"This. That there are certain broad lands in England, which were my
father's, and are now my nephews' and my mother's, and some which should
by right be mine. And I advise you, as a friend, not to make entry on
those lands, lest Hereward in turn make entry on you. And who is he that
will deliver you out of my hand?"
"God and his Saints alone, thou fiend out of the pit!" quoth Gilbert,
laughing. But he was growing warm, and began to tutoyer Hereward.
"I am in earnest, Gilbert of Ghent, my good friend of old time."
"I know thee well enough, man. Why in the name of all glory and plunder
art thou not coming with us? They say William has offered thee the earldom
of Northumberland."
"He has not. And if he has, it is not his to give. And if it were, it is
by right neither mine nor my nephews', but Waltheof Siwardsson's. Now
hearken unto me; and settle it in your mind, thou and William both, that
your quarrel is against none but Harold and the Godwinssons, and their men
of Wessex; but that if you go to cross the Watling street, and meddle with
the free Danes, who are none of Harold's men--"
"Stay. Harold has large manors in Lincolnshire, and so has Edith his
sister; and what of them, Sir Hereward?"
"That the man who touches them, even though the men on them may fight on
Harold's side, had better have put his head into a hornet's nest.
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