n the one hand, William claimed to be the lawful
sovereign, and, on the other, the Pope had blessed the invaders, it
was clear that the Godrics and Thurkills who had committed their
cause to God before the wonder-working black cross of St. Mary's
Altar, were but rebels, and that the monks who had blessed them
were schismatics.

Hence the Normans in their hour of victory had cleared out laymen
and monks alike, root and branch, and the French tongue had
superseded the good old Anglo-Saxon dialect in the district.

It was a fine May evening, and the country was lovely in the
foliage of early summer.

A boat was descending the Isis, rowed by six stout rowers; it was
evidently from Oxenford, for the men bore the badges of Robert
D'Oyly, the Norman lord of that city, who had just built the tower
which yet stands, gray and old, beside the mound raised on Isis
banks by Ethelfleda, lady of Mercia, daughter of the great Alfred,
and sister of Edward the Elder.

In the stern of the boat sat Etienne de Malville.

He had journeyed first to Warwick, where he met the fugitives from
Aescendune, and heard their story; burning with revenge, he had
sought the aid of Henry de Beauchamp, the Norman governor of the
city; but that worthy, seeing the whole countryside in rebellion,
bade Etienne repair to the king for further aid, while he himself
shut his gates, provisioned his castle, and promised to hold out
against the whole force of the Midlands, until the royal banner
came to scatter the rebels, like chaff before the winds.

Then Etienne repaired to Oxenford, where he was the guest of the
new governor, Robert D'Oyly, for the night, who sent him on by boat
to meet the king at Abingdon, whither William was daily expected to
arrive to keep Ascensiontide, for he was still observant of such
duties.

The servitors, seeing a boat arrive thus manned, were sensible at
once it must contain a traveller or pilgrim of some importance--
probably the latter; for, as we have already hinted, they had a
wonder-working relic, in the shape of a cross, said to have been
given to the abbey by the Empress Helena, and to contain a fragment
of the true cross itself.

True, it had failed to prosper the poor English, who knelt before
it, ere they went to die at Senlac; but of course that was because
the Pope was against them, and had suspended the flow of spiritual
benediction.

At least, so said the Normans, and they extolled the Black Cross as
much a