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Updated: May 6, 2025
Where this great road crosses streams and might reasonably be lost, at its pontes, its bridges, it has remained, and is of such importance as to have given a name to a whole countryside Ponthieu. But north of that it is gone. Nearly every Roman road of Gaul and Britain presents something of the same puzzle in some parts of its course.
Day came, and the tidings ran so far till the Count of Ponthieu knew it, and sent for Messire Thibault, and said: "Thibault, thou art vowed a pilgrim, as they tell me, and my daughter also?" "Sir," said he, "that is sooth." "Thibault," said the Count, "concerning thee it is well, but concerning my daughter it is heavy on me." "Sir," said Messire Thibault, "I might not naysay her."
He marched through Ponthieu, crossed the Somme at Blanchetaque, and ravaged the country up to the Seine. Then he retired exhausted, having gained no real advantage by this mere foray.
Of the princes who held of the French crown, Eustace of Boulogne, who joined the muster in person, and Guy of Ponthieu, William's own vassal, who sent his son, seem to have been the only ones who did more than allow the levying of volunteers in their dominions. A strange tale is told that Conan of Britanny took this moment for bringing up his own forgotten pretensions to the Norman duchy.
The 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was one of the best marching battalions in France. On January 19 we reached the promised destination, Maison Ponthieu, of whose billets glowing accounts had been received; which, as often, were hardly realised. At Maison Ponthieu the Battalion remained for nearly three weeks.
Four of the Normans whose names were long held in infamy by the English discovered the body of the dying king, for it is said that he still breathed. One of these was Eustace of Boulogne, the only man in the two armies who had during the engagement shown signs of craven fear. Another was the son of that Count of Ponthieu, who had once held Harold prisoner. The others were Gifford and Montfort.
But now the story is silent as to that Soudan who was so tormented by reason of the flight of his dame and captives; and comes again to the Count of Ponthieu, who was welcomed to his realm with such pomp and worship, as became a lord of his degree. In no long while after his return the son of the Count was dubbed knight, and rich was the feast. He became a knight both chivalrous and brave.
Then there departed from the host by the commandment of the king and marshals five hundred spears and two thousand archers, to see if they might see any Frenchmen gathered again together in any place. The same morning out of Abbeville and Saint-Riquiers in Ponthieu the commons of Rouen and of Beauvais issued out of their towns, not knowing of the discomfiture of the day before.
The fickle-hearted King, who had been merely attracted for a season by her great beauty, was now as eagerly pursuing a foreign Countess, Jeanne of Ponthieu, whom report affirmed to be equally beautiful: and perhaps Marjory was a little consoled, though she might not even admit it to herself, by the fact that Earl Gilbert was at once a much richer man than the King, and very much better-looking.
'Aha, said the mail-clad knight, looking around him with restless, glittering black eyes; 'if I am not mistaken it is a great man whom the wind and waves have done me the honour to waft to my shores. I am Guy, Count of Ponthieu; and you, if I am not mistaken, he said to Harold, 'are Earl Harold, brother-in-law to the King of England.
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