provoked. The face of the minstrel was open and sunny as the day; and that of the priest, dark and close as night. Thick curls of deep auburn (the most common colour for the locks of the Norman) wreathed in careless disorder round Taillefers massive unwrinkled brow. His eye, of light hazel, was bold and joyous; mirth, though sarcastic and sly, mantled round his lips. His whole presence was at once engaging and heroic.
On the other hand, the priests cheek was dark and sallow; his features singularly delicate and refined; his forehead high, but somewhat narrow, and crossed with lines of thought; his mien composed, modest, but not without calm self-confidence. Amongst that assembly of soldiers, noiseless, self-collected, and conscious of his surpassing power over swords and mail, moved the SCHOLAR.
Williams keen eye rested on the priest with some surprise, not unmixed with pride and ire; but first addressing Taillefer, who now gained the foot of the dais, he said, with a familiarity almost fond:
Now, byre Lady, if thou bringest not ill news, thy gay face, man, is pleasanter to mine eyes that thy rough song to my ears. Kneel, Taillefer, kneel to King Edward, and with more address, rogue, than our unlucky countryman to King Charles.
But Edward, as ill-liking the form of the giant as the subject of his lay, said, pushing back his seat as far as he could:
Nay, nay, we excuse thee, we excuse thee, tall man. Nevertheless, the minstrel still knelt, and so, with a look of profound humility, did the priest. Then both slowly rose, and at a sign from the Duke, passed to the other side of the table, standing behind Fitzosbornes chair.
Clerk, said William, eying deliberately the sallow face of the ecclesiastic; I know thee of old; and if the Church have sent me an envoy, per la resplendar De, it should have sent me at least an abbot.
Hein, hein! said Taillefer, bluntly, vex not my bon camarade, Count of the Normans. Gramercy, thou wilt welcome him, peradventure, better than me; for the singer tells but of discord, and the sage may restore the harmony.
Ha! said the Duke, and the frown fell so dark over his eyes that the last seemed only visible by two sparks of fire. I guess, my proud Vavasours are mutinous. Retire, thou and thy comrade. Await me in my chamber. The feast shall not flag in London because the wind blows a gale in Rouen.
The two envoys, since so they seemed, bowed in silence and withdrew.
Nought of ill-tidings, I trust, said Edward, who had not listened to the whispered communications that had passed between the Duke and his subjects. No schism in thy Church? The clerk seemed a peaceful man, and a humble.
An there were schism in my Church, said the fiery Duke, my brother of Bayeux would settle it by arguments as close as the gap between cord and throttle.
Ah! thou art, doubtless, well read in the canons, holy Odo! said the King, turning to the bishop with more respect than he had yet evinced towards that gentle prelate.
Canons, yes, Seigneur, I draw them up myself for my flock conformably with such interpretations of the Roman Church as suit best with the Norman realm: and woe to deacon, monk, or abbot, who chooses to misconstrue them. 61
The bishop looked so truculent and menacing, while his fancy thus conjured up the possibility of heretical dissent, that Edward shrank from him as he had done from Taillefer; and in a few minutes after, on exchange of signals between himself and the Duke, who, impatient to escape, was too stately to testify that desire, the retirement of the royal party broke up the banquet; save, indeed, that a few of the elder Saxons, and more incorrigible Danes, still steadily kept their seats, and were finally dislodged from their later settlements on the stone floors, to find themselves, at dawn, carefully propped in a row against the outer walls of the palace, with their patient attendants, holding links, and gazing on their masters with stolid envy, if not of the repose at least of the drugs that had caused it.
CHAPTER II
And now, said William, reclining on a long and narrow couch, with raised carved work all round it like a box (the approved fashion of a bed in those days), now, Sire Tailleferthy news.
There were then in the Dukes chamber, the Count Fitzosborne, Lord of Breteuil, surnamed the Proud Spiritwho, with great dignity, was holding before the brazier the ample tunic of linen (called dormitorium in the Latin of that time, and night-rail in the Saxon tongue) in which his lord was to robe his formidable limbs for repose 62,Taillefer, who stood erect before the Duke as a Roman sentry at his post,and the ecclesiastic, a little apart, with arms gathered under his gown, and his bright dark eyes fixed on the ground.
High and puissant, my liege, then said Taillefer, gravely, and with a shade of sympathy on his large face, my news is such as is best told briefly: Bunaz, Count dEu and descendant of Richard Sanspeur, hath raised the standard of revolt.
Go on, said the Duke, clenching his hand.
Henry, King of the French, is treating with the rebel, and stirring up mutiny in thy realm, and pretenders to thy throne.
Ha! said the Duke, and his lip quivered; this is not all.
No, my liege! and the worst is to come. Thy uncle Mauger, knowing that thy heart is bent on thy speedy nuptials with the high and noble damsel, Matilda of Flanders, has broken out again in thine absenceis preaching against thee in hall and from pulpit. He declares that such espousals are incestuous, both as within the forbidden degrees, and inasmuch as Adele, the ladys mother, was betrothed to thine uncle Richard; and Mauger menaces excommunication if my liege pursues his suit! 63 So troubled is the realm, that I, waiting not for debate in council, and fearing sinister ambassage if I did so, took ship from thy port of Cherbourg, and have not flagged rein, and scarce broken bread, till I could say to the heir of Rolf the FounderSave thy realm from the men of mail, and thy bride from the knaves in serge.
No, my liege! and the worst is to come. Thy uncle Mauger, knowing that thy heart is bent on thy speedy nuptials with the high and noble damsel, Matilda of Flanders, has broken out again in thine absenceis preaching against thee in hall and from pulpit. He declares that such espousals are incestuous, both as within the forbidden degrees, and inasmuch as Adele, the ladys mother, was betrothed to thine uncle Richard; and Mauger menaces excommunication if my liege pursues his suit! 63 So troubled is the realm, that I, waiting not for debate in council, and fearing sinister ambassage if I did so, took ship from thy port of Cherbourg, and have not flagged rein, and scarce broken bread, till I could say to the heir of Rolf the FounderSave thy realm from the men of mail, and thy bride from the knaves in serge.
Ho, ho! cried William; then bursting forth in full wrath, as he sprang from the couch. Hearest thou this, Lord Seneschal? Seven years, the probation of the patriarch, have I wooed and waited; and lo, in the seventh, does a proud priest say to me, Wrench the love from thy heart-strings!Excommunicate meMEWilliam, the son of Robert the Devil! Ha, by Gods splendour, Mauger shall live to wish the father stood, in the foul fiends true likeness, by his side, rather than brave the bent brow of the son!
Dread my lord, said Fitzosborne, desisting from his employ, and rising to his feet; thou knowest that I am thy true friend and leal knight; thou knowest how I have aided thee in this marriage with the lady of Flanders, and how gravely I think that what pleases thy fancy will guard thy realm; but rather than brave the order of the Church, and the ban of the Pope, I would see thee wed to the poorest virgin in Normandy.
William, who had been pacing the room like an enraged lion in his den, halted in amaze at this bold speech.
This from thee, William Fitzosborne!from thee! I tell thee, that if all the priests in Christendom, and all the barons in France, stood between me and my bride, I would hew my way through the midst. Foes invade my realmlet them; princes conspire against meI smile in scorn; subjects mutinythis strong hand can punish, or this large heart can forgive. All these are the dangers which he who governs men should prepare to meet; but man has a right to his love, as the stag to his hind. And he who wrongs me here, is foe and traitor to me, not as Norman Duke but as human being. Look to itthou and thy proud barons, look to it!
Proud may thy barons be, said Fitzosborne, reddening, and with a brow that quailed not before his lords; for they are the sons of those who carved out the realm of the Norman, and owned in Rou but the feudal chief of free warriors; vassals are not villeins. And that which we hold our dutywhether to Church or chiefthat, Duke William, thy proud barons will doubtless do; nor less, believe me, for threats which, braved in discharge of duty and defence of freedom, we hold as air.
The Duke gazed on his haughty subject with an eye in which a meaner spirit might have seen its doom. The veins in his broad temples swelled like cords, and a light foam gathered round his quivering lips. But fiery and fearless as William was, not less was he sagacious and profound. In that one man he saw the representative of that superb and matchless chivalrythat race of racesthose men of men, in whom the brave acknowledge the highest example of valiant deeds, and the free the manliest assertion of noble thoughts 64, since the day when the last Athenian covered his head with his mantle, and mutely died: and far from being the most stubborn against his will, it was to Fitzosbornes paramount influence with the council, that he had often owed their submission to his wishes, and their contributions to his wars. In the very tempest of his wrath, he felt that the blow belonged to strike on that bold head would shiver his ducal throne to the dust. Be felt too, that awful indeed was that power of the Church which could thus turn against him the heart of his truest knight: and he began (for with all his outward frankness his temper was suspicious) to wrong the great-souled noble by the thought that he might already be won over by the enemies whom Mauger had arrayed against his nuptials. Therefore, with one of those rare and mighty efforts of that dissimulation which debased his character, but achieved his fortunes, he cleared his brow of its dark cloud, and said in a low voice, that was not without its pathos:
Had an angel from heaven forewarned me that William Fitzosborne would speak thus to his kinsman and brother in arms, in the hour of need and the agony of passion, I would have disbelieved him. Let it pass
But ere the last word was out of his lips, Fitzosborne had fallen on his knees before the Duke, and, clasping his hand, exclaimed, while the tears rolled down his swarthy cheek, Pardon, pardon, my liege! when thou speakest thus my heart melts. What thou willest, that will I! Church or Pope, no matter. Send me to Flanders; I will bring back thy bride.
The slight smile that curved Williams lip, showed that he was scarce worthy of that sublime weakness in his friend. But he cordially pressed the hand that grasped his own, and said, Rise; thus should brother speak to brother. Thenfor his wrath was only concealed, not stifled, and yearned for its venthis eye fell upon the delicate and thoughtful face of the priest, who had watched this short and stormy conference in profound silence, despite Taillefers whispers to him to interrupt the dispute. So, priest, he said, I remember me that when Mauger before let loose his rebellious tongue thou didst lend thy pedant learning to eke out his brainless treason. Methought that I then banished thee my realm?
Not so, Count and Seigneur, answered the ecclesiastic, with a grave but arch smile on his lip; let me remind thee, that to speed me back to my native land thou didst graciously send me a horse, halting on three legs, and all lame on the fourth. Thus mounted, I met thee on my road. I saluted thee; so did the beast, for his head well nigh touched the ground. Whereon I did ask thee, in a Latin play of words, to give me at least a quadruped, not a tripod, for my journey. 65 Gracious, even in ire, and with relenting laugh, was thine answer. My liege, thy words implied banishmentthy laughter pardon. So I stayed.
Despite his wrath, William could scarce repress a smile; but recollecting himself, he replied, more gravely, Peace with this levity, priest. Doubtless thou art the envoy from this scrupulous Mauger, or some other of my gentle clergy; and thou comest, as doubtless, with soft words and whining homilies. It is in vain. I hold the Church in holy reverence; the pontiff knows it. But Matilda of Flanders I have wooed; and Matilda of Flanders shall sit by my side in the halls of Rouen, or on the deck of my war-ship, till it anchors on a land worthy to yield a new domain to the son of the Sea-king.
In the halls of Rouenand it may be on the throne of Englandshall Matilda reign by the side of William, said the priest in a clear, low, and emphatic voice; and it was to tell my lord the Duke that I repent me of my first unconsidered obeisance to Mauger as my spiritual superior; that since then I have myself examined canon and precedent; and though the letter of the law be against thy spousals, it comes precisely under the category of those alliances to which the fathers of the Church accord dispensation:it is to tell thee this, that I, plain Doctor of Laws and priest of Pavia, have crossed the seas.