go alone in a small
boat, while we twelve were together in another. Just as we had nearly
reached our own bank, there was a shout from the Flemings that their
Count had somewhat further to say to the Duke, and forbidding us to
follow him, the Duke turned his boat and went back again. No sooner had
he set foot on the isle," proceeded the Norman, clenching his hands, and
speaking between his teeth, "than we saw one Fleming strike him on the
head with an oar; he fell senseless, the rest threw themselves upon him,
and the next moment held up their bloody daggers in scorn at us! You may
well think how we shouted and yelled at them, and plied our oars like men
distracted, but all in vain, they were already in their boats, and ere we
could even reach the isle, they were on the other side of the river,
mounted their horses, fled with coward speed, and were out of reach of a
Norman's vengeance."

"But they shall not be so long!" cried Richard, starting forward; for to
his childish fancy this dreadful history was more like one of Dame
Astrida's legends than a reality, and at the moment his thought was only
of the blackness of the treason. "Oh, that I were a man to chastise
them! One day they shall feel--"

He broke off short, for he remembered how his father had forbidden his
denunciations of vengeance, but his words were eagerly caught up by the
Barons, who, as Duke William had said, were far from possessing any
temper of forgiveness, thought revenge a duty, and were only glad to see
a warlike spirit in their new Prince.

"Ha! say you so, my young Lord?" exclaimed old Count Bernard, rising.
"Yes, and I see a sparkle in your eye that tells me you will one day
avenge him nobly!"

Richard drew up his head, and his heart throbbed high as Sir Eric made
answer, "Ay, truly, that will he! You might search Normandy through,
yea, and Norway likewise, ere you would find a temper more bold and free.
Trust my word, Count Bernard, our young Duke will be famed as widely as
ever were his forefathers!"

"I believe it well!" said Bernard. "He hath the port of his grandfather,
Duke Rollo, and much, too, of his noble father! How say you, Lord
Richard, will you be a valiant leader of the Norman race against our
foes?"

"That I will!" said Richard, carried away by the applause excited by
those few words of his. "I will ride at your head this very night if you
will but go to chastise the false Flemings."

"You shall ride with us to-