But be that as
it may, Morcar is earl, and Tosti outlawed, and here in St. Omer, with
wife and child."
"My nephew Earl of Northumbria! As I might have been, if I had been a
wiser man."
"If you had, you would never have found me."
"True, my queen! They say Heaven tempers the wind to the shorn lamb; but
it tempers it too, sometimes, to the hobbled ass; and so it has done by
me. And so the rogues have fallen out, and honest men may come by their
own. For, as the Northern men have done by one brother, so will the
Eastern men do by the other. Let Harold see how many of those fat
Lincolnshire manors, which he has seized into his own hands, he holds by
this day twelve months. But what is all this to me, my queen, while you
and I can kiss, and laugh the world to scorn?"
"This to you, beloved, that, great as you are, Torfrida must have you
greater still; and out of all this coil and confusion you may win
something, if you be wise."
"Sweet lips, be still, and let us love instead of plotting."
"And this, too--you shall not stop my mouth--that Harold Godwinsson has
sent a letter to you."
"Harold Godwinsson is my very good lord," sneered Hereward.
"And this it said, with such praises and courtesies concerning you, as
made thy wife's heart beat high with pride: 'If Hereward Leofricsson will
come home to England, he shall have his rights in law again, and his
manors in Lincolnshire, and a thanes-ship in East Anglia, and manors for
his men-at-arms; and if that be not enough, he shall have an earldom, as
soon as there is one to give.
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