The Siege of Norwich Castle: A story of the last struggle against the Conqueror

by M. M. Blake

  CHAPTER XXVI

  CONCLUSION.

  Whoever will, may find no small part of the ensuing chapter in thepages of grave historians; but in no sober leaf of history will theyfind recorded how it fared with Eadgyth of Norwich and Sir Aimand deSourdeval.

  Ralph and Emma, like an orthodox hero and heroine, lived happilytogether to the end of their days; though they had to fight a good manymore battles. De Guader had made himself a mighty enemy in William theConqueror, King of England and Duke of Normandy; one who, in his lattercapacity, had no mind to have Ralph rampant on the borders of hisdukedom. So he invaded Brittany, and strove to run De Guader to earthin his own country; he invested Dol, but had to raise the siegesomewhat ignominiously, owing to the help rendered to the besieged byAlan Fergant, son of the reigning Count Howel of Brittany, and Philipof France, who was always delighted to supply aid against William.

  Sweyn Ulfsson, King of Denmark, carried out his promises to Ralph, andsent his son Cnut with Hakon Jarl to invade England; and they appearedon the east coast with a fleet of two hundred ships, and actually putinto the Humber, though rather too late to serve the purposes of theambitious earl.

  William, whether really frightened, or moved by the lust of power whichwas rapidly gaining upon him, and which clouded his later years withhate and misery, made the descent of the Danes a pretext for the worstcrime of his reign--the judicial murder of Waltheof;--for it must benoted that, with this exception, his conduct to the English princes wasgenerous and mild.

  When the son of Siward had carried to William the news of the plot inwhich he had taken part, the Conqueror had received him graciously, andhad pardoned him freely for his own share of the mischief. But he kepthim at his side, although he did not call him a prisoner; and, soonafter landing in England, arrested him on a charge of complicity withthe Danes, who had been his old comrades. William had that excuse forthinking him dangerous.

  Then came Judith's opportunity. She hated the husband she had beenforced to marry for State purposes, and stood forth as his accuser,pouring her poison into the ears of her royal uncle. UnfortunatelyWilliam listened, and cast the son of Siward into prison at Winchester,where he languished for months, while a mock trial was going on, whichmany hungry Normans, who wanted his estates, were determined should endto their liking. Ivo Taillebois, who had been one of Hereward's mostvenomous foes, and whose lands adjoined those of Waltheof, was amongstthe most clamorous for his destruction; and the Primate Lanfranc hisbest advocate and almost sole friend, recognising perhaps that it wasby his persuasion that Waltheof had been induced to place himself inthe power of the Conqueror.

  Early one morning, while the good folks of Winchester were asleep intheir beds, the Normans led the Saxon chief without the walls of thetown. Waltheof walked to the place of execution clothed in his earl'sapparel, which he distributed among some priests, or gave to some poorpeople who had followed him, and whom the Normans permitted to approachon account of their small numbers and entirely peaceful appearance.Having reached a hill at a short distance from the walls, the soldiershalted, and the Saxon, prostrating himself, prayed aloud for a fewmoments; but the Normans, fearing that too long a delay would cause arumour of the intended execution to be spread in the town, and that thecitizens would rise to save their fellow-countryman, exclaimed withimpatience to Waltheof, 'Arise, that we may fulfil our orders.' Heasked, as a last favour, that they would wait only until he had oncemore repeated, for them and for himself, the Lord's Prayer. Theyallowed him to do so; and Waltheof, rising from the ground, butremaining on his knees, began aloud, 'Our Father who art in Heaven;'but at the verse, 'and lead us not into temptation,' the executioner,seeing perhaps that daylight was beginning to appear, would wait nolonger, but, suddenly drawing his large sword, struck off the Saxon'shead at one blow. The body was thrown into a hole, dug between tworoads, and hastily covered with earth.[9] But the monks of Crowland, towhom he had made rich gifts in his lifetime, and who had been staunchthroughout to the English cause, got the body up again a fortnightlater, and averred that it was still unchanged and the blood fresh(sixteen years later they pronounced that it was still as fresh, andthat the head had grown on to the body again!); and they bore it awayto 'Holland,' to St. Guthlac's in the Fens, and erected a tomb in theabbey, with William's permission, whereat great miracles took place.When his traitress wife Judith, the 'foreign woman,' as the chroniclersstyle her, went to cover this monument to her husband with a rich pallof silk, which she had prepared for it, the martyred hero refused herhypocritical gift, and the offering was snatched away and thrown to adistance by an invisible hand.

  [9] Thierry, _Norman Conquest_, p. 113. Almost literal translation of Orderic Vitalis.

  So the Saxon monks made a holy martyr of the wavering Waltheof, whosefate, and the fate of England with it, might have been very differentif he had possessed as much moral as physical courage.

  The Norman ecclesiastics accused the Saxons as idolaters, and found theoccasion good for deposing and dishonouring Abbot Wulfketel, andputting Norman Toustain in his stead; which only made the English morekeen to honour their dead hero, and they rushed in crowds to his tomb.

  Judith thought herself very lucky to have all the money and lands thathad belonged to Waltheof, and to be free of him, and made up her mindto have a second husband according to her own taste. But she wished himalive again when William made a present of her, possessions and all, toone Simon de Senlis, a brave, but lame and deformed knight.

  She refused to carry out the bargain, so William consoled De Senliswith her daughter instead, together with all the lands and money; andthe Saxon chroniclers gloat over Judith's subsequent poverty andsorrows. But we, looking back, now the years have rolled away, may pityher, and see that the crime lay with those who treated a woman as achattel, and 'gave' her away to this man and that, without consultingher welfare or her happiness, rather than with the woman so treated.

  And Emma's brother, the son of William's staunchest vassal, how faredhe?

  When the Conqueror passed the Straits after his attempt to reduce DeGuader at Dol, he called a great council of Norman barons to passjudgment on the authors of the recent conspiracy. Ralph de Guader theydispossessed of all his English property as absent and contumacious;and Roger of Hereford, being a prisoner, was brought before them, andcondemned to lose all his lands, and to pass the rest of his days inprison.

  But William seems still to have had a soft place in his heart for theson of his old friend, and sent him one Easter, according to the customof the Norman court, a complete suit of precious stuffs, a silk tunicand mantle, and a close coat trimmed with foreign furs.

  But Roger was full of pride and bitterness, and he took the richpresent and threw it on the fire.

  When William heard how his gift had been received, he flew into amighty rage.

  'The man is too proud who does such scorn to me,' he cried. 'He shallnever come out of my prison in my days, _par le splendeur Dex_!'

  Nor did he; neither in the days of William Rufus. He died in prison.But, in the reign of Henry I., his two sons won back a portion of theirfather's possessions.

  The lesser accomplices of the three great earls fared even worse.

  At the council before mentioned, 'Man foredoomed all the Bretons thatwere at the bride-ale at Norowic, some were blinded, some were drivenfrom the land, and some were put to shame. So were the king's traitorsbrought low,' say the chronicles.

  Truly a disastrous bridal!

  Yet the bride and bridegroom, who risked so much for each other andinvolved so many in ruin, were the most fortunate of those who attendedit.

  Though Ralph lost his English estates, he had broad lands in hismother's country, and lived with his hard-won consort in his castles ofGuader and Montfort. A son and a daughter were born to them. The sonsucceeded to his father's Breton possessions, and the daughter, whomone chronicler names Amicia, another Itta, married Earl Robert ofLeicester, and became a great English lady.

  A l
ittle over twenty years had Emma and Ralph lived together, thestream of their true love having found peaceful channel after therapids and whirlpools that followed on the first joining of theircourses twain in one. Grey hairs had begun to muster in Ralph's darklocks, though his sturdy figure was as strong and active as ever andhis hawk eyes as keen; motherhood had softened the high-spirited Emma,and had brought soft dimples into her cheeks and a lovelight to herbrow. Happy in her home, she did not give much heed to the signs of thetimes, or note the strong new spirit that was stirring in the air.

  But one day De Guader came into her bower in full harness, wearing helmand hauberk, with his great two-handed sword by his side.

  He came up to her, and stood before her, and looked in her face, andtook her soft mother's hand between his two big palms.

  'See'st thou?' he asked, and he guided her eyes with his own towardshis arm, whereon was bound the cross of the Crusaders.

  'Ah, Ralph!' she cried,'not thou!'

  De Guader dons the Cross.]

  'Sweet,' he said gently, 'When I lay on the field of my greatest fight,in sore distress and despair, with the choughs and ravens waiting tofeed on mine eyes, and the thought of thee as of one I should never seeagain till the sounding of the last trump, I vowed that if life werespared me, I would one day make pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre. Nowthe time has come, my lady. Life has given me more than I had dared tohope for, but it is passing; we are no longer young, you and I, oldwife! Let me join the men who have responded to Pope Urban's call.Robert Curthose is moving. I will put my hands between his and be hisman, and march under his banner to join Godfrey de Bouillon.'

  'Whom all men honour!' said Emma under her breath.

  'Wilt thou give me thy blessing and thy leave, my lady?'

  'Thou art sudden! Let me be alone and think,' said Emma; and she lefthim for a space. When she came back to him, her face was very pale, butshe met his eyes with a steady smile, and, in turn, guided them to_her_ arm, on which was bound the cross of the Crusaders. 'Wilt thougive me thy blessing and thy leave, my knight?' she asked.

  Then Ralph caught her in his arms and kissed her, as if the fatalbride-ale had been but the day before.

  So it came to pass that Ralph de Guader, with many of his vassals,joined the standard of the Duke of Normandy, and took his lady withhim. With them went also Eadgyth of Norwich, faithful in all things,and unmarried still, having met no champion who could compass that inwhich her kinsman Leofric Ealdredsson had failed; her fair face stillwinsome, with its frame of soft yellow hair, and her blue eyes patheticand serious.

  In August 1096, De Guader led his knights to swell the great army ofCrusaders then assembling on the banks of the Moselle, with Godfrey deBouillon at its head, that 'very parfit gentil knight' and mirror ofchivalry, whom all historians agree to praise, not only for spotlessmorals and untarnished honour and the high ideal he upheld before theface of the world, but for the 'consummate skill and patientperseverance, self-possession and presence of mind,' by which alonesuch a host of turbulent and independent chiefs as that which hecommanded could have been led to victory.

  As De Guader and his lady rode into the great camp beside the blueMoselle, a knight came forward to conduct them to the quarters whichhad been assigned to them. He had a worn ascetic face, seamed withscars and lighted by the large sombre eyes of a dreamer of day-dreams,his spare figure witnessing to a life of hard service and activity.

  He met De Guader's lady with a sweet smile of reverence andrecognition; but when he saw her companion, Eadgyth of Norwich, a flushpassed over his bronzed cheeks and up into his forehead as far as itcould be seen under his helm.

  'Sir Aimand de Sourdeval!' cried Emma, with a quick movement ofdelight. 'Welcome the sight of thy brave, true face amidst this host ofGod.' Then she called back her husband, that he might pardon and bepardoned for what had happened in the old, sad days, and Ralph did sowith the free, candid generosity of the times, which were saturatedwith the spirit we strive to keep alive in our public schools to thisday--free fight and no malice borne.

  Sir Aimand was one of Messire Godfrey's most trusted knights, whom thecommander held in close attendance on his person; heart and soul in theHoly War, full of joy that so great a thing was going forward.

  'You leave not wife or child by a lone hearthstone, Sir Knight?' askedEmma, feeling sure that the answer would be 'Nay.'

  And 'Nay' it was. 'The lady of my choice would not have me, nobledame,' he answered in a low voice, scarcely daring to look at Eadgyth;'a leal knight loves not twice.'

  'But she will have thee now,' said Emma, and, taking Eadgyth's hand,she laid it in his. Nor did Eadgyth withdraw it.

  Before the host of the Crusaders had moved from the Moselle, the Normanand the Saxon had vowed to be one.

  Did they see the Holy City together with the eyes of the flesh? Did DeGuader and his faithful consort see it? History answers not; it tellsus only that Ralph and Emma died together somewhere near Jerusalem.

  Whatever their faults, whatever their sins, at least they were true toeach other, and died fulfilling what the judgment of the time esteemedthe holiest of duties.