r, too, that this
exploit was accomplished. The fortress was closely invested with Henry's
forces, and was on the very eve of being surrendered. The story is, that
Henry had offered bribes to the governor of the castle to give it up to
him, and that the governor had agreed to receive them and to betray his
trust. While he was preparing to do so, William arrived at the head of a
resolute and determined band of Normans. They came with so sudden an
onset upon the army of besiegers as to break up their camp and force
them to abandon the siege. The people of the town and the garrison of
the castle were extremely rejoiced to be thus rescued, and when they
came to learn through whose instrumentality they had been saved, and
saw the beautiful horseman whom they remembered as a gay and happy
child playing about the precincts of the castle, they were perfectly
intoxicated with delight. They filled the air with the wildest
acclamations, and welcomed William back to the home of his childhood
with manifestations of the most extravagant joy. As to the traitorous
governor, he was dealt with very leniently. Perhaps the general feeling
of joy awakened emotions of leniency and forgiveness in William's
mind--or perhaps the proof against the betrayer was incomplete. They did
not, therefore, take his life, which would have been justly forfeited,
according to the military ideas of the times, if he had been really
guilty. They deprived him of his command, confiscated his property, and
let him go free.

After this, William's forces continued for some time to make head
successfully against those of the King of France; but then, on the other
hand, the danger from his uncle, the Earl of Arques, increased. The earl
took advantage of the difficulty and danger in which William was
involved in his contests with King Henry, and began to organize his
forces again. He fortified himself in his castle at Arques,[E] and was
collecting a large force there. Arques was in the northeastern part of
Normandy, near the sea, where the ruins of the ancient castle still
remain. The earl built an almost impregnable tower for himself on the
summit of the rock on which the castle stood, in a situation so
inaccessible that he thought he could retreat to it in any emergency,
with a few chosen followers, and bid defiance to any assault. In and
around this castle the earl had got quite a large army together. William
advanced with his forces, and, encamping around them, shu