comrade?"

Alberic looked down hesitating.

"Oh, say that you will!  I will give you horses, and hawks, and
hounds, and I will love you--almost as well as Osmond.  Oh, stay with
me, Alberic."

"I must obey you, my Lord," said Alberic, "but--"

"Come, young Frenchman, out with it," said Bernard,--"no buts!  Speak
honestly, and at once, like a Norman, if you can."

This rough speech seemed to restore the little Baron's self-
possession, and he looked up bright and bold at the rugged face of
the old Dane, while he said, "I had rather not stay here."

"Ha! not do service to your Lord?"

"I would serve him with all my heart, but I do not want to stay here.
I love the Castle of Montemar better, and my mother has no one but
me."

"Brave and true, Sir Frenchman," said the old Count, laying his great
hand on Alberic's head, and looking better pleased than Richard
thought his grim features could have appeared.  Then turning to
Bertrand, Alberic's Seneschal, he said, "Bear the Count de Harcourt's
greetings to the noble Dame de Montemar, and say to her that her son
is of a free bold spirit, and if she would have him bred up with my
Lord Duke, as his comrade and brother in arms, he will find a ready
welcome."

"So, Alberic, you will come back, perhaps?" said Richard.

"That must be as my mother pleases," answered Alberic bluntly, and
with all due civilities he and his Seneschal departed.

Four or five times a day did Richard ask Osmond and Fru Astrida if
they thought Alberic would return, and it was a great satisfaction to
him to find that every one agreed that it would be very foolish in
the Dame de Montemar to refuse so good an offer, only Fru Astrida
could not quite believe she would part with her son.  Still no Baron
de Montemar arrived, and the little Duke was beginning to think less
about his hopes, when one evening, as he was returning from a ride
with Sir Eric and Osmond, he saw four horsemen coming towards them,
and a little boy in front.

"It is Alberic himself, I am sure of it!" he exclaimed, and so it
proved; and while the Seneschal delivered his Lady's message to Sir
Eric, Richard rode up and greeted the welcome guest.

"Oh, I am very glad your mother has sent you!"

"She said she was not fit to bring up a young warrior of the
marches," said Alberic.

"Were you very sorry to come?"

"I dare say I shall not mind it soon; and Bertrand is to come and
fetch me home to visit her every three months, if you will let me go,
my Lord."

Richard was extremely delighted, and thought he could never do enough
to make Rouen pleasant to Alberic, who after the first day or two
cheered up, missed his mother less, managed to talk something between
French and Norman to Sir Eric and Fru Astrida, and became a very
animated companion and friend.  In one respect Alberic was a better
playfellow for the Duke than Osmond de Centeville, for Osmond,
playing as a grown up man, not for his own amusement, but the
child's, had left all the advantages of the game to Richard, who was
growing not a little inclined to domineer.  This Alberic did not
like, unless, as he said, "it was to be always Lord and vassal, and
then he did not care for the game," and he played with so little
animation that Richard grew vexed.

"I can't help it," said Alberic; "if you take all the best chances to
yourself, 'tis no sport for me.  I will do your bidding, as you are
the Duke, but I cannot like it."

"Never mind my being Duke, but play as we used to do."

"Then let us play as I did with Bertrand's sons at Montemar.  I was
their Baron, as you are my Duke, but my mother said there would be no
sport unless we forgot all that at play."

"Then so we will.  Come, begin again, Alberic, and you shall have the
first turn."

However, Alberic was quite as courteous and respectful to the Duke
when they were not at play, as the difference of their rank required;
indeed, he had learnt much more of grace and courtliness of demeanour
from his mother, a Provencal lady, than was yet to be found among the
Normans.  The Chaplain of Montemar had begun to teach him to read and
write, and he liked learning much better than Richard, who would not
have gone on with Father Lucas's lessons at all, if Abbot Martin of
Jumieges had not put him in mind that it had been his father's
especial desire.

What Richard most disliked was, however, the being obliged to sit in
council.  The Count of Harcourt did in truth govern the dukedom, but
nothing could be done without the Duke's consent, and once a week at
least, there was held in the great hall of Rollo's tower, what was
called a Parlement, or "a talkation," where Count Bernard, the
Archbishop, the Baron de Centeville, the Abbot of Jumieges, and such
other Bishops, Nobles, or Abbots, as might chance to be at Rouen,
consulted on the affairs of Normandy; and there the little Duke
always was forced to be present, sitting up in his chair of state,
and hearing rather than listening to, questions about the repairing
and guarding of Castles, the asking of loans from the vassals, the
appeals from the Barons of the Exchequer, who were then Nobles sent
through the duchy to administer justice, and the discussions about
the proceedings of his neighbours, King Louis of France, Count
Foulques of Anjou, and Count Herluin of Montreuil, and how far the
friendship of Hugh of Paris, and Alan of Brittany might be trusted.

Very tired of all this did Richard grow, especially when he found
that the Normans had made up their minds not to attempt a war against
the wicked Count of Flanders.  He sighed most wearily, yawned again
and again, and moved restlessly about in his chair; but whenever
Count Bernard saw him doing so, he received so severe a look and sign
that he grew perfectly to dread the eye of the fierce old Dane.
Bernard never spoke to him to praise him, or to enter into any of his
pursuits; he only treated him with the grave distant respect due to
him as a Prince, or else now and then spoke a few stern words to him
of reproof for this restlessness, or for some other childish folly.

Used as Richard was to be petted and made much of by the whole house
of Centeville, he resented this considerably in secret, disliked and
feared the old Count, and more than once told Alberic de Montemar,
that as soon as he was fourteen, when he would be declared of age, he
should send Count Bernard to take care of his own Castle of Harcourt,
instead of letting him sit gloomy and grim in the Castle hall in the
evening, spoiling all their sport.

Winter had set in, and Osmond used daily to take the little Duke and
Alberic to the nearest sheet of ice, for the Normans still prided
themselves on excelling in skating, though they had long since left
the frost-bound streams and lakes of Norway.

One day, as they were returning from the ice, they were surprised,
even before they entered the Castle court, by hearing the trampling
of horses' feet, and a sound of voices.

"What may this mean?" said Osmond.  "There must surely be a great
arrival of the vassals.  The Duke of Brittany, perhaps."

"Oh," said Richard, piteously, "we have had one council already this
week.  I hope another is not coming!"

"It must import something extraordinary," proceeded Osmond.  "It is a
mischance that the Count of Harcourt is not at Rouen just now."

Richard thought this no mischance at all, and just then, Alberic, who
had run on a little before, came back exclaiming, "They are French.
It is the Frank tongue, not the Norman, that they speak."

"So please you, my Lord," said Osmond, stopping short, "we go not
rashly into the midst of them.  I would I knew what were best to do."

Osmond rubbed his forehead and stood considering, while the two boys
looked at him anxiously.  In a few seconds, before he had come to any
conclusion, there came forth from the gate a Norman Squire,
accompanied by two strangers.

"My Lord Duke," said he to Richard, in French, "Sir Eric has sent me
to bring you tidings that the King of France has arrived to receive
your homage."

"The King!" exclaimed Osmond.

"Ay!" proceeded the Norman, in his own tongue, "Louis himself, and
with a train looking bent on mischief.  I wish it may portend good to
my Lord here.  You see I am accompanied.  I believe from my heart
that Louis meant to prevent you from receiving a warning, and taking
the boy out of his clutches."

"Ha! what?" said Richard, anxiously.  "Why is the King come?  What
must I do?"

"Go on now, since there is no help for it," said Osmond.

"Greet the king as becomes you, bend the knee, and pay him homage."

Richard repeated over to himself the form of homage that he might be
perfect in it, and walked on into the court; Alberic, Osmond, and the
rest falling back as he entered.  The court was crowded with horses
and men, and it was only by calling out loudly, "The Duke, the Duke,"
that Osmond could get space enough made for them to pass.  In a few
moments Richard had mounted the steps and stood in the great hall.

In the chair of state, at the upper end of the room, sat a small
spare man, of about eight or nine-and-twenty, pale, and of a light
complexion, with a rich dress of blue and gold.  Sir Eric and several
other persons stood respectfully round him, and he was conversing
with the Archbishop, who, as well as Sir Eric, cast several anxious
glances at the little Duke as he advanced up the hall.  He came up to
the King, put his knee to the ground, and was just beginning, "Louis,
King of France, I--" when he found himself suddenly lifted from the
ground in the King's arms, and kissed on both cheeks.  Then setting
him on his knee, the King exclaimed, "And is this the son of my brave
and noble friend, Duke William?  Ah!  I should have known it from his
likeness.  Let me embrace you again, dear child, for your father's
sake."

Richard was rather overwhelmed, but he thought the King very kind,
especially when Louis began to admire his height and free-spirited
bearing, and to lament that his own sons, Lothaire and Carloman, were
so much smaller and more backward.  He caressed Richard again and

Other sites:

db3nf.com screen-capture.net floresca.net simonova.net flora-source.com flora-source.com sourcecentral.com sourcecentral.com geocities.com