the chamberlain went his round with the parting gifts, I, standing in the
angle of the wall in the yard, heard the Duke's deep whisper to Roger
Bigod, who has the guard of the keape, 'Have the men all armed at noon in
the passage below the council-hall, to mount at the stamp of my foot: and
if then I give thee a prisoner--wonder not, but lodge him--' The Duke
paused; and Bigod said, 'Where, my liege?' And the Duke answered
fiercely, 'Where? why, where but in the Tour noir?--where but in the cell
in which Malvoisin rotted out his last hour?' Not yet, then, let the
memory of Norman wile pass away; let the lip guard the freedom still."

All the bright native soul that before Haco spoke had dawned gradually
back on the Earl's fair face, now closed itself up, as the leaves of a
poisoned flower; and the pupil of the eye receding, left to the orb that
secret and strange expression which had baffled all readers of the heart
in the look of his impenetrable father.

"Guile by guile oppose!" he muttered vaguely; then started, clenched his
hand, and smiled.

In a few moments, more than the usual levee of Norman nobles thronged
into the room; and what with the wonted order of the morning, in the
repast, the church service of tierce, and a ceremonial visit to Matilda,
who confirmed the intelligence that all was in preparation for his
departure, and charged him with gifts of her own needlework to his sister
the Queen, and various messages of gracious nature, the time waxed late
into noon without his having yet seen either William or Odo.

He was still with Matilda, when the Lords Fitzosborne and Raoul de
Tancarville entered in full robes of state, and with countenances
unusually composed and grave, and prayed the Earl to accompany them into
the Duke's presence.

Harold obeyed in silence, not unprepared for covert danger, by the
formality of the counts, as by the warnings of Haco; but, indeed,
undivining the solemnity of the appointed snare. On entering the lofty
hall, he beheld William seated in state; his sword of office in his hand,
his ducal robe on his imposing form, and with that peculiarly erect air
of the head which he assumed upon all ceremonial occasions [203]. Behind
him stood Odo of Bayeux, in aube and gallium; some score of the Duke's
greatest vassals; and at a little distance from the throne chair, was
what seemed a table; or vast chest, covered all over with cloth of gold.

Small time for wonder or self-collect