"Let him wander his way," said he--"let those leech his wounds for whose
sake he encountered them. He is fitter to do the juggling tricks of
the Norman chivalry than to maintain the fame and honour of his English
ancestry with the glaive and brown-bill, the good old weapons of his
country."
"If to maintain the honour of ancestry," said Rowena, who was present,
"it is sufficient to be wise in council and brave in execution--to be
boldest among the bold, and gentlest among the gentle, I know no voice,
save his father's---"
"Be silent, Lady Rowena!--on this subject only I hear you not. Prepare
yourself for the Prince's festival: we have been summoned thither with
unwonted circumstance of honour and of courtesy, such as the haughty
Normans have rarely used to our race since the fatal day of Hastings.
Thither will I go, were it only to show these proud Normans how little
the fate of a son, who could defeat their bravest, can affect a Saxon."
"Thither," said Rowena, "do I NOT go; and I pray you to beware, lest
what you mean for courage and constancy, shall be accounted hardness of
heart."
"Remain at home, then, ungrateful lady," answered Cedric; "thine is the
hard heart, which can sacrifice the weal of an oppressed people to an
idle and unauthorized attachment. I seek the noble Athelstane, and with
him attend the banquet of John of Anjou."
He went accordingly to the banquet, of which we have already mentioned
the principal events. Immediately upon retiring from the castle, the
Saxon thanes, with their attendants, took horse; and it was during the
bustle which attended their doing so, that Cedric, for the first time,
cast his eyes upon the deserter Gurth. The noble Saxon had returned from
the banquet, as we have seen, in no very placid humour, and wanted but a
pretext for wreaking his anger upon some one.
"The gyves!" he said, "the gyves!--Oswald--Hundibert!--Dogs and
villains!--why leave ye the knave unfettered?"
Without daring to remonstrate, the companions of Gurth bound him with
a halter, as the readiest cord which occurred. He submitted to the
operation without remonstrance, except that, darting a reproachful
look at his master, he said, "This comes of loving your flesh and blood
better than mine own."
"To horse, and forward!" said Cedric.
"It is indeed full time," said the noble Athelstane; "for, if we
ride not the faster, the worthy Abbot Waltheoff's preparations for a
rere-supper [25] will be altogether spoiled."