"In the halls of Rouen--and it may be on the throne of England--shall
Matilda reign by the side of William," said the priest in a clear,
low, and emphatic voice; "and it was to tell my lord the Duke that I
repent me of my first unconsidered obeisance to Mauger as my spiritual
superior; that since then I have myself examined canon and precedent;
and though the letter of the law be against thy spousals, it comes
precisely under the category of those alliances to which the fathers
of the Church accord dispensation:--it is to tell thee this, that I,
plain Doctor of Laws and priest of Pavia, have crossed the seas."

"Ha Rou!--Ha Rou!" cried Taillefer, with his usual bluffness, and
laughing with great glee, "why wouldst thou not listen to me,
monseigneur?"

"If thou deceivest me not," said William, in surprise, "and thou canst
make good thy words, no prelate in Neustria, save Odo of Bayeux, shall
lift his head high as thine." And here William, deeply versed in the
science of men, bent his eyes keenly upon the unchanging and earnest
face of the speaker. "Ah," he burst out, as if satisfied with the
survey, "and my mind tells me that thou speakest not thus boldly and
calmly without ground sufficient. Man, I like thee. Thy name? I
forget it."

"Lanfranc of Pavia, please you my lord; called some times 'Lanfranc
the Scholar' in thy cloister of Bec. Nor misdeem me, that I, humble,
unmitred priest, should be thus bold. In birth I am noble, and my
kindred stand near to the grace of our ghostly pontiff; to the pontiff
I myself am not unknown. Did I desire honours, in Italy I might seek
them; it is not so. I crave no guerdon for the service I proffer;