“No man less. I owe him more than one grudge, though all in fair quarrel; and one, at least, which can only be wiped out in blood.” “Eh! What?” Ascelin hesitated. “Tell me, sir!” thundered William, “unless you have aught to be ashamed of.” “It is no shame, as far as I know, to confess that I was once a suitor, as were all knights for miles round, for the hand of the once peerless Torfrida. And no shame to confess, that when Hereward knew thereof, he sought me out at a tournament, and served me as he has served many a better man before and since” “Over thy horse’s croup, eh?” said William. “I am not a bad horseman, as all know, Lord King. But Heaven save me, and all I love, from that Hereward. They say he has seven men’s strength; and I verily can testify to the truth thereof.” “That may be by enchantment,” interposed the Italian. “True, Sir Priest. This I know, that he wears enchanted armor, which Torfrida gave him before she married him.” “Enchantments again,” said the secretary. “Tell me now about Torfrida,” said William. Ascelin told him all about her, not forgetting to say--what, according to the chronicler, was a common report--that she had compassed Hereward’s love by magic arts. She used to practise sorcery, he said, with her sorceress mistress, Richilda of Hainault. All men knew it. Arnoul, Richilda’s son, was as a brother to her. And after old Baldwin died, and Baldwin of Mons and Richilda came to Bruges, Torfrida was always with her while Hereward was at the wars. “The woman is a manifest and notorious witch,” said the secretary. “It seems so indeed,” said William, with something like a sigh. And so were Torfrida’s early follies visited on her; as all early follies are. “But Hereward, you say, is a good knight and true?” “Doubtless. Even when he committed that great crime at Peterborough--” “For which he and all his are duly excommunicated by the Bishop,” said the secretary. “He did a very courteous and honorable thing.” And Ascelin told how he had saved Alftruda, and instead of putting her to ransom, had sent her safe to Gilbert. “A very knightly deed. He should be rewarded for it.” “Why not burn the witch, and reward him with Alftruda instead, since your Majesty is in so gracious a humor?” said Ivo. “Alftruda! Who is she? Ay, I recollect her. Young Dolfin’s wife. Why, she has a husband already.” “Ay, but his Holiness at Rome can set that right. What is there that he cannot do?” “There are limits, I fear, even to his power. Eh, priest?” “What his Holiness’s powers as the viceroy of Divinity on earth might be, did he so choose, it were irreverent to inquire. But as he condescends to use that power only for the good of mankind, he condescends, like Divinity, to be bound by the very laws which he has promulgated for the benefit of his subjects; and to make himself only a life-giving sun, when he might be a destructive thunderbolt.”