Next morning {29 Oct.} Ranulf of Chester arrived, just as they were all about to do homage, as was usual on the morrow of a coronation, to the new King. Ranulf did his homage like the rest, and expressed his approval of all that had been done in his absence. A meeting was then held “in the King’s hall,” for the purpose of choosing “a valiant man to guard King and kingdom.” The Bishop of Winchester--no doubt according to arrangement made on the preceding night after the Marshal had withdrawn--called on Alan Basset to speak first. “By my faith!” spoke Alan, “fair sir, though I look up hill and down dale, I see no one fitted for this, save the Marshal or the Earl of Chester.” Again the Marshal protested that the matter was too hard for him: “I am too feeble and broken, I have passed fourscore years. Take it upon you, Sir Earl of Chester, for God’s sake! for it is your due; and I will be your aid so long as I have strength in life, and will be under your command loyally to the uttermost of my power; never shall you command me aught, by word or by writing, that I will not do as well as I may by God’s helping grace.” “Out upon it!” cried Chester, “Marshal, this cannot be. You, who in every way are one of the best knights in the world--valiant, experienced, wise, and as much loved as you are feared--you must take it; and I will serve you and do your behests, without contradiction, in every way that I can.” Hereupon Gualo called the Earl, the Marshal, the Bishop of Winchester, and one or two others into an inner room, where the matter was discussed among them privately. No conclusion, however, was reached, till at last the Legate “besought the Marshal for God’s sake, and required of him that he should undertake the charge for the remission and pardon of his sins, that he might be fully absolved of them before God at the Day of Judgement.” “In God’s Name!” said the Marshal, “if I am saved from my sins, this charge befits me well; I will take it, however burdensome it may be.” “Then,” adds his biographer, “the Legate gave it to him, as was right; and the good Marshal received the King and the guardianship both together.”[23]