ter his cool judgment returned,
he foresaw that the conspiracy of those discontented barons was not
likely to prove successful against the established power of William; or,
if it did, that the slavery of the English, instead of being alleviated
by that event, would become more grievous under a multitude of foreign
leaders, factious and ambitious, whose union and whose discord would be
equally oppressive to the people. Tormented with these reflections, he
opened his mind to his wife Judith, of whose fidelity he entertained
no suspicion, but who, having secretly fixed her affections on another,
took this opportunity of ruining her easy and credulous husband. She
conveyed intelligence of the conspiracy to the king, and aggravated
every circumstance which she believed would tend to incense him against
Waltheof, and render him absolutely implacable.[*] Meanwhile the earl,
still dubious with regard to the part which he should act, discovered
the secret in confession to Lanfranc, on whose probity and judgment he
had a great reliance: he was persuaded by the prelate, that he owed
no fidelity to those rebellious barons, who had by surprise gained
his consent to a crime; that his first duty was to his sovereign and
benefactor, his next to himself and his family; and that if he seized
not the opportunity of making atonement for his guilt by revealing it,
the temerity of the conspirators was so great, that they would give
some other person the means of acquiring the merit of the discovery.
Waltheof, convinced by these arguments, went over to Normandy; but
though he was well received by the king, and thanked for his fidelity,
the account previously transmitted by Judith had sunk deep into
William's mind, and had destroyed all the merit of her husband's
repentance.

[* Order. Vitalis, p. 536.]

The conspirators, hearing of Waltheof's departure, immediately concluded
their design to be betrayed; and they flew to arms before their schemes
were ripe for execution, and before the arrival of the Danes, in whose
aid they placed their chief confidence. The Earl of Hereford was checked
by Walter de Lacy, a great baron in those parts, who, supported by the
bishop of Worcester and the abbot of Evesham, raised some forces, and
prevented the earl from passing the Severn, or advancing into the
heart of the kingdom. The earl of Norfolk was defeated at Fagadun,
near Cambridge, by Odo the regent, assisted by Richard de Bienfaite and
William