Of what country art thou?"
"Hast thou heard of a fair island across the sea men call England?"
"Have I not?"
"That is then my home."
"Thou art an Englishman? or do I not rather see one of the blood of
the conquerors of that fair land."
And here he suppressed what might have been a sigh.
"I am indeed Norman by my father's side--a race none need blush to
own, and received but recently knighthood from the hands of Robert
of Normandy, after the battle of Dorylaeum; but by my mother's side
I am of English blood."
"And thou blushest not to own it?"
"Why should I? Norman and English have long been peacefully united
on my father's lands, and we know no distinction."
"Such, I have heard, is not yet everywhere the case in thine
island; but thou hast not told me thy name."
"Edward of Aescendune, son of Etienne, lord of Aescendune in
England, and Malville in Normandy."
The stranger started as if an arrow had suddenly pierced him. The
young knight looked on him with amazement.
"A fit to which I am subject--it is nothing," said he, regaining
his composure and drinking a goblet of wine. "May I ask thy
mother's name? Thou saidst she was English."
"Edith, daughter of Edmund, the English lord of Aescendune, and
Winifred his wife.
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