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"He is almost the only Englishman I have seen," answered De Graville, "who hath received scholarly rearing and nurture; and all his faculties are so evenly balanced, and all accompanied by so composed a calm, that methinks, when I look at and hear him, I contemplate some artful castle, the strength of which can never be known at the first glance, nor except by those who assail it."
Great make the danger of the Earl's capture, and vast all the favour of release. Comprehendest thou?" "I am Norman, Monseigneur," replied De Graville, with a slight smile; "and we Normans can make a short mantle cover a large space. You will not be displeased with my address."
"Talking of grace, my dear father, and food," said De Graville, loosening the cincture of the tight vest which gave him the shape of a wasp for even at that early period, small waists were in vogue with the warlike fops of the French Continent "talking of grace, the sooner thou say'st it over some friendly refection, the more will the Latin sound unctuous and musical.
The King halted in the pass, a few steps from the Norman knight; and Mallet de Graville, though accustomed to the majestic mien of Duke William, and the practised state of the princes of France and Flanders, felt an involuntary thrill of admiration at the bearing of the great child of Nature with his foot on his father's soil.
"Ride with me back to the camp, that I may give thee my message, and instruct also the monk." "De Graville," resumed the Duke, as they rode towards the lines, "my meaning is briefly this.
"Thou art mistaken, Sire de Graville," said the Duke, with a shrewd and cunning twinkle of his luminous dark eyes. "For thou tellest me that he hath no thought of my pretensions to the English throne, that he inclines willingly to thy suggestions to come himself to my court for the hostages, that, in a word, he is not suspicious." "Certes, he is not suspicious," returned Mallet.
The accomplished prince was no longer, in truth, what the bold warrior had been, he was greater in state and less in soul. Before the Duke, who was leaning his chin on his hand, stood Mallet de Graville, speaking earnestly, and his discourse seemed both to interest and please his lord. Enough I say, of them. Let us return to Harold, thou thinkest, then, that he is worthy of his fame?"
Accompanied by the brothers of Waltham, and attended by link-bearers, Mallet de Graville was yet engaged in the search for the royal dead and the search was vain. Deeper and stiller, the autumnal moon rose to its melancholy noon, and lent its ghastly aid to the glare of the redder lights.
And, as the reader may have noted, in suggesting that policy of intimidation, the knight had designed to give the Earl at least the benefit of forewarning. So, thus adjured, De Graville replied sincerely: "Earl Harold, on my honour as your brother in knighthood I answer your plain question.
I fell in with a knight, whose name I have since heard as that of Mallet de Graville, who wilily seemed to believe in what I stated, and who gave me meat and drink, with debonnair courtesy. Then said he abruptly, 'Spy from Harold, thou hast come to see the strength of the Norman.
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