'Twas sworn and sealed, and the day had come When the King and the Prince might journey home:
For Christmas cheer is to home hearts dear, And Christmas now was drawing near.30
Stout Fitz-Stephen came to the King,— A pilot famous in seafaring;
And he held to the King in all men's sight, A mark of gold for his tribute's right.
"Liege[272] Lord! my father guided the ship35 From whose boat your father's[273] foot did slip When he caught the English soil in his grip,
"And cried: 'By this clasp I claim command O'er every rood[274] of English land!'
"He was borne to the realm you rule o'er now40 In that ship with the archer carved at her prow:
"And thither I'll bear an' it be my due, Your father's son and his grandson too.
"The famed White Ship is mine in the bay; From Harfleur's harbor[275] she sails to-day,45
"With masts fair-pennoned as Norman spears And with fifty well-tried mariners."