tood, in the foul fiend's true likeness, by his side, rather than brave
the bent brow of the son!"

"Dread my lord," said Fitzosborne, desisting from his employ, and rising
to his feet; "thou knowest that I am thy true friend and leal knight;
thou knowest how I have aided thee in this marriage with the lady of
Flanders, and how gravely I think that what pleases thy fancy will guard
thy realm; but rather than brave the order of the Church, and the ban of
the Pope, I would see thee wed to the poorest virgin in Normandy."

William, who had been pacing the room like an enraged lion in his den,
halted in amaze at this bold speech.

"This from thee, William Fitzosborne!--from thee! I tell thee, that if
all the priests in Christendom, and all the barons in France, stood
between me and my bride, I would hew my way through the midst. Foes
invade my realm--let them; princes conspire against me--I smile in scorn;
subjects mutiny--this strong hand can punish, or this large heart can
forgive. All these are the dangers which he who governs men should
prepare to meet; but man has a right to his love, as the stag to his
hind. And he who wrongs me here, is foe and traitor to me, not as Norman
Duke but as human being. Look to it--thou and thy proud barons, look to
it!"

"Proud may thy barons be," said Fitzosborne, reddening, and with a brow
that quailed not before his lord's; "for they are the sons of those who
carved out the realm of the Norman, and owned in Rou but the feudal chief
of free warriors; vassals are not villeins. And that which we hold our
duty--whether to Church or chief--that, Duke William, thy proud barons
will doubtless do; nor less, believe me, for threats which, braved in
discharge of duty and defence of freedom, we hold as air."

The Duke gazed on his haughty subject with an eye in which a meaner
spirit might have seen its doom. The veins in his broad temples swelled
like cords, and a light foam gathered round his quivering lips. But
fiery and fearless as William was, not less was he sagacious and
profound. In that one man he saw the representative of that superb and
matchless chivalry--that race of races--those men of men, in whom the
brave acknowledge the highest example of valiant deeds, and the free the
manliest assertion of noble thoughts [64], since the day when the last
Athenian covered his head with his mantle, and mutely died: and far from
being the most stubborn against his will, it was to Fitz