ut
a struggle of wit against wit, snare against snare. The state and law of
warfare had started up in the lap of fraudful peace; and ambush must be
met by ambush, plot by plot.

Such was the nature of the self-excuses by which the Saxon defended his
resolves, and they appeared to him more sanctioned by the stake which
depended on success--a stake which his undying patriotism allowed to be
far more vast than his individual ambition. Nothing was more clear than
that if he were detained in a Norman prison, at the time of King Edward's
death, the sole obstacle to William's design on the English throne would
be removed. In the interim, the Duke's intrigues would again surround
the infirm King with Norman influences; and in the absence both of any
legitimate heir to the throne capable of commanding the trust of the
people, and of his own preponderating ascendancy both in the Witan and
the armed militia of the nation, what could arrest the designs of the
grasping Duke? Thus his own liberty was indissolubly connected with that
of his country; and for that great end, the safety of England, all means
grew holy.

When the next morning he joined the cavalcade, it was only by his extreme
paleness that the struggle and agony of the past night could be traced,
and he answered with correspondent cheerfulness William's cordial
greetings.

As they rode together--still accompanied by several knights, and the
discourse was thus general, the features of the country suggested the
theme of the talk. For, now in the heart of Normandy, but in rural
districts remote from the great towns, nothing could be more waste and
neglected than the face of the land. Miserable and sordid to the last
degree were the huts of the serfs; and when these last met them on their
way, half naked and hunger-worn, there was a wild gleam of hate and
discontent in their eyes, as they louted low to the Norman riders, and
heard the bitter and scornful taunts with which they were addressed; for
the Norman and the Frank had more than indifference for the peasants of
their land; they literally both despised and abhorred them, as of
different race from the conquerors. The Norman settlement especially was
so recent in the land, that none of that amalgamation between class and
class which centuries had created in England, existed there; though in
England the theowe was wholly a slave, and the ceorl in a political
servitude to his lord, yet public opinion, more mild th