A certain priest from whose lips Walter learned the details here noted down, walked by Bertulph's side and, as they went, they intoned alternately verse by verse the Lady Office and the _Te Deum_. Thus, martyr-like, with a song of triumph on his lips, this staunch old man went forth to die. 'As they drew near to the gates of the city a great multitude came forth to meet them, crying aloud and clapping their hands and leaping for joy, and they struck the provost with their fists, and beat him with staves and pelted him with the heads of sea-fish (of which very many are taken in these parts), and heaped every kind of insult upon him, all of which he bore with patience, speaking never a word.' This was all the more remarkable, says Walter, because the provost was naturally a proud man who could ill brook ridicule or insult of any kind; and he adds:--_Apropos_ of this, I remember a story which was told me by one of his own servants. Upon a certain occasion when the provost was seated before the fire in his great hall, with his household around him, the discourse turned to the Passion of Our Lord, and of the insults which He suffered with so much meekness in the house of Caiaphas. 'For my part,' quoth the provost, 'I can never understand that portion of Scripture. If low fellows of that kind had struck me I would at least have spat in their face.' The remaining portion of the story of Bertulph's execution is told for us by Walbert. It reads like some breviary legend of a martyr's death. There he stood in the midst of the market-place, surrounded by a ribald, jeering throng, with countenance unmoved and eyes turned heavenward as though invoking God's pity. Then one of those who were standing by struck him on the head, saying, 'O thou proud man, why dost thou not deign to sue for mercy, seeing that thy life is in our hands?' but the provost opened not his mouth. And for his greater ignominy they stripped him of his clothes and hanged him naked on a cross in the midst of the market-place, as if he had been a thief or a robber. Then drew nigh unto him William of Löo, and thus addressed him, 'Tell me, O provost, I conjure thee, on the salvation of thy soul, in addition to those whose names we already know, who are they who are implicated in Count Charles's death,' and Bertulph made answer, and said before all those present, 'Thou knowest, O Burgrave, as well as I.' William, hearing those words, was transported with fury, and commanded stones and mud to be cast at the provost and that he should be put to death. Then those who were assembled in the market-place to sell fish, tore his flesh with their iron hooks and beat him with rods, and thus they put an end to his days.