do you hear?
'Tis a stag of ten branches, and I hit him in the neck."

"You! my Lord Richard! you killed him?"

"Oh, no, I only struck him. It was Osmond's shaft that took him in the
eye, and--Look you, Fru Astrida, he came thus through the wood, and I
stood here, it might be, under the great elm with my bow thus"--And
Richard was beginning to act over again the whole scene of the deer-hunt,
but Fru, that is to say, Lady Astrida, was too busy to listen, and broke
in with, "Have they brought home the haunch?"

"Yes, Walter is bringing it. I had a long arrow--"

[Picture: Richard with Dame Estrida]

A stout forester was at this instant seen bringing in the venison, and
Dame Astrida hastened to meet it, and gave directions, little Richard
following her all the way, and talking as eagerly as if she was attending
to him, showing how he shot, how Osmond shot, how the deer bounded, and
how it fell, and then counting the branches of its antlers, always ending
with, "This is something to tell my father. Do you think he will come
soon?"

In the meantime two men entered the hall, one about fifty, the other, one
or two-and-twenty, both in hunting dresses of plain leather, crossed by
broad embroidered belts, supporting a knife, and a bugle-horn. The elder
was broad-shouldered, sun-burnt, ruddy, and rather stern-looking; the
younger, who was also the taller, was slightly made, and very active,
with a bright keen grey eye, and merry smile. These were Dame Astrida's
son, Sir Eric de Centeville, and her grandson, Osmond; and to their care
Duke William of Normandy had committed his only child, Richard, to be
fostered, or brought up. {1}

It was always the custom among the Northmen, that young princes should
thus be put under the care of some trusty vassal, instead of being
brought up at home, and one reason why the Centevilles had been chosen by
Duke William was, that both Sir Eric and his mother spoke only the old
Norwegian tongue, which he wished young Richard to understand well,
whereas, in other parts of the Duchy, the Normans had forgotten their own
tongue, and had taken up what was then called the Langued'oui, a language
between German and Latin, which was the beginning of French.

On this day, Duke William himself was expected at Bayeux, to pay a visit
to his son before setting out on a journey to settle the disputes between
the Counts of Flanders and Montreuil, and this was the reason of Fru
Astr