he King between Salisbury and Shrewsbury, and half the
other half wait to see which way the game shall go. They say Henry is
overly English for their stomachs, because he hath married an English
wife and she hath coaxed him to give back their old laws to our Saxons.
(Better ride a horse on the bit he knows, _I_ say!) But that is only a
cloak to their falsehood." He cracked his finger on the table, where the
wine was spilt, and thus he spoke:--

'"William crammed us Norman barons full of good English acres after
Santlache. _I_ had my share too," he said, and clapped Hugh on the
shoulder; "but I warned him--I warned him before Odo rebelled--that he
should have bidden the Barons give up their lands and lordships in
Normandy if they would be English lords. Now they are all but princes
both in England and Normandy--trencher-fed hounds, with a foot in one
trough and both eyes on the other! Robert of Normandy has sent them word
that if they do not fight for him in England he will sack and harry out
their lands in Normandy. Therefore Clare has risen, FitzOsborne has
risen, Montgomery has risen--whom our First William made an English
Earl. Even D'Arcy is out with his men, whose father I remember a little
hedge-sparrow knight nearby Caen. If Henry wins, the Barons can still
flee to Normandy, where Robert will welcome them. If Henry loses,
Robert, he says, will give them more lands in England. Oh, a pest--a
pest on Normandy, for she will be our England's curse this many a long
year!"

'"Amen," said Hugh. "But will the war come our ways, think you?"

'"Not from the North," said De Aquila. "But the sea is always open. If
the Barons gain the upper hand Robert will send another army into
England for sure, and this time I think he will land here--where his
father, the Conqueror, landed. Ye have brought your pigs to a pretty
market! Half England alight, and gold enough on the ground"--he stamped
on the bars beneath the table--"to set every sword in Christendom
fighting."

'"What is to do?" said Hugh. "I have no keep at Dallington; and if we
buried it, whom could we trust?"

'"Me," said De Aquila. "Pevensey walls are strong. No man but Jehan, who
is my dog, knows what is between them." He drew a curtain by the
shot-window and showed us the shaft of a well in the thickness of the
wall.

'"I made it for a drinking-well," he said, "but we found salt water, and
it rises and falls with the tide. Hark!" We heard the water whistle and
b