Heroines of the Crusades Part 6

"Father, I would confess."

And the young countess, in all her beauty and pride, knelt at the feet of the venerable man, and with the simplicity of a child, poured out her soul before him.

As Adela had predicted, the Conqueror, on his return to England, took with him Maude, as the bride of Simon. Robert sailed, also, in the same vessel, being commissioned by the king to establish Simon, now Earl of Huntingdon, in his new possessions.

William, too, accompanied his father, for he, more than any of the sons, comprehended the policy, and partook of the spirit of the Conqueror.

The remaining years of the Queen d.u.c.h.ess Matilda, were pa.s.sed in splendid solitude, in the royal palace at Bayeux. The early death of the princess Adeliza, the failing health of Constance, together with fresh dissensions in her family, pressed heavily upon her mind, and occasioned the lingering illness that slowly conducted her to the tomb.

The loss of his beloved queen, and the undutiful conduct of his sons, aggravated the natural irritability and imperiousness of William, so that according to the English chroniclers, "He became, after her death, a thorough tyrant." He pa.s.sed the four remaining years of his life in a constant succession of petty annoyances, and fruitless wars, with Philip of France.

In the stately castle of Chartres, sat the lovely Countess Adela apparently busy with embroidery, in that age almost the only home occupation of females. A shade of sadness was upon her brow, and an expression of anxious care indicated the mother's sympathy with the suffering child, that an attendant was vainly striving to soothe.

"Draw the couch of the little William to my side, Therese," said the countess, observing the tears in the girl's eyes. "Thou hast a tiresome task. Remove these frames," continued she to the maidens, "and go ye all to disport awhile in the pleasance, I will watch my boy's slumbers."

The feeble child stretched his hands to his mother, and laying his head upon her breast sank quietly to sleep.

"Poor suffering one," soliloquized Adela, "thou knowest naught but thy mother's love. Already thy younger brothers despise thy imbecility--the courtiers regard thee with indifference--and the very menials flout thee.

No ducal coronet, or kingly crown will grace the head of my first-born."

The sound of heavy steps in the corridor disturbed the slumberer. He lifted his head, moaned heavily, and regarded with a vacant stare the warrior who entered.

"Robert, my beloved brother!" exclaimed the countess, the joy of former times flitting across her countenance.

With a moody and dissatisfied air the duke returned the frank greeting of his sister, and throwing himself upon a seat by her side, said in a tone of ill-concealed impatience,

"Adela, I have come to thee, for the prudent counsel of our mother dwells with thee. I am robbed of my rights and stripped of my heritage."

"Art thou not Duke of Normandy," inquired his sister with surprise.

"Aye, verily. Our father left me the duchy with a blessing that sounded marvellously like a curse. 'The dukedom of Normandy,' said he, 'I granted unto my son Robert, and having received the homage of his baronage, that honor given cannot be revoked: yet he is a foolish, proud knave, and will be punished with cruel fortune.'"

"The saints preserve thee," said the countess with a look of alarm, "and England"--

Robert interrupted.--"'Tis of that I would speak. The Conqueror bitterly bewailing the desolation and woe he had wrought in England, protested that he had so misused that fair and beautiful land, that he dare not appoint a successor to it, but left the disposal of that matter in the hands of G.o.d."

"Thou shouldst then have been king," said the Countess, "since G.o.d made thee his first-born."

"So should I have been," said the duke, "but for the craft of William; but while I tarried in Germany, little thinking that my father's illness would terminate so suddenly, the red-haired usurper hastened over sea, and gaining Lanfranc to his interest secured the throne."

"Always unready," sighed Adela. "And while the elder sons were thus employed, the young Henry watched by the bed of his dying father. Is it not so?"

"Small watching had the Conqueror's death-bed," said Robert, with something between a smile and a sneer. "The filial Beauclerk set off to secure the treasures, and the attendants equally rapacious and inhuman, plundered the house of all the money, plate, and precious furniture, and even stripped the person of the monarch. And after Herlwin had succeeded in conveying the body to the abbey of St. Stephen's, and they were about to place it in the grave, there stood forth an insolent n.o.ble, and forbade the interment. 'This spot,' said he, 'was the site of my father's house, which this dead duke took violently from him, and here upon part of my inheritance founded this church. This ground I therefore challenge, and charge ye all as ye shall answer it at the great and dreadful day of judgment, that ye lay not the bones of the destroyer on the hearth of my fathers.' And there, exposed to the jeers of the a.s.sembled mult.i.tudes, was the body forced to wait, while Henry drove a sharp bargain with the owner of the soil, and purchased leave of burial for the paltry sum of sixty s.h.i.+llings. Oh Adela!" said Robert, rising and striding through the apartment in extreme perturbation, "I am weary of this greatness which makes enemies of brothers, and yields one scarce a grave at last."

The head of the countess was bent low over her sleeping child: and the duke continued, "I sometimes wish I were an eremite, and unless thy clear wit can devise some expedient by which I can obtain my rightful inheritance, and chastise the vanity of this presumptuous Rufus, I am resolved upon a pilgrimage."

"Thou saidst Lanfranc, a.s.sisted William: our uncle Odo hates Lanfranc,"

said Adela.

Robert caught at the suggestion. "My sister, I thank thee," he exclaimed eagerly. "Thou hast made me king. I will to Normandy, and summon my trusty squires to council. Simon of Huntingdon, Hugh of Norfolk, and William of Durham, are already disaffected and ready for revolt. Odo shall head the conspiracy in England."

Full of his new project the duke hurried away, scarcely waiting for the pecuniary aid, with which the countess, who knew the impoverished state of his finances, hastened to furnish him.

The well-concerted scheme of the conspirators failed, through the characteristic indolence and procrastination of Robert. Odo effected an inglorious escape from England, and the rebel earls gladly made terms with the king. Many of the insurgents repaired to Normandy, and suffered the confiscation of their estates; and while the Countess of Blois daily expected a summons to attend Robert's coronation, she was surprised by intelligence that William had crossed the sea with a numerous army, and by menaces, bribery or fraud, had obtained possession of almost every fortress, on the right bank of the Seine.

The barons who held lands under both brothers, labored to effect a reconciliation through the mediation of the French monarch.

Robert still reckoning upon the liberal aid of his sister and her wealthy lord, resisted all overtures of peace; but Adela comprehending the hopeless defect of a character, that not even a crown could stimulate to prompt.i.tude, persuaded him to accept the terms of the treaty.

As the splendid cortege attendant upon the Countess of Blois, and her young sons Thibaut, Stephen and Henry, swept along the great road from Chartres to Blois, the green arcades of a beautiful grove stretching down to the brink of a small stream that rolled its clear waters to the Loire, invited them to rest during the noontide hours. With loosened rein the steeds wandered at will cropping the tender herbage, or slaked their thirst in the rippling brook; while reposing upon the greensward, the party made a refres.h.i.+ng repast. The children, left to the unrestrained indulgence of their boyish glee, gathered wild flowers for their mother, hallooed to the echoes of the wood, or pursued each other along the banks of the stream.

Allured by the sound of their happy voices, the countess left the company and stole after them, catching occasional glimpses of their dancing plumes, as they bounded on before her, till coming to an opening in the glen, she stopped before an antique crucifix that some pious hand had reared upon the verge of a fountain. Occupied with the sweet thoughts suggested by the place, she scarcely noted the absence of her children, till the little Henry, pulling her by the robe exclaimed with a face all radiant with joy, "This way ma mere, Thibaut says we've found a hermit's cell, and Stephen is talking with the hermit." Yielding to his impetuosity the countess hastened forward and discovered sitting at the entrance of a sylvan lodge, just where the shadow of the cross fell longest at sunset, a youthful saint, if saint he was, reading his breviary, and telling his beads with affected sanct.i.ty.

"Beauclerk!" said the countess after a scrutinizing gaze at his half-concealed features.

"Thou knowest me then," said the pretended monk, in a tone of bitter reproach, rising and throwing off his gray friar's gown and cowl. "I thought myself forgotten by all my father's house."

"'Tis our uncle Henry," said Thibaut, amazed and chagrined at this transformation of his newly discovered hermit.

"And hast thou then doubted the affection of Adela?" said his sister.

"It were not strange that I should doubt the love of one leagued with my foes," replied the prince sorrowfully.

"How leagued with thy foes?" inquired the countess in great surprise.

"Thou surely dost not mock me," said Henry marking the tears trembling on her eyelids. "Thy countenance bespeaks thy sincerity. Have I then been the dupe, as well as the prey of my designing brothers?"

"If thou hast distrusted the love of Adela, yes," replied his sister, "but come thou with me. My lord awaits us at the castle of Blois. He shall investigate thy cause and redress thy wrongs."

"Come with us, dear uncle," reiterated the children observing his hesitation.

"Yield thyself, rescue or no rescue," said the young Stephen balancing a stick as a lance, and leading off the prince in triumph.

"And hast thou not heard of the siege of St. Michael's Mount?" said Henry as he rode by the side of his sister, at the head of the cavalcade.

"A pa.s.sing rumor, and much I fear me, purposely perverted to restrain my interference, was all that reached me," replied Adela. "Tell me all."

"Thou knowest," continued Henry, "that by the will of our father, the duchy of Normandy fell to Robert, and the rich heritage of England was given to William. Henry had neither patrimony nor domains, some small treasure was all my share. This I gave to Robert in the hour of his need, for the lands of Cotentin, and then pa.s.sed into England, to secure the dower of my mother. On my return, the prodigal having squandered the moneys received from me, seized and confined me in one of his fortresses.

When Normandy was invaded, he released me from my imprisonment, and I did him good service in compelling William to raise the siege of Rouen. In the treaty to which thou didst persuade Robert, I was the princ.i.p.al sufferer, and therefore"--added he with warmth, "did I deem that the guileful duke, had stolen into the sanctuary of my sister's affections, and robbed me of thy love, my choicest treasure."

"My much-injured brother," said the countess, affectionately, "I knew not that thy interest was involved, else I had given far different counsel.

But proceed with the story of thy wrongs."

"My traitor brothers united like Pilate and Herod of old," proceeded Henry, with increasing asperity, "seized my castles in Cotenten, and dogged my steps like sleuth-hounds on the track, till I took refuge in Mt.

St. Michael, where the friendly tides kept them at bay; and there I had perished with thirst, had not Robert's tardy compa.s.sion ministered to my necessity, and finally effected my release. Since then, I have wandered a fugitive and an outcast, craving scant hospitality of my brother's va.s.sals, and solacing my weary hours with clerkly studies."