And here he suppressed what might have been a sigh.
"I am indeed Norman by my father's side--a race none need blush to own, and received but recently knighthood from the hands of Robert of Normandy, after the battle of Dorylaeum; but by my mother's side I am of English blood."
"And thou blushest not to own it?"
"Why should I? Norman and English have long been peacefully united on my father's lands, and we know no distinction."
"Such, I have heard, is not yet everywhere the case in thine island; but thou hast not told me thy name."
"Edward of Aescendune, son of Etienne, lord of Aescendune in England, and Malville in Normandy."
The stranger started as if an arrow had suddenly pierced him. The young knight looked on him with amazement.
"A fit to which I am subject--it is nothing," said he, regaining his composure and drinking a goblet of wine. "May I ask thy mother's name? Thou saidst she was English."
"Edith, daughter of Edmund, the English lord of Aescendune, and Winifred his wife."
The knight was still evidently unwell--a deadly pallor sat on his face.