"
Wulf bowed and withdrew, and in the evening attended the court in
the suite of Harold. As soon as the duke's eye fell upon him he
called him up.
"Messieurs," he said to the barons present, "this lad is Wulf, Thane
of Steyning, and a follower of Earl Harold. He it was who, with the
young Guy de Burg, and aided only by a Saxon man-at-arms, withstood
the first rush of the Bretons, and so gained time by which I myself
and my barons were able to prepare ourselves to resist the attack.
Had it not been for them we should all have been taken by surprise,
and maybe slain. The Saxon and the two lads, Wulf and De Burg, all
fell wounded well-nigh to death, but not before twenty-one Bretons
lay dead around them. This was indeed a feat of arms that any of
you, valiant knights and barons as you are, might have been proud
to perform.
"Already I had promised him any boon that in reason he may ask for
having borne to me the news that Earl Harold, my honoured guest and
brother-in-arms, had been cast on our shores, and I promise him
now, that should at any time it happen that I have any power or
influence in England, his estates shall remain to him and to his
heirs free from all service or dues, even though he has withstood
me in arms;--nay, more, that they shall be largely added to. Should
such issue never arise, and aught occur to render him desirous of
crossing the seas hither, I promise him a baron's feu as a token
of my gratitude for the great service he rendered me; and I am well
assured that, whether to a King of England or to a Duke of Normandy,
he will prove himself a true and faithful follower.
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