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Indeed, even this recollection might hardly have saved Hereward from the charms of this enchantress, bold, free-born, and fearless as he was; for, during that time of strange revolutions, there were many instances of successful generals sharing the couch of imperial princesses, whom perhaps they had themselves rendered widows, in order to make way for their own pretensions.
Surrender only remained. A day came at length in which he rode from the forest with forty stout warriors at his back, made his way to the royal seat of Winchester, and knocked at the city gates, bidding the guards to carry the news to the conqueror that Hereward the Wake had come. William gladly received him.
Thus adjured, the Duke of Hereward paused, and permitted the ex-valet to come up beside him. The wretched man was out of breath, pale, panting, trembling, ready to faint. He tottered toward the bulwarks of the bridge, grasped them, and leaned on them for support. "What do you want of me, Potts?" inquired the duke. "Oh, your grace! only to speak to you!" gasped the man.
If the present bearer of the coronet of Hereward should die childless, the title would not descend to the son of his only and beloved sister, but would go to a distant relative whom the duke hated. A speedy marriage seemed necessary.
'forced' to conceal the fact of your marriage with me! and 'forced' to marry the Duke of Hereward under false colors. Could force on one side, and feebleness on the other, be carried any further than this?" muttered Volaski, between his teeth. "I knew how helpless, in the hands of my parents, I was," wailed Valerie. "Well, you are a duchess! Do you love the Duke of Hereward?"
As soon as the news arrived at the Camp of Refuge that the warlike Thorold had been appointed to Peterborough, Hereward and his hand hastened to the Abbey, and, probably with the consent of the Saxon monks, carried off all the treasures into the midst of the fens.
Do thou, good Hereward," for the name was now pretty well established in his Imperial memory, "and such of thy companions as know the habits of the creature, lead him back to his old quarters in the Blacquernal; and that done, my friend, observe that we request thy company, and that of thy faithful mate Bertha, to partake supper at our court, with our wife and daughter, and such of our servants and allies as we shall request to share the same honour.
"What are the fools doing down here, wandering into the very jaws of the wolf? How will they land here? They were to have gone straight to the Lincolnshire coast. God grant this mistake be not the first of dozens!" Hereward went into Torfrida's bower. "This is an evil business. The Danes are here, where they have no business, instead of being off Scheldtmouth, as I entreated them.
"If there be Frenchmen up above," said Martin, in a voice of feigned terror, "take us in for the love of the Virgin and all the saints, or murdered we shall be ere morning light." "You have no call to stay in the town, man, unless you like." Hereward rode close to the wicket, and said in a low voice, "I am a nobleman of Flanders, good sir, and a sworn foe to all French.
A bad prospect for us, if you are," said Hereward to himself. "Ah, my dear Lord King!" said Waltheof, "and you are recovering?" "Somewhat," said the lad, sitting up, "under the care of this kind knight." "He is a monk, Sir Atheling, and not a knight," said Hereward. "Our fenmen can wear a mail-shirt as easily as a frock, and handle a twybill as neatly as a breviary." Waltheof shook his head.
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