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King.’
    â€˜And you say he has given his consent.’
    â€˜He will, I believe. He is pleased with the man because he has satisfactorily given him Normandy in pawn. This marriage would be a kind of reward for the services he has rendered.’
    â€˜And am I to have no choice, then?’
    â€˜Oh come, Edith, you are young, and you have childishnotions. Marriage to one or another . . . what matters it?’
    â€˜It matters to me,’ said Edith.
    â€˜You will go to Normandy; you will be châtelaine of a great castle; you will have your children.’
    â€˜No, Uncle Edgar.’
    But Uncle Edgar was smiling serenely. He was obsessed by his own future glory. He was seeing himself in the battle – not that he was a great soldier nor did he love the battlefield – but he loved a cause; and this was the holiest cause of all: the wresting of the Holy Land from the Infidel and placing it in Christian hands.
    For his part in such an enterprise surely a man would win his place of honour in the life hereafter. And of what importance was an ignorant young girl’s fear of marriage compared with such glory?
    Edith looked at him sadly. He was very good, of course; he had always been that; and now he was even more good because he was going on this Holy enterprise; and when people were dedicated to the service of God they did not seem to care very much for the troubles of human beings.
    â€˜Uncle Edgar,’ she went on, ‘I
cannot
marry this man. Please, I beg of you, tell me what I can do.’
    With what seemed like a mighty effort he forced his mind from the contemplation of Jerusalem. He took her chin in his hands and turned her face up to his.
    â€˜If the King of England consents to your marriage there is only one thing that could prevent it.’
    â€˜What is that, Uncle?’
    â€˜You could take the veil.’
    She lowered her eyes: she wanted to give way to despair. There was no way out; wherever she looked those two unhappy alternatives confronted her.
    Edgar left on his glorious adventure and Edith went back to her fears.

The Miraculous Escape
    IT WAS WITH reluctance that Rufus received his archbishop. As he had said to Ranulf, he had little love for any churchman. It was his belief that a king had no need of the fellows and it was a well-known fact that they fancied themselves as the rulers of the realm. They liked to put their kings in leading strings.
    â€˜That’s something I’ll not endure,’ he told his favourite. ‘My father was a religious man – he had far more respect for the church than I ever could have. He gave Lanfranc much licence. We were all brought up to reverence Lanfranc. But Lanfranc is dead and now we have this man Anselm. I forced him to office but I could take the crozier from him with as much vehemence as I made him take it.’
    â€˜They’d say you would have to have an archbishop,’ said Ranulf.
    â€˜Ay, that they would. Lanfranc fancied himself as a statesman, and he was. My father made good use of him. He sent him to Rome when he was excommunicated for marrying my mother, and Lanfranc served him well. It would seem that this Anselm would wish me to serve him.’
    â€˜He calls it serving God,’ said Ranulf.
    They laughed together.
    Rufus went on, ‘Why, to expect us two to pull together is like putting an untamed bull and a feeble old sheep in the same plough.’
    â€˜Well, what are we going to do with our feeble old sheep?’
    â€˜Let him know who’s master. He’ll be here soon.’
    â€˜I’ll enjoy the encounter between the bull and the sheep. Will the bull savage the creature?’
    â€˜Nay, my friend. But I’ll have some sport with him.’
    They laughed together, and in due course Anselm arrived to see the King.
    He was brought into the chamber and was clearly not pleased to see the insolent Ranulf present.
    â€˜I would have speech with my lord