[713] On the different versions of the death of Conan in Orderic and in William of Malmesbury, see Appendix K.
[714] Ord. Vit. 690 C. “Considera, Conane, quam pulcram tibi patriam conatus es subjicere.”
[715] Ord. Vit. 690 C. “En, ad meridiem delectabile parcum patet oculis tuis. En saltuosa regio silvestribus abundans feris. Ecce Sequana piscosum flumen Rotomagensem murum allambit, navesque pluribus mercimoniis refertas huc quotidie devehit.”
[716] Ib. D. “En ex alia parte civitas populosa, mœnibus sacrisque templis et urbanis ædibus speciosa, cui jure a priscis temporibus subjacet Normannia tota.”
[717] Ib. “Pro redemptione mei domino meo aurum dabo et argentum, quantum reperire potero in thesauris meis meorumque parentum, et pro culpa infidelitatis fidele usque ad mortem rependam servitium.”
[718] Ord. Vit. 690 C. “Per animam matris meæ, traditori nulla erit redemptio, sed debitæ mortis acceleratio.”
[719] Ib. “Conanus gemens clamavit alta voce; Pro amore, inquit, Dei, confessionem mihi permitte.”
[720] Ib. “Henricus acer fraternæ ultor injuriæ præ ira infremuit.” Simple wrath is an attribute which we are more used to assign to Henry the Second, with his hereditary touch of the Angevin devil, than to the calm, deliberate, Henry the First. Yet we can understand how, through the stages of the “ironica insultatio,” as Orderic calls Henry’s discourse to Conan, a determination taken in cold blood might grow into the fierce delight of destruction at the actual moment of carrying it out.
[721] See Appendix K.
[722] Ord. Vit. 691 A. “Locus ipse, ubi vindicta hujusmodi perpetrata est, saltus Conani usque in hodiernam diem vocitatus est.”