Father Theodred offered to the earl the carved settle which stood before his writing-desk, and De Guader sank into it with a sigh, and for a time was silent. Theodred, meanwhile, acceding with rare delicacy to his guest"s mood, turned to a corner of the room in which was fitted up a small shrine of the Virgin, and busied himself by tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the little lamp of oil which burned before it perpetually.
He was a man of about fifty years of age, strongly built, and of the very fair complexion characteristic of the Anglo-Danes, the ring of hair upon his tonsured head being lighter in colour than the shaven crown, with a ruddy, healthy face, and kind, frank blue eyes.
"Thine occupation, father, reminds me that I am the guest of a holy man," said the earl, as the almoner turned to him again. "I prithee give me thy blessing."
"Thou hast it, my son," answered the priest, extending his hands and making the sign of the cross over Ralph"s bent head, and murmuring a benediction.
"Thou sayest," Ralph began, after a time, "that the Lady Emma has expressed her desire to consult thee. The matter on which she desires thy guidance is one of some weight."
Theodred seated himself on a wooden stool at a short distance from the earl.
"Doubtless the matter on which the n.o.ble Earl of East Anglia would consult me is one of importance also?" he said.
"The matter on which we twain seek thee, father, is one and the same,"
said Ralph, with a smile, "as thy shrewd wits have doubtless already opined."
"I had some such notion," answered the almoner gravely.
"Father Theodred," said Ralph, grave in his turn, "thou hast the reputation of an honourable man, and I am about to repose in thee a trust that will put the fortunes, and even the lives, of more than one n.o.ble personage, including myself, in thy hands."
Theodred sprang up hastily.
"Stay thy tongue, n.o.ble earl!" said he; "trust neither thy fortune nor thy life in my hands. Thou knowest my English sympathies, and how thou hast outraged them. How can I bear goodwill to the only English n.o.ble who fought beside the Norman on the fatal field where Harold G.o.dwinsson--whom G.o.d a.s.soilzie!--lost his precious life?"
The powerful De Guader, famed for his pride and haughtiness, and his impatience of all rebuke, even from his royal master, bore this bold speech from the Earl of Hereford"s almoner with bent head and dejected mien.
"What if I repent?" he asked softly, his rich voice quavering as he spoke.
Theodred gazed at him with astonished and doubtful eyes, and came back to his stool and sat down again opposite to him.
The earl raised his head and looked the almoner in the face with a keen, appealing glance.
"What if it is to those very English sympathies that I appeal?" he asked.
Theodred, considerably affected, answered, "Nay then, speak out."
"And if thou canst not support me, what I say shall be as unspoken?"
"Even so."
"Swear thou that on the bones of St. Guthlac!"
"The son of Ralph the Staller should know that an Englishman"s word is as good as his oath."
"I will trust thy good faith. A half confidence is but a fool"s wisdom.
The point on which the Lady Emma will ask thy guidance is as to whether she shall yet deign to be my wife."
"Ah!" said Theodred, almost involuntarily, in a low tone; "hast thou ventured so far? Against the king"s veto?"
"By St. Eadward, yes!"
Theodred"s face darkened. "Take not the name of that holy saint, who was world-king and heaven-king also, to witness to thy sin! Thinkest thou I will aid thee in treachery to thy liege lord?"
"Sin or no sin, there are those high in the Church who will aid me.
Dost thou esteem thyself holier than these?"
The earl leaned forward and whispered in Theodred"s ear the names of several high dignitaries of the English Church, including several abbots and bishops.
Theodred betrayed great astonishment.
"What meanest thou?" he asked.
"I mean that there is more in this matter than is at present understanded of thee," said De Guader. "Perhaps some insight into my own standpoint would best help thee to the whole question."
The almoner a.s.sumed an att.i.tude of respectful attention.
"Thou dost me great honour, n.o.ble earl," he said. "Nevertheless I must protest that as a simple priest I had rather keep to matters more within my province."
"These matters must be within thy province, since thy guidance will be asked by the n.o.ble demoiselle whose part in them is of such import,"
urged De Guader; and the priest sighed deeply, for he had a great love for the gentle girl whose adviser he must needs be in this the chief step of her young life. He saw nothing but strife before her, and was sorely perplexed as to whether he should forward her happiness, or, still more, her spiritual welfare, by aiding or hindering the suit of the turbulent man who was thus seeking to win him to his side, and whom he scarcely knew whether to abhor for his part at Senlac, or to love as the son of Ralph the Staller. Certes De Guader"s show of contrition had strangely moved him, and the bruised and bleeding patriotism which was his strongest pa.s.sion waked into painful life at the sight.
"Thou knowest," said Earl Ralph, "how, when my n.o.ble father, Ralph the Staller, died, Earl G.o.dwin, in his hate of the Normans, or any from across the straits, worked with the blessed King Eadward against my Breton mother and myself, her stripling son, or rather, I should say, so wearied him out with complaints against us, made by his daughter Eadgyth, the king"s wife, that at last the good king gave ear to a trumped-up story of treasonable practices on our innocent parts, and took my father"s lands from his widow and orphan, so that we had to go beyond the sea to my mother"s estates in Bretagne."
"I have heard a version of the matter," said Theodred--"somewhat differing!" he added, under his breath.
"Canst thou wonder, then, that my love for Harold G.o.dwinsson was not overflowing? the more so as he claimed for himself those dear lands of Norfolk and Suffolk, where my boyhood had been pa.s.sed. Canst thou wonder that, when he broke his oath to William of Normandy, whom he had sworn not to hinder in his claims to the English throne,--sworn, as thou knowest, on the most sacred relics"--
Theodred groaned. "Harold knew not that the relics were there till after he had sworn," he murmured.
"An Englishman"s word should be as good as his oath, thou hast said it," rejoined the earl. "Canst thou wonder, I ask, that I ranged myself under the banner of the leader whose accolade had given me knighthood to win back those lands of my father"s?"
"How couldst thou? How couldst thou fight thy father"s countrymen, even to win back thy father"s lands?" cried the priest, with irrepressible emotion.
Ralph sprang up and paced about the room. "Nay, I would give my right hand I had not done it," he said; "but," he added bitterly, "I am sufficiently punished! After all my valour and manifold services, the haughty b.a.s.t.a.r.d deems me not good enough to become his kinsman, and insults me by forbidding me the hand of his kinswoman."
His face was dark with scorn, and the peculiar gleam of green was in his eyes which gave so strange an expression to his anger, while the level brows met above them. Evidently wounded pride had more to do with his repentance than patriotic contrition.
But it was not convenient to admit so much even to himself. "Blood is stronger than water, in good sooth," he continued, "and my father"s blood rebels in my veins when I see the hungry Normans ousting staunch English families from their holdings, and revelling in the fat of the land. I had not thought of all that must follow the setting of William on the throne, for I dreamt not that Harold"s following had been so strong, or that the tussle would be so bitter. And now that William is away, the curs snuffle and snarl and tear the quarry like hounds without a huntsman, while Hereford and I, through his silly jealousy, have our hands tied, and are powerless to keep order in the land. I tell thee it is galling beyond endurance to see the base churls, whom never a knight would have spoken to in Normandy but to give them an order, ruffling it with the best, and strutting as they had been born n.o.bles, lording it over high-born English dames and damsels, whose fathers and husbands they have slain, and whose fortunes they are wasting in riot!"
"Galling beyond endurance!" repeated Theodred, springing up with a gesture of anguish. "Christ grant me pardon for the hate that springeth in my heart for the doers of such wrong, for it bids fair to overflow the barriers of my control whenever I let my thoughts wander from the comfort of heavenly things to earthly miseries!"
De Guader"s eyes gleamed with triumph as he saw his companion so deeply moved. Stopping in his tiger walk up and down the room, he laid his strong hand upon Theodred"s arm.
"Then help me to redress the wrong and repair the mistake!" he said.
Theodred turned on him fiercely. "Repair the mistake! Canst thou bring then the dead to life, or gather from the soil one drop of the n.o.ble blood that has been poured forth upon it like water, the dark stains of which still scare the traveller, and call to Heaven for vengeance?"
"Nay, St. Nicholas defend me!" answered the earl, "I can do neither of these things. There is that which cannot be undone, and can only be atoned by bitter penance and humble contrition. But there is that which may be restored. Ruined men may have their own again. Prisoners can be set free. Doth not Archbishop Stigand still languish in durance? Is not thine own beloved bishop and Stigand"s brother, aethelmaer, living in poverty and shame, since William"s tyrannical deprivation of his see on false and scandalous charges?"