In this wise—the Normans groaning and distilling, and the Saxons laughing and shouting—the whole mixed party ascended the hill and came to the church. The Lord Hereward’s absence from the church had been but short—it had not lasted an hour in all—yet were the priest and the goodly company assembled growing very impatient, and the Ladie Alftrude very much alarmed, albeit she was a maiden of high courage, as befitted one who lived in troublous times, and she had been opportunely advised that the Lord Hereward had only gone to an easy triumph. But bright, though bashfully, beamed her blue eye when Hereward appeared in the porch. But who were these two forlorn Norman knights walking close behind him with their heads bent on their breasts and their eyes on the ground? Ha, ha! sweet Ladie Alftrude, thine own eye became more bashful, and thy blush a deeper red, when thou didst see and understand who those two knights were, and why they had been brought into the church! The dames and damsels of the company all stared in amaze; and the Saxon priest, still standing with open book, started and crossed himself as he looked at Ivo Taille-Bois and his brother Geoffroy. “They be but two witnesses the more,” said bold Hereward. “We will tell thee at the feast how proper it is that they should be here; but now, good priest, go on with that which their arrival interrupted. Elfric, make space here near the altar for our two unbidden guests. Dames, come not too near them, for they be very cold strangers!” The marriage ceremony then went on to its happy completion, Ivo Taille-Bois and his brother Geoffroy grinding their teeth and groaning inwardly all the while: and even thus was it made to come to pass that those who would have carried off the Ladie Alftrude were forced to be witnesses to her union with her old and true love. It was a tale for a menestrel; and a pretty tale Elfric made of it, at a later date, to sing to his four-stringed Saxon lyre. “And now,” shouted the bountiful Lord of Brunn, as they all quitted the church, “now for the wassail-bowl and the feast in hall! Ivo Taille-Bois, and thou, Geoffroy, much as thou wouldst have wronged us, we bid thee to the feast—the Ladie Alftrude and I bid thee to our marriage feast!” “Throw me rather into thy dungeon,” said Geoffroy. “Enough of this farcing,” said Ivo. “Hereward the Saxon, name the terms of the ransom, and let us be gone from thy presence. Ladie Alftrude, remember that I am thy cousin by marriage.” “Methinks,” replied Alftrude, “that thou oughtest to have remembered that same fact before coming with thy men-at-arms against me.”