"Another count in the long score," quoth Azer. But when, in two hours
more, they came to Spalding town, they found all the folk upon the street,
shouting and praising the host of Heaven. There was not a Frenchman left
in the town.
For when Ivo returned home, ere yet Sir Robert and his family were well
clothed and fed, there galloped into Spalding from, the north Sir Ascelin,
nephew and man of Thorold, would-be Abbot of Peterborough, and one of the
garrison of Lincoln, which was then held by Hereward's old friend, Gilbert
of Ghent.
"Not bad news, I hope," cried Ivo, as Ascelin clanked into the hall. "We
have enough of our own. Here is all Kesteven, as the barbarians call it,
risen, and they are murdering us right and left."
"Worse news than that, Ivo Taillebois," ("Sir," or "Sieur," Ascelin was
loath to call him, being himself a man of family and fashion; and holding
the _nouveaux venus_ in deep contempt,)--"worse news than that: the
North has risen again, and proclaimed Prince Edgar King."
"A king of words! What care I, or you, as long as the Mamzer, God bless
him! is a king of deeds?"
"They have done their deeds, though, too. Gospatrick and Marlesweyn are
back out of Scotland. They attacked Robert de Comines [Footnote: Ancestor
of the Comyns of Scotland.
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