“’Tis well thought,” replied Hereward, “for I have small time to lose in parley. This is my wedding day, Sir Geoffroy. My bride, the Ladie Alftrude, is in the church, and the priest is waiting for me with open book at the altar. My humour is that thou and thy brother shall be witnesses to our marriage ceremony. Come, my good Saxons, drag me this pond, and pull out those big Norman fish!” A score of Saxons instantly threw strong fishing-nets and coils of rope across the pool. The men-at-arms, seeing that quarter was to be given, gladly caught hold of the ropes, and so were landed; but the mention of the marriage, and of Hereward’s humour to have them both present at it as witnesses, had so filled the minds of Ivo and his brother with trouble and shame, that they caught neither at the ropes nor at the nets, seeming to prefer tarrying where they were to going up to the church. The Lord of Brunn waxed impatient; and making a sign to Elfric, that nimble sportsman threw a noose over the surface of the pool, and threw it with so good an aim that he caught Geoffroy round the neck; and then giving his coil a good tug, which brought the head of the unlucky rival of his master under water, Elfric shouted, “Come out, thou false Norman, come out, and to the wedding, or be drowned or hanged—I care not which.” Geoffroy, thus hardly entreated, waded and struggled to the brink as best he could, and was there pulled out all covered with mud, or with the green mantle of the pool. Ivo, apprehending a rope round his own neck, caught hold of one of the nets that the shouting and laughing Saxons kept throwing at him, and he too was dragged out of the water, all bemired or green, and almost breathless. Such of the men-at-arms as had kept their weapons had laid them at the feet of Lord Hereward, in token of unconditional surrender. Geoffroy, the unlucky wooer, had no weapon to give up, having left his sword in the pool; but his brother Ivo had his broad blade at his side, and when called upon to surrender it, he made a wry face and said that a knight ought to surrender only to a knight, meaning hereby to taunt the Lord of Brunn with his not having been admitted into the high military confraternity. “Ivo,” said Hereward, “I told Raoul, that dispossessed usurper and robber, and I now tell thee, that I shall soon be a knight, meaning that I shall be one according to usage and rites and ceremonies. True knighthood is in the heart and soul of man, and not in the ceremonies. Were I not already a truer knight than thou, I would hang thee and thy brother to these willow-trees, and butcher thy men here, even as too many of ye Normans have butchered defenceless Saxon prisoners after surrender. Give up thy sword, man, or it may not be in my power to save thee from the fury of my people! Give up thy sword, I say!”