captive. I have him--the Earl!--I have him! Go, Mallet, my
friend, now seek this sour-looking Englishman; and, hark thee! fill his
ear with all the tales thou canst think of as to Guy's cruelty and ire.
Enforce all the difficulties that lie in my way towards the Earl's
delivery. Great make the danger of the Earl's capture, and vast all the
favour of release. Comprehendest thou?"

"I am Norman, Monseigneur," replied De Graville, with a slight smile;
"and we Normans can make a short mantle cover a large space. You will
not be displeased with my address."

"Go then--go," said William, "and send me forthwith--Lanfranc--no,
hold--not Lanfranc, he is too scrupulous; Fitzosborne--no, too haughty.
Go, first, to my brother, Odo of Bayeux, and pray him to seek me on the
instant."

The knight bowed and vanished, and William continued to pace the room,
with sparkling eyes and murmuring lips.

CHAPTER II.

Not till after repeated messages, at first without talk of ransom and in
high tone, affected, no doubt, by William to spin out the negotiations,
and augment the value of his services, did Guy of Ponthieu consent to
release his illustrious captive,--the guerdon, a large sum and un bel
maneir [189] on the river Eaulne. But whether that guerdon were the fair
ransom fee, or the price for concerted snare, no man now can say, and
sharper than ours the wit that forms the more likely guess. These
stipulations effected, Guy himself opened the doors of the dungeon; and
affecting to treat the whole matter as one of law and right, now happily
and fairly settled, was as courteous and debonnair as he had before been
dark and menacing.

He even himself, with a brilliant train, accompanied Harold to the
Chateau d'Eu [190], whither William journeyed to give him the meeting;
and laughed with a gay grace at the Earl's short and scornful replies to
his compliments and excuses. At the gates of this chateau, not famous,
in after times, for the good faith of its lords, William himself, laying
aside all the pride of etiquette which he had established at his court,
came to receive his visitor; and aiding him to dismount embraced him
cordially, amidst a loud fanfaron of fifes and trumpets.

The flower of that glorious nobility, which a few generations had
sufficed to rear out of the lawless pirates of the Baltic, had been
selected to do honour alike to guest and host.

There were Hugo de Montfort and Roger de Beaumont, famous in coun