"
"Thou wilt wonder less, perhaps, if thou lookest at me a little
more closely. Dost thou not remember Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances,
who married Winifred of Aescendune to Hugo de Malville?"
"I do, indeed; and marvel, my lord," said he, "that I recognised
thee not at once; I bear a letter for thee written by hands long
since ashes--by our good Prior Elphege, the night before the
monastery was burned."
"Tell me, my brother," said Geoffrey, as he took the letter, "dost
thou know who burnt the monastery?"
"I do."
"Who, then? All the world names the youth thou didst save."
"Who would accuse the lamb of devouring the wolf? Hugo, sometime
baron of Aescendune, did the accursed deed."
"Canst thou prove it?"
"When thou hast read the letter, I have yet another document for
thee. I had brought both here to submit to my lord of Canterbury."
It was startling to watch Geoffrey as he read the parchment, the
very hairs of his head seemed to erect themselves, and his colour
changed from pale to red, from red to pale again.
"My brother," said Lanfranc, "what dost thou read which so
disturbeth thee?"
"Read it thyself," said he, giving the letter which he had finished
to the primate. "It purports to be the copy of a letter addressed
to me three years ago, when I was at Oxenford, but which never
reached me.
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