Une clef d’argent unt trovee
A sun braiol estreit noee.
Tout la gent se merveillont
Que cete clef signifiont.
* * * *
Ni la cuoule e l’estamine
En aveit il en un archete,
Que disfermeront ceste clavete
De sol itant ert tresorier
Kar nul tresor n’vait plus cher.
The history of the adventures of Jumièges is literally true, as is Martin’s refusal to admit the Duke to the cloister:—
Dun ne t’a Deus mis e posé
Prince gardain de sainte iglise
E cur tenir leial justise.
[10] An attack, in which Riouf, Vicomte du Cotentin, placed Normandy in the utmost danger. He was defeated on the banks of the Seine, in a field still called the “Pré de Battaille,” on the very day of Richard’s birth; so that the Te Deum was sung at once for the victory and the birth of the heir of Normandy.
[11] “Biaus Segnors, vées chi vo segneur, je ne le vous voel tolir, mais je estoie venus en ceste ville, prendre consel a vous, comment je poroie vengier la mort son père, qui me rapiela d’Engletière. Il me fist roi, il me fist avoir l’amour le roi d’Alemaigne, il leva mon fil de fons, il me fist toz les biens, et jou en renderai au fill le guerredon se je puis.”—Michel.
[12] In a battle fought with Lothaire at Charmenil, Richard saved the life of Walter the huntsman, who had been with him from his youth.
[13] At fourteen years of age, Richard was betrothed to Eumacette of Paris, then but eight years old. In such esteem did Hugues la Blanc hold his son-in-law, that, on his death-bed, he committed his son Hugues Capet to his guardianship, though the Duke was then scarcely above twenty, proposing him as the model of wisdom and of chivalry.
[14] “Osmons, qui l’enfant enseognoit l’eu mena i jour en riviere, et quant il revint, la reine Gerberge dist que se il jamais l’enmenait fors des murs, elle li ferait les jeix crever.”—Michel.
[15] “Gules, two wings conjoined in lure, or,” is the original coat of St. Maur, or Seymour, said to be derived from Osmond de Centeville, who assumed them in honour of his flight with Duke Richard. His direct descendants in Normandy were the Marquises of Osmond, whose arms were gules, two wings ermine. In 1789 there were two survivors of the line of Centeville, one a Canon of Notre Dame, the other a Chevalier de St. Louis, who died childless.