"Yes, for one's country, as when Alfred fought against the Danes or Harold at Senlac. So it was noble to die as died my father,—your own ancestor, Thurkill of Kingestun; so, had I been old enough to have gone with him, should I have died."
"And you took part in the skirmishes which followed Senlac?"
"I fought under the hero Hereward."
"And did you shudder to look upon war?"
"Only as a youth naturally does the first time he sees the blood of man poured forth like water—it is not for that I would reproach thee, only we fought for liberty; and it is better to die than to live a life of slavery,—happier far were they who fell around our noble Harold on the hill of Senlac, than they who survived to see the desolation and misery, the chains and slavery which awaited the land; but, my child, what are you fighting for? surely one tyrant is no better than another, Maude or Stephen, what does it matter?"
"Save, grandfather, that Maude is the descendant of our old English kings—her great-grandfather was the Ironside of whose valiant deeds I have often heard you boast."
"True, my son, and therefore of the two, I wish her success; but she also is the grandchild of the Conqueror, who was the scourge of God to this poor country."
"In that case God sent him."
"Deliver my soul from the ungodly, which is a sword of Thine," quoted the pious old man, well versed in certain translations from the Psalms.