"Take thine oath, then, upon the Holy Gospels, only to speak the truth; my Lord Archbishop will administer it."
Lanfranc administered the oath, much as it is done in courts of justice nowadays, but with peculiar solemnity of manner.
Etienne repeated the words very solemnly and distinctly. No one doubted, or could doubt, his sincerity.
"Of what crimes dost thou accuse the prisoner?"
"Parricide, in that he hath compassed the death of his adoptive father; sacrilege, in that he burnt the priory of St. Wilfred with all the monks therein, and later the Priory of St. Denys, from which the inmates had happily escaped, and in support of this accusation I am ready to wager my body in the lists, if the King so allow."
"We do not risk thy safety against one who is already proved guilty of rebellion, and who is not of knightly rank like thyself."
(Etienne had duly received knighthood after the taking of the Camp of Refuge.)
"This is a question of evidence. State thy case."
Etienne spake clearly and well; and as he told the story of the destruction of the priory of St. Wilfred, of the subsequent appearance of our hero in the woods at the head of the outlaws, and the later conflagrations, there were few who did not think that he had proved his case, so far as it admitted of proof.
"We will now hear thy story of the destruction of the priory, and the manner in which thou didst escape from it," said the Conqueror to Wilfred.