shield."

"Thou sayest right, and we can ill spare such a warrior. Gautier
Giffart, Sire de Longueville, to thee is the gonfanon."

"Beau Sire," answered Gautier; "par Dex, Merci. But my head is grey and
my arm weak; and the little strength left me I would spend in smiting the
English at the head of my men."

"Per la resplendar De," cried William, frowning;--"do ye think, my proud
vavasours, to fail me in this great need?"

"Nay," said Gautier; "but I have a great host of chevaliers and paid
soldiers, and without the old man at their head will they fight as well?"

"Then, approach thou, Tonstain le Blanc, son of Rou," said William; "and
be thine the charge of a standard that shall wave ere nightfall over the
brows of thy--King!" A young knight, tall and strong as his Danish
ancestor, stept forth, and laid gripe on the banner.

Then William, now completely armed, save his helmet, sprang at one bound
on his steed. A shout of admiration rang from the Quens and knights.

"Saw ye ever such beau rei?" [266] said the Vicomte de Thouars.

The shout was caught by the lines, and echoed afar, wide, and deep
through the armament, as in all his singular majesty of brow and mien,
William rode forth: lifting his hand, the shout hushed, and thus he spoke
"loud as a trumpet with a silver sound."

"Normans and soldiers, long renowned in the lips of men, and now hallowed
by the blessing of the Church!--I have not brought you over the wide seas
for my cause alone; what I gain, ye gain. If I take the land, you will
share it. Fight your best, and spare not; no retreat, and no quarter! I
am not come here for my cause alone, but to avenge our whole nation for
the felonies of yonder English. They butchered our kinsmen the Danes, on
the night of St. Brice; they murdered Alfred, the brother of their last
King, and decimated the Normans who were with him. Yonder they
stand,--malefactors that await their doom! and ye the doomsmen! Never,
even in a good cause, were yon English illustrious for warlike temper and
martial glory [267]. Remember how easily the Danes subdued them! Are ye
less than Danes, or I than Canute? By victory ye obtain vengeance,
glory, honours, lands, spoil,--aye, spoil beyond your wildest dreams. By
defeat,--yea, even but by loss of ground, ye are given up to the sword!
Escape there is not, for the ships are useless. Before you the foe,
behind you the ocean. Normans, remember the feats of your countrymen