true Flemings,--as well as conquerors; they were in those very days
bringing to order and tillage the rich lands of the north-east, from the
Frith of Moray to that of Forth; and forming a rampart for Scotland
against the invasions of Sweyn, Hardraade, and all the wild Vikings of the
northern seas.

Amongst them, in those days, Gilbert of Ghent seems to have been a notable
personage, to judge from the great house which he kept, and the _milites
tyrones,_ or squires in training for the honor of knighthood, who fed at
his table. Where he lived, the chroniclers report not. To them the country
"ultra Northumbriam," beyond the Forth, was as Russia or Cathay, where

"Geographers on pathless downs
Put elephants for want of towns."

As indeed it was to that French map-maker who, as late as the middle of
the eighteenth century (not having been to Aberdeen or Elgin), leaves all
the country north of the Tay a blank, with the inscription: "_Terre
inculte et sauvage, habitee par les Higlanders._"

Wherever Gilbert lived, however, he heard that Hereward was outlawed, and
sent for him, says the story. And there he lived, doubtless happily
enough, fighting Highlanders and hunting deer, so that as yet the pains
and penalties of exile did not press very hardly upon him. The handsome,
petulant, good-humored lad had become in a few weeks the darling of
Gilbert's ladies, and the envy of all his knights and gentlemen. Hereward
the singer, harp-player, dancer, Hereward the rider and hunter, was in all
mouths; but he himself was discontented at having as yet fallen in with no
adventure worthy of a man, and looked curiously and longingly at the
menagerie of wild beasts enclosed in strong wooden cages, which Gilbert