ister of
William, Robert, and Odo. There was a kinsman, nearer in legitimate
succession to the stock of Rolf than William himself,--Richard of
Evreux, the son of Robert the Archbishop, the grandson of Richard the
Fearless. There was the true kinsman and vassal who guarded the
frontier fortress of Eu, the brother of the traitor Busac and of the
holy prelate of Lisieux. There was Roger of Beaumont, who rid the
world of Roger of Toesny, and Ralph, the worthier grandson of that old
foe of Normandy and mankind. There was Ralph's companion in
banishment, Hugh of Grantmesnil, and Roger of Montgomery, the loyal
son-in-law of him who cursed the Bastard in his cradle. There too were
the other worthies of the day of Mortemar, Walter Giffard and Hugh of
Montfort, and William of Warren, the valiant youth who had received
the chiefest guerdon of that memorable ambush. These men, chiefs of
the great houses of Normandy, founders, some of them, of greater
houses in England, were gathered together at their sovereign's
bidding. They were to be the first to share his counsels in the
enterprise which he was planning, an enterprise planned against the
land which with so many in that assembly was to become a second home,
a home perhaps all the more cherished that it was won by the might of
their own right hands.

To this select Council the duke made his first appeal. He told them,
what some of them at least knew well already, of the wrongs which he
had suffered from Harold of England. It was his purpose to cross the
sea, in order to assert his rights and to chastise the wrong-doer.
With the help of God and with the loyal service of his faithful
Normans, he doubted not his power to do what he purposed. He had
gathered them together to know their minds upon the matter. Did they
approve of his purpose? Did they deem the enterprise within his power?
Were they ready themselves to help him to the uttermost to recover his
right? The answer of the Norman leaders, the personal kinsmen and
friends of their sovereign, was wise and constitutional. They approved
his purpose; they deemed that the enterprise was not beyond the power
of Normandy to accomplish. The valor of the Norman knighthood, the
wealth of the Norman Church, was fully enough to put their duke in
possession of all that he claimed. Their own personal service they
pledged at once; they would follow him to the war; they would pledge,
they would sell, their lands to cover the costs of the exp