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Updated: June 7, 2025
The Countess Judith wished to visit the tomb of her late husband, Earl Waltheof; and asked hospitality on her road of Hereward and Alftruda. Of course she would come with a great train, and the trouble and expense would be great. But the hospitality of those days, when money was scarce, and wine scarcer still, was unbounded, and a matter of course; and Alftruda was overjoyed.
"Out!" cried she, using a short and terrible epithet. "Out, siren, with fairy's face and tail of fiend, and leave the husband with his wife!" Alftruda looked up, shrieked; and then, with the sudden passion of a weak nature, drew a little knife, and sprang up. Ivo made a coarse jest. The Abbot sprang in: "For the sake of all holy things, let there be no more murder here!"
After which Hereward sent them all home except two; and waited till he should marry Alftruda, and get back his heritage. "And when that happens," said William, "why should we not have two weddings, beausire, as well as one? I hear that you have in Crowland a fair daughter, and marriageable." Hereward bowed.
Meanwhile, he was man enough not to require that anything should be added to Torfrida's penance; and that was enough to prove him a man in those days, at least for a churchman, as it proved Archbishop or St. Ailred to be, a few years after, in the case of the nun of Watton, to be read in Gale's "Scriptores Anglicaniae." Then he showed the letter to Alftruda.
But Hereward was deaf to their arguments. He had said as little to them as he could about Alftruda, for very shame; but he was utterly besotted on her. For her sake, he had determined to run his head blindly into the very snare of which he had warned others. And he had seared so he fancied his conscience. It was Torfrida's fault now, not his.
He half hoped that when that day came, Alftruda might be somewhere else. "Gilbert can say," he went on, steadying himself again, "that you feared to go north on account of the disturbed state of the country; and that, as you had given yourself up to him of your own accord, he thought it wisest to detain you, as a hostage for Dolfin's allegiance." "He shall say so. I will make him say so."
In fine, he had to pay the money; and was a poor man all his days. "Aha! Sir Ascelin," said Hereward apart, as he bade them all farewell with many courtesies. "I think I have put a spoke in your wheel about the fair Alftruda." "Eh? How? Most courteous victor?" "Sir Ascelin is not a very wealthy gentleman." Ascelin laughed assent.
"Selfishness, selfishness everywhere; and I suppose you expect to gain by sending me to Gilbert of Ghent?" "I shall gain nothing, Alftruda, save the thought that you are not so far from me from us but that we can hear of you, send succor to you if you need." Alftruda was silent. At last "And you think that Gilbert would not be afraid of angering the king?" "He would not anger the king.
"What cares an outlaw for law, in a land where law is dead and gone? I will do what I what you like. Come with me to Torfrida at Bourne; and let me see the man who dares try to take you out of my hand." Alftruda laughed again. "No, no. I should interrupt the little doves in their nest. Beside, the billing and cooing might make me envious.
Torfrida smiled, and fixed her snake's eye upon her wretched rival. "Out! woman, and choose thee a new husband among these French gallants, ere I blast thee from head to foot with the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian." Alftruda shuddered, and fled shrieking into an inner room. "Now, knights, give me that which hangs outside." Ascelin hurried out, glad to escape. In a minute he returned.
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