The Siege of Norwich Castle Part 37

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

'Thou art sudden! Let me be alone and think,' said Emma; and she left him for a s.p.a.ce. When she came back to him, her face was very pale, but she 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 thou give me thy blessing and thy leave, my knight?' she asked.

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

So it came to pa.s.s that Ralph de Guader, with many of his va.s.sals, joined the standard of the Duke of Normandy, and took his lady with him. With them went also Eadgyth of Norwich, faithful in all things, and unmarried still, having met no champion who could compa.s.s that in which her kinsman Leofric Ealdredsson had failed; her fair face still winsome, with its frame of soft yellow hair, and her blue eyes pathetic and serious.

In August 1096, De Guader led his knights to swell the great army of Crusaders then a.s.sembling on the banks of the Moselle, with G.o.dfrey de Bouillon at its head, that 'very parfit gentil knight' and mirror of chivalry, whom all historians agree to praise, not only for spotless morals and untarnished honour and the high ideal he upheld before the face of the world, but for the 'consummate skill and patient perseverance, self-possession and presence of mind,' by which alone such a host of turbulent and independent chiefs as that which he commanded could have been led to victory.

As De Guader and his lady rode into the great camp beside the blue Moselle, a knight came forward to conduct them to the quarters which had been a.s.signed to them. He had a worn ascetic face, seamed with scars 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 and recognition; but when he saw her companion, Eadgyth of Norwich, a flush pa.s.sed over his bronzed cheeks and up into his forehead as far as it could be seen under his helm.

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

Sir Aimand was one of Messire G.o.dfrey's most trusted knights, whom the commander held in close attendance on his person; heart and soul in the Holy War, full of joy that so great a thing was going forward.

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

And 'Nay' it was. 'The lady of my choice would not have me, n.o.ble dame,' 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 Norman and the Saxon had vowed to be one.

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

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

APPENDIX.

NOTE A. THE MARRIAGE OF RALPH DE GUADER.

The bridal of Ralph de Guader to Emma Fitzosbern is very fully described by the chroniclers, and I have endeavoured to keep as closely as possible to history. But though I have searched at least half-a-score authorities, ancient and modern, every one of whom states that many abbots and bishops were among the company, in no case is the name of any ecclesiastic recorded. I have therefore taken a liberty with the Abbot of St. Albans, of whom Freeman says: 'All that certain history has to say about Frithric is, that he was Abbot of St. Albans, and that he died or was deposed some time between 1075 and 1077.' These dates would make it not impossible that he attended the bridal, and tradition represents him as a very active worker in the patriotic cause of the Saxon Church, and the untiring opponent of Lanfranc.

NOTE B. NORWICH CASTLE.

Harrod, _Castles and Convents_, p. 145. Some later archaeologists are of opinion that the castle built by William the Conqueror was so injured in the siege that it had to be rebuilt, and the chronicler, Henry de Knyghton, under date 1100, ascribes its erection to William Rufus. All agree that a fine Norman castle was built on the old Saxon earthworks by the Conqueror, though they differ as to whether the existing keep is the one then erected.

NOTE C. DE GUADER'S DEFEAT.

It is to be remarked that none of the chroniclers, Norman or English, say anything of this encounter of Odo and Ralph. Nor do they notice Ralph's wound. What they do say is that De Guader was defeated at a place called f.a.gaduna. Lingard suggests that this name is probably a translation of Beacham, in Norfolk, and the theory is rendered more probable by the fact that Beachamwell St. Mary was anciently divided into two parishes, Beacham and Welle. But eight miles from this is the village of Fouldon, which name, according to Blomefield, is a corruption of its old Saxon cognomen. 'At the Great Survey, this town occurs by the name of Fulgaduna, Fulendon and Phuldon, and takes its name from the plenty of wild fowl which frequented it, it being seated in the midst of fens and mora.s.ses. _Fugol_, in Saxon, signifies wild fowl, and in some antique writings 'tis wrote Fugeldune.' What a slight misunderstanding of a strange name, or slip of the pen, might change this word into f.a.gaduna!

NOTE D. DE GUADER AND WALTHEOF.

The chroniclers called Ralph's embarkation from Norwich a flight; while modern historians accuse the stout earl of not _daring_ to stand the siege in his own person, and of leaving the bride for whom he had risked so much to sustain dangers he feared to face.

Ralph was unfortunate in offending all parties. Chroniclers of Norman sympathies hated him for his rebellion against William; Saxons for fighting against his people at Senlac: neither had any motive to say a good word for him, while they canonized Waltheof as a saint,--Waltheof, who surely earned the name of traitor as richly as ever did Ralph, since he entered in the conspiracy against William, after having voluntarily accepted the hand of the Conqueror's niece in marriage, and binding himself under a solemn form of fealty; then, to s.h.i.+eld himself, acted the ever-hateful part of an informer.

Hugh and Roger BiG.o.d, Ralph's successors in the earldom of Norfolk, are spoken of as worthy bearers of the t.i.tle. Yet Hugh rebelled, first against King Stephen, and afterwards against Henry II.; and Roger wrested a charter from Richard I., in which the inhabitants of Norwich were first recognised as citizens, and afterwards joined the barons against King John, being one of the foremost of those who forced him to sign Magna Charta. It may be said that the treasons of the BiG.o.ds were justified by their ends, to obtain liberty for the people; but it must not be forgotten that Ralph de Guader alleged as his motive the intolerable oppression of the Saxons under the _regime_ of William's subordinates.

Victor Hugo, writing of the good service done to English liberty by the jealous watch kept by the barons on the crown, and by their determined resistance of all royal encroachments, says: 'Des 1075 les barons se font sentir au roi. Et a quel roi! A Guillaume le Conquerant!' The date thus given is that of the rebellion of De Guader and Hereford.

NOTE E. THE SIEGE OF NORWICH CASTLE.

All that certain history has to tell of this siege of Norwich Castle, is that De Guader left it in the hands of his countess and knights, the names of the latter not being given; that they were attacked by the king's forces under the leaders named in the text, armed with all the mechanical inventions of the day; that the countess held it for three months, and gave it up on the terms related through lack of provisions; and that she rejoined her husband in Brittany. Why he had not appeared to relieve his castle is not recorded.

These details may be found in Orderic Vitalis, Matthew Paris, Florence of Worcester, the Chronicles of Worcester and Peterborough, and in all modern historians who deal with the period, perhaps the best account being that of Freeman in the fourth volume of his _Norman Conquest_, a work abounding in interest and spirited description.

MORRISON AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

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