Geoffroy, thus hardly entreated, waded and struggled to the brink as best he could, and was there pulled out all covered with mud, or with the green mantle of the pool. Ivo, apprehending a rope round his own neck, caught hold of one of the nets that the shouting and laughing Saxons kept throwing at him, and he too was dragged out of the water, all bemired or green, and almost breathless.
Such of the men-at-arms as had kept their weapons had laid them at the feet of Lord Hereward, in token of unconditional surrender. Geoffroy, the unlucky wooer, had no weapon to give up, having left his sword in the pool; but his brother Ivo had his broad blade at his side, and when called upon to surrender it, he made a wry face and said that a knight ought to surrender only to a knight, meaning hereby to taunt the Lord of Brunn with his not having been admitted into the high military confraternity.
“Ivo,” said Hereward, “I told Raoul, that dispossessed usurper and robber, and I now tell thee, that I shall soon be a knight, meaning that I shall be one according to usage and rites and ceremonies. True knighthood is in the heart and soul of man, and not in the ceremonies. Were I not already a truer knight than thou, I would hang thee and thy brother to these willow-trees, and butcher thy men here, even as too many of ye Normans have butchered defenceless Saxon prisoners after surrender. Give up thy sword, man, or it may not be in my power to save thee from the fury of my people! Give up thy sword, I say!”
Ivo began a long protest, which so incensed Elfric and Girolamo that they drew their own blades; but the Lord of Brunn bade them put up their weapons, and then said to the proud Norman knight, “Traitor and spoiler as thou art, talk no more of dark stratagem and treachery! A people, struggling for their own against numerous and organised armies, must avail themselves of the natural advantages which their soil and country, their rivers and meres, or mountains, may afford them. No stratagem is foul: the foulness is all in the invaders and robbers. Armies are not to be bound by the rules of thy chivalry. Until my forces be both increased and improved, I will risk no open battle, or adventure any number of my men in an encounter with the trained troops from Normandie, and from nearly all Europe besides, that have been making a constant occupation and trade of war for so long a season. This I frankly tell thee; but at the same time I tell thee to thy teeth, that if I and thou ever meet on a fair and open field, I will do thee battle hand to hand for that sword which thou must now surrender. Norman! I would fight thee for it now, but that the field is not fair here—but that these rough fen-men would hardly allow fair play between us—but that this is my wedding-day, and the priest and my bride are waiting. Man, I will brook no more delay—give me thy sword or die!”
Ivo Taille-Bois stretched out his unwilling arm, and holding the point of his sword in his own hand, he put the hilt of it into the hand of the English champion, who threw it among the heap of Norman swords that lay at his back. At this new mark of contempt, Ivo muttered, “Was ever knight treated in so unknightly a manner! Must I really be dragged to the church by these dirty clowns?”
To this my Lord Hereward replied, “Did ever knight engage in such unknightly deed! Yea, Ivo, and thou, Geoffroy, likewise, I tell ye ye must to the church; and if ye will not go but upon compulsion, these honest men and clean shall drag ye both thither.”
“Then,” said Geoffroy, speaking mildly, “permit us at least to wipe this mud from our hose, and this green slime from our coats.”
“It needs not,” said the Lord of Brunn, with a laugh; “thine hose are not so dirty as the motive which brought thee hither, and thine head is as green as thy coat. So close up, my men, and let us march.”
The Lord Hereward, however, did not prevent Ivo from rubbing himself down with the skirt of a coat appurtenant to one of his men-at-arms. As for Geoffroy, Elfric would not permit a Norman to approach him; and when he would have stopped by the hill-side to rub himself against a tree, as our fen swine use when they would clean themselves from the mud of the marshes, Elfric or some other zealous Saxon got between him and the tree and pushed him forward.
In this wise—the Normans groaning and distilling, and the Saxons laughing and shouting—the whole mixed party ascended the hill and came to the church. The Lord Hereward’s absence from the church had been but short—it had not lasted an hour in all—yet were the priest and the goodly company assembled growing very impatient, and the Ladie Alftrude very much alarmed, albeit she was a maiden of high courage, as befitted one who lived in troublous times, and she had been opportunely advised that the Lord Hereward had only gone to an easy triumph. But bright, though bashfully, beamed her blue eye when Hereward appeared in the porch. But who were these two forlorn Norman knights walking close behind him with their heads bent on their breasts and their eyes on the ground? Ha, ha! sweet Ladie Alftrude, thine own eye became more bashful, and thy blush a deeper red, when thou didst see and understand who those two knights were, and why they had been brought into the church! The dames and damsels of the company all stared in amaze; and the Saxon priest, still standing with open book, started and crossed himself as he looked at Ivo Taille-Bois and his brother Geoffroy.