There was curiosity
in her look, expectation, and some anxiety, but there was no longing. A
month, had passed since Raymond Warde had ridden away with his half-
dozen squires and servants to do homage to the Empress Maud. Her court
was, indeed, little more than a show, and Stephen ruled in wrongful
possession of the land; but here and there a sturdy and honest knight
was still to be found, who might, perhaps, be brought to do homage for
his lands to King Stephen, but who would have felt that he was a
traitor, and no true man, had he not rendered the homage of fealty to
the unhappy lady who was his rightful sovereign. And one of these was
Raymond Warde, whose great-grandfather had ridden with Robert the Devil
to Jerusalem, and had been with him when he died in Nicaea; and his
grandsire had been in the thick of the press at Hastings, with William
of Normandy, wherefore he had received the lands and lordship of Stoke
Regis in Hertfordshire; and his name is on Battle Abbey Roll to this
day.
During ten years Stephen of Blois had reigned over England with varying
fortune, alternately victor and vanquished, now holding his great
enemy, Robert of Gloucester, a prisoner and hostage, now himself in the
Empress's power, loaded with chains and languishing in the keep of
Bristol Castle. Yet of late the tide had turned in his favour; and
though Gloucester still kept up the show of warfare for his half-
sister's sake,--as indeed he fought for her so long as he had breath,--
the worst of the civil war was over; the partisans of the Empress had
lost faith in her sovereignty, and her cause was but lingering in the
shadow of death.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25