of Kent was then led back into an ante-room, in which, armed
from head to heel in ring-mail, were several Normans whose youth or
station did not admit them into the council, but still of no mean
interest in the discussion, from the lands and possessions they had
already contrived to gripe out of the demesnes of the exiles;--burning
for battle and eager for the word. Amongst these was Mallet de Graville.

The Norman valour of this young knight was, as we have seen, guided by
Norman intelligence; and he had not disdained, since William's departure,
to study the tongue of the country in which he hoped to exchange his
mortgaged tower on the Seine, for some fair barony on the Humber or the
Thames.

While the rest of his proud countrymen stood aloof, with eyes of silent
scorn, from the homely nuncius, Mallet approached him with courteous
bearing, and said in Saxon:

"May I crave to know the issue of thy message from the reb--that is from
the doughty Earl?"

"I wait to learn it," said Vebba, bluffly.

"They heard thee throughout, then?"

"Throughout."

"Friendly Sir," said the Sire de Graville, seeking to subdue the tone of
irony habitual to him, and acquired, perhaps, from his maternal ancestry,
the Franks. "Friendly and peace-making Sir, dare I so far venture to
intrude on the secrets of thy mission as to ask if Godwin demands, among
other reasonable items, the head of thy humble servant--not by name
indeed, for my name is as yet unknown to him--but as one of the unhappy
class called Normans?"

"Had Earl Godwin," returned the nuncius, "thought fit to treat for peace
by asking vengeance, he would have chosen another spokesman. The Earl
asks but his own; and thy head is not, I trow, a part of his goods and
chattels."

"That is comforting," said Mallet. "Marry, I thank thee, Sir Saxon; and
thou speakest like a brave man and an honest. And if we fall to blows,
as I suspect we shall, I should deem it a favour of our Lady the Virgin
if she send thee across my way. Next to a fair friend I love a bold
foe."

Vebba smiled, for he liked the sentiment, and the tone and air of the
young knight pleased his rough mind, despite his prejudices against the
stranger.

Encouraged by the smile, Mallet seated himself on the corner of the long
table that skirted the room, and with a debonnair gesture invited Vebba
to do the same; then looking at him gravely, he resumed:

"So frank and courteous thou art, Sir Envoy, that I ye