On which Gilbert of Ghent, inquiring what Odin's horse might be, and
finding it to signify the ash-tree whereon, as sacred to Odin, thieves
were hanged by Danes and Norse, made answer,--
That he Gilbert had not put his cook into Bourne, nor otherwise harmed
Hereward or his. That Bourne had been seized by the king himself, together
with Earl Morcar's lands in those parts, as all men knew. That the said
cook so pleased the king with a dish of stewed eel-pout, which he served
up to him at Cambridge, and which the king had never eaten before, that
the king begged the said cook of him Gilbert and took him away; and that
after, so he heard, the said cook had begged the said manors of Bourne of
the king, without the knowledge or consent of him Gilbert. That he
therefore knew naught of the matter. That if Hereward meant to keep the
king's peace, he might live in Bourne till Doomsday, for aught he,
Gilbert, cared. But that if he and his men meant to break the king's
peace, and attack Lincoln city, he Gilbert would nail their skins to the
door of Lincoln Cathedral, as they used to do by the heathen Danes in old
time. And that, therefore, they now understood each other.
At which Hereward laughed, and said that they had done that for many a
year.
And now poured into Bourne from every side brave men and true,--some great
holders dispossessed of their land; some the sons of holders who were not
yet dispossessed; some Morcar's men, some Edwin's, who had been turned out
by the king.
Pages:
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368