"No, my liege! and the worst is to come. Thy uncle Mauger, knowing
that thy heart is bent on thy speedy nuptials with the high and noble
damsel, Matilda of Flanders, has broken out again in thine absence--is
preaching against thee in hall and from pulpit. He declares that such
espousals are incestuous, both as within the forbidden degrees, and
inasmuch as Adele, the lady's mother, was betrothed to thine uncle
Richard; and Mauger menaces excommunication if my liege pursues his
suit! [63] So troubled is the realm, that I, waiting not for debate
in council, and fearing sinister ambassage if I did so, took ship from
thy port of Cherbourg, and have not flagged rein, and scarce broken
bread, till I could say to the heir of Rolf the Founder--Save thy
realm from the men of mail, and thy bride from the knaves in serge."

"Ho, ho!" cried William; then bursting forth in full wrath, as he
sprang from the couch. "Hearest thou this, Lord Seneschal? Seven
years, the probation of the patriarch, have I wooed and waited; and
lo, in the seventh, does a proud priest say to me, 'Wrench the love
from thy heart-strings!'--Excommunicate me--ME--William, the son of
Robert the Devil! Ha, by God's splendour, Mauger shall live to wish
the father stood, in the foul fiend's true likeness, by his side,
rather than brave the bent brow of the son!"

"Dread my lord," said Fitzosborne, desisting from his employ, and
rising to his feet; "thou knowest that I am thy true friend and leal
knight; thou knowest how I have aided thee in this marriage with the
lady of Flanders, and how gravely I think that what pleases thy fancy
will guard thy realm; but rather than brave the order of the Church,
and the ban of the Pope, I would see thee wed to the poorest virgin in
Normandy."