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He scarcely revived when the sun went down, and a cool breeze sprang up, which much refreshed Osmond himself; and still more did it refresh the Squire to see, at length, winding through the green pastures, a blue river, on the opposite bank of which rose a high rocky mound, bearing a castle with many a turret and battlement. "The Epte! the Epte! There is Normandy, sir!
It is as picturesque as any place in Normandy with the exception of Mont St Michel. The river Epte gliding slowly through its little canals at the sides of some of the streets, forms innumerable pictures when reflecting the quaint houses and gardens whose walls are generally grown over with creepers.
At Les Thilliers, a small hamlet that, owing to situation at cross-roads figures conspicuously upon the milestones of the neighbourhood, the road to Gisors goes towards the east, and after crossing the valley of the Epte, you run down an easy gradient, passing a fine fortified farm-house with circular towers at each corner of its four sides and in a few minutes have turned into the historic old town of Gisors.
And Marambot, eager and almost eloquent, continued: "What beggars, those English! And what sots, my boy; they are all 'Rosiers, those hypocrites!" Then, after a silence, stretching out his arm towards the tiny river that glistened in the meadows, he said: "Did you know that Henry Monnier was one of the most untiring fishermen on the banks of the Epte?" "No, I did not know it."
He was warden of the marches of the Epte, and was killed by your father's side in the inroad of the Viscount du Cotentin, at the time when you were born, Lord Richard." "But where does he live? Shall I not see him again?" "Montemar is on the bank of the Epte, in the domain that the French wrongfully claim from us.
The Dane was to do homage to the French king, to abandon his gods Thor, Odin and the rest for Christianity, and in return was to be made ruler of the country between the River Epte and the sea, and westwards as far as the borders of Brittany Rollo was also to be given the hand of the Princess Gisela in marriage.
Pursuant to these intentions, he soon found an occasion for a quarrel: expostulating with Henry, that he had broken his promise by not doing homage for the Duchy of Normandy, as well as by neglecting to raze the castle of Gisors, which was built on the French side of the river Epte, the common boundary between both dominions.
And Marambot, eager and almost eloquent, continued: "What beggars, those English! And what sots, my boy; they are all 'Rosiers, those hypocrites!" Then, after a silence, stretching out his arm towards the tiny river that glistened in the meadows, he said: "Did you know that Henry Monnier was one of the most untiring fishermen on the banks of the Epte?" "No, I did not know it."
The grim spectres of Famine and Plague made a charnel-house of whole regions of France, while Eudes was fighting the Count of Flanders, a rival king, and the ineffectual emperor, Charles the Simple. He it was who after Eudes' death, by the treaty of St. Claire sur Epte in 902, surrendered to the barbarians the fair province, subsequently to be known as Normandy.
"Free! free! this is freedom!" cried Richard, leaping up in the delicious cool evening breeze; "the Queen and Lothaire, and that grim room, all far behind." "Not so far yet," said Osmond; "you must not call yourself safe till the Epte is between us and them. Into the saddle, my Lord; we must ride for our lives."
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