beast, for his head well nigh touched the
ground. Whereon I did ask thee, in a Latin play of words, to give me at
least a quadruped, not a tripod, for my journey. [65] Gracious, even in
ire, and with relenting laugh, was thine answer. My liege, thy words
implied banishment--thy laughter pardon. So I stayed."

Despite his wrath, William could scarce repress a smile; but recollecting
himself, he replied, more gravely, "Peace with this levity, priest.
Doubtless thou art the envoy from this scrupulous Mauger, or some other
of my gentle clergy; and thou comest, as doubtless, with soft words and
whining homilies. It is in vain. I hold the Church in holy reverence;
the pontiff knows it. But Matilda of Flanders I have wooed; and Matilda
of Flanders shall sit by my side in the halls of Rouen, or on the deck of
my war-ship, till it anchors on a land worthy to yield a new domain to
the son of the Sea-king."

"In the halls of Rouen--and it may be on the throne of England--shall
Matilda reign by the side of William," said the priest in a clear, low,
and emphatic voice; "and it was to tell my lord the Duke that I repent me
of my first unconsidered obeisance to Mauger as my spiritual superior;
that since then I have myself examined canon and precedent; and though
the letter of the law be against thy spousals, it comes precisely under
the category of those alliances to which the fathers of the Church accord
dispensation:--it is to tell thee this, that I, plain Doctor of Laws and
priest of Pavia, have crossed the seas."

"Ha Rou!--Ha Rou!" cried Taillefer, with his usual bluffness, and
laughing with great glee, "why wouldst thou not listen to me,
monseigneur?"

"If thou deceivest me not," said William, in surprise, "and thou canst
make good thy words, no prelate in Neustria, save Odo of Bayeux, shall
lift his head high as thine." And here William, deeply versed in the
science of men, bent his eyes keenly upon the unchanging and earnest face
of the speaker. "Ah," he burst out, as if satisfied with the survey,
"and my mind tells me that thou speakest not thus boldly and calmly
without ground sufficient. Man, I like thee. Thy name? I forget it."

"Lanfranc of Pavia, please you my lord; called some times 'Lanfranc the
Scholar' in thy cloister of Bec. Nor misdeem me, that I, humble,
unmitred priest, should be thus bold. In birth I am noble, and my
kindred stand near to the grace of our ghostly pontiff; to the pontiff I
myse