This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen
and David Widger
William, Count of the Normans, sate in a fair chamber of his palace ofRouen; and on the large table before him were ample evidences of thevarious labours, as warrior, chief, thinker, and statesman, whichfilled the capacious breadth of that sleepless mind.
There lay a plan of the new port of Cherbourg, and beside it an openMS. of the Duke's favourite book, the Commentaries of Caesar, fromwhich, it is said, he borrowed some of the tactics of his own martialscience; marked, and dotted, and interlined with his large boldhandwriting, were the words of the great Roman. A score or so of longarrows, which had received some skilful improvement in feather orbolt, lay carelessly scattered over some architectural sketches of anew Abbey Church, and the proposed charter for its endowment. An opencyst, of the beautiful workmanship for which the English goldsmithswere then pre-eminently renowned, that had been among the partinggifts of Edward, contained letters from the various potentates nearand far, who sought his alliance or menaced his repose.
On a perch behind him sate his favourite Norway falcon unhooded, forit had been taught the finest polish in its dainty education—viz.,"to face company undisturbed." At a kind of easel at the farther endof the hall, a dwarf, misshapen in limbs, but of a face singularlyacute and intelligent, was employed in the outline of that famousaction at Val des Dunes, which had been the scene of one of the mostbrilliant of William's feats in arms—an outline intended to betransferred to the notable "stitchwork" of Matilda the Duchess.
Upon the floor, playing with a huge boar-hound of English breed, thatseemed but ill to like the play, and every now and then snarled andshowed his white teeth, was a young boy, with something of the Duke'sfeatures, but with an expression more open and less sagacious; andsomething of the Duke's broad build of chest and shoulder, but withoutpromise of the Duke's stately stature, which was needed to give graceand dignity to a strength otherwise cumbrous and graceless. Andindeed, since William's visit to England, his athletic shape had lostmuch of its youthful symmetry, though not yet deformed by thatcorpulence which was a disease almost as rare in the Norman as theSpartan.
Nevertheless, what is a defect in the gladiator is often but a beautyin the prince; and the Duke's large proportions filled the eye with asense both of regal majesty and physical power. His countenance, yetmore than his form, showed the work of time; the short dark hair wasworn into partial baldness at the temples by the habitual friction ofthe casque, and the constant indulgence of wily stratagem andambitious craft had deepened the wrinkles round the plotting eye andthe firm mouth: so that it was only by an effort like that of anactor, that his aspect regained the knightly and noble frankness ithad once worn. The accomplished prince was no longer, in truth, whatthe bold warrior had been,—he was greater in state and less in soul.And already, despite all his grand qualities as a ruler, his imperiousnature had betrayed signs of what he (whose constitutional sternnessthe Norman freemen, not without effort, curbed into the limits ofjustice) might become, if wider scope were afforded to his fierypassions and unsparing will.
Before the Duke, who was leaning his chin on his hand, stood Mallet deGraville, speaking earnestly, and his discourse seemed both toint