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"Thou hast heard, Godric, how that my counsellors have long desired me to wed with Duke Ivo, and do yet await my answer to his suit nay hearken! So to-night shall my mind be known in the matter once and for all! Come, my Godric, arm you and saddle two horses come!" "Nay, sweet my lady, what would ye?" "Fly hence with thee, my Godric! Come the horses!" "Fly from Mortain, and thou the Duchess?
Among the prisoners were Robert and his youthful son William, the Counts of Mortain, Estouteville, Ferrieres, and a large number of notable men.
Stephen was a son of the Conqueror's daughter, Adela, who had married a Count of Blois; he had been brought up at the English court, had been made Count of Mortain by Henry, had become Count of Boulogne by his marriage, and as head of the Norman baronage had been the first to pledge himself to support Matilda's succession.
Meantime, Black Ivo's archers advancing, fell into arrow formation and began to ply the Mortain ranks with clouds of shafts and bolts 'neath which divers men and horses fell what time Black Ivo's massed columns moved slowly forward to the attack yet Duke Beltane, sitting among his knights, stirred not, and the army of Mortain abode very silent and still.
Soft with distance came the peal of bells, stealing across the valley from the great minster in Mortain, and, with the sound, memory waked, and she bethought her of all those knights and nobles who lived but to do her will and pleasure, of Mortain and the glory of it; and so she sighed and stirred, and, looking at Beltane, sighed again.
The confiscation of forfeited estates was no doubt one object of his march through the land, and the greater part of these were bestowed upon his own half brother, Robert, Count of Mortain, the beginning of what grew ultimately into the great earldom of Cornwall.
"But thou didst leave me in Mortain thicket despite my hair, Beltane! And thou didst tell me mine eyes were not a nun's eyes, Beltane " "Wherefore this night do I thank God!" said he, drawing her close beside him on the bench. "And for my arms, Beltane, thou didst think them man's arms because they went bedight in mail, forsooth!"
Holy Crosse!" rose high above the flagging sound of "Ha Rou! Ha Rou! Notre Dame!" "Per la resplendar De," cried William. "Our soldiers are but women in the garb of Normans. Ho, spears to the rescue! With me to the charge, Sires D'Aumale and De Littain with me, gallant Bruse, and De Mortain; with me, De Graville and Grantmesnil Dex aide! Notre Dame."
For of a sudden his mighty arms were close about her, and rising, he lifted her upon his breast. "What would'st do with me, Beltane?" "Do?" quoth he, "do? This night, this very hour thou shalt wed me " "Nay, dear my lord bethink thee " "It hath been my thought my dearest dream since first I saw thee within the woods at Mortain so now shalt wed me " "But, Beltane " "Shalt wed me!"
Up rose the dust, forward swept the battle as Black Ivo's hosts gave back before the might of Mortain; forward the blue banner reeled and staggered where fought Beltane fierce and untiring, his long shield hacked and dinted, his white plumes shorn away, while ever his hardy foresters smote and thrust on flank and rear.
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