I would not
disturb this house, Wulf; it is doubtless dear to you, and will, moreover,
serve as a dowager-house or as an abode for a younger son. We will fix on a
new site altogether, and there we will rear a castle worthy of the estate.
By the way, I have spoken to the king of your betrothal to my daughter, and
he is highly pleased. He says that it is his earnest wish that his Norman
nobles shall marry English heiresses, both because they will thus come into
possession of lands without disturbing the owners, and because such mixture
of blood will the more speedily weld the two peoples into one; and that,
similarly, he is glad to see a Norman maiden united to an English noble of
whom he has so high an opinion."
Fond as Wulf was of his old home he saw that it would be best to abandon it
for a new residence more suited to the times and more in accordance with
his own increased possessions and the home from which he was taking his
wife. After riding round the estates Lord de Burg and he fixed upon a knoll
of rising ground near the village of Bramber, and not far from the
religious house where Wulf had spent so many evenings, and whose prior had
been one of the first to welcome his return.
"I will charter a ship at Rouen," Lord de Burg said, "and send over a
master craftsman, skilful in designing and building castles, and a large
number of quarrymen, masons, and carpenters. Labour here is scarce, and the
men are unskilled at this kind of work.
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