] at Durham, and burnt him in his own house.
There was but one of his men got out of Durham to tell the news. And now
they have marched on York; and all the chiefs, they say, have joined
them,--Archill the Thane, and Edwin and Morcar, and Waltheof too, the
young traitors."
"Blessed Virgin!" cried Ivo, "thou art indeed gracious to thy most
unworthy knight!"
"What do you mean?"
"You will see some day. Now, I will tell you but one word. When fools make
hay, wise men can build ricks. This rebellion,--if it had not come of
itself, I would have roused it. We wanted it, to cure William of this just
and benevolent policy of his, which would have ended in sending us back to
France as poor as we left it. Now, what am I expected to do? What says
Gilbert of Ghent, the wise man of Lic--nic--what the pest do you call that
outlandish place, which no civilized lips can pronounce?"
"Lic-nic-cole?" replied Ascelin, who, like the rest of the French, never
could manage to say Lincoln. "He says, 'March to me, and with me to join
the king at York.'"
"Then he says well. These fat acres will be none the leaner, if I leave
the English slaves to crop them for six months. Men! arm and horse Sir
Robert of Deeping. Then arm and horse yourselves. We march north in half
an hour, bag and baggage, scrip and scrippage.
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