en the fleet speeding over the
waves.[6] Another spirited example of this same characteristic is
found in the _Roman de Rou_ [7] in the stirring account of the advance of
the Normans under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings:--

"Taillefer, who sang right well, mounted on a charger that went
swiftly, rode before the duke singing of Charlemagne and of Roland,
and of Oliver and the vassals who died at Roncesval. When they had
ridden until they came close to the English, 'Sire,' said Taillefer,
'a grace! I have served you long; for all my service, you owe me a
debt. To-day, an it please you, repay it me. For all my guerdon I beg
you and fervently I pray you, grant me to deal the first blow in the
battle!' The duke replied, 'I grant it.' And Taillefer pricked on
at full gallop, on before all the others he pressed. He struck an
Englishman and killed him; beneath the breast, clean through the body
he thrust his lance; he felled him down full length on the ground;
then he drew his sword, he struck another; then he cried, 'On, on!
What do ye? Strike, strike!' Then the English surrounded him at the
second blow that he dealt. Hark to the noise raised and the cries!"

Apart from matters of style, Wace made other changes from Geoffrey's
narrative that are more important for Arthurian romance. He wrote the
_Brut_ under the patronage of Henry II, and, if we may trust Layamon's
statement, he dedicated it to Queen Eleanor, who was the ardent
propagator in England of the courtly ideals of southern France.
Accordingly Wace, perhaps partly because of his own milieu, partly
because of his royal patroness, wove into Geoffrey's narrative more
pronouncedly chivalric material. The lack of the courtly virtue of
mesure (moderation) that is noticeable in Geoffrey's Arthur, Wace is
careful to conceal; he gives, furthermore, a place to the descriptions
of love, which fill so many lines in the later romances, but which are
absent from Geoffrey's pages. Gawain, for instance, who is "valiant
and of very great moderation," declares that jesting and the delights
of love are good, and that for the sake of his lady a young knight
performs deeds of chivalry.[8] In addition to these changes, which
are to be attributed to his personal bent and surroundings, Wace also
makes it clear that he was conversant with stories of Arthur quite
independent of the _Historia_. Fables about Arthur he himself says that
he had heard, as we have seen, and from th