Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
"What is this?" an imperious voice demanded; and turning round, Wulf saw William, the Norman Bishop of London, who, followed by several monks and pages, had pushed his way through the crowd. "Walter Fitz-Urse, what means this altercation?"
I cannot feel as sure as if I had watched him myself that Fitz-Urse has not passed out in disguise unnoticed, but I have a strong belief that it is so. At any rate, my lord, you can go away with the assurance that all that is possible shall be done by us, and that even if he pass out once or twice undiscovered there is good hope that we shall at last detect him."
"If that is Fitz-Urse, he is walking so as to avoid the appearance of haste in case anyone should be looking after him," Ulf muttered to himself. "At any rate I will follow him, he is more like the Norman than anyone I have yet seen, though he carries his head forwarder and his shoulders more rounded."
Maybe I can find a quick sailer, and shall be at one of the ports in the Humber before the craft that left this morning." "By the time you return I shall have found out whether Fitz-Urse is at the bishop's palace, and shall have my horses ready to mount."
He wore shoes of light yellow leather fastened by bands over the insteps. As he ran down the steps of the palace he came into sharp contact with another page who had just turned the corner of the street. "I crave your pardon, Walter Fitz-Urse," he said hurriedly, "but I was in haste and saw you not." The other lad was as clearly Norman as the speaker was Saxon.
For fully half an hour they talked, then the men got into the boat and rowed away, and Fitz-Urse turned and walked back to the palace. Ulf did not follow him. The meeting for which Fitz-Urse had come out had taken place, he would be sure to go straight back to the palace. Ulf lay there for some time fairly crying with vexation.
"You are a troublesome varlet, Wulf, and the Lord Bishop has been making serious complaint of you to the king. He says that you brawled with his page, Walter Fitz-Urse; that you used insolent words against his countrymen; and that you even withstood himself. What have you to say to this?" "The brawling was on the part of the bishop's page and not of mine, my lord.
Nevertheless, I admitted that you were wrong, and I promised the king, who was perhaps more disturbed by this incident than there was any occasion for, that I would take you to task seriously, and that to avoid any further brawl between you and young Fitz-Urse, you should for a time be sent away from court.
I could not catch him until he reached the door, but as that was closed he could fly no farther, and I slew him there." "Who and what are these men, good Beorn?" "They are, I believe, Normans; but I know naught for certain beyond the fact that the leader, he with whom Wulf was engaged, is Walter Fitz-Urse, who was a page of the Bishop William of London, and was well known at the court."
On returning to Westminster Ulred learnt from Beorn that Fitz-Urse was there no longer, having, as the servant said, left for Normandy. "I am just starting, Ulred. Which will be at York first, you or I?" "It depends upon the wind, my lord. A ship can sail night and day, but a horse and rider must take some rest. It may be that we shall lay to at night, but that must depend upon the shipmaster.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking