` What did you do with your gold ? ' said Dan . ` Have patience . Link by link is chain-mail made . I will tell all in its place . We bore the gold to Pevensey on horseback -- three loads of it -- and then up to the north chamber , above the Great Hall of Pevensey Castle , where De Aquila lay in winter . He sat on his bed like a little white falcon , turning his head swiftly from one to the other as we told our tale . Jehan the Crab , an old sour man-at-arms , guarded the stairway , but De Aquila bade him wait at the stair-foot , and let down both leather curtains over the door . It was Jehan whom De Aquila had sent to us with the horses , and only Jehan had loaded the gold . When our story was told , De Aquila gave us the news of England , for we were as men waked from a year-long sleep . The Red King was dead -- slain -LRB- ye remember ? -RRB- the day we set sail -- and Henry , his younger brother , had made himself King of England over the head of Robert of Normandy . This was the very thing that the Red King had done to Robert when our Great William died . Then Robert of Normandy , mad , as De Aquila said , at twice missing of this kingdom , had sent an army against England , which army had been well beaten back to their ships at Portsmouth . A little earlier , and Witta 's ship would have rowed through them . ' `` And now , '' said De Aquila , `` half the great Barons of the North and West are out against the King between Salisbury and Shrewsbury , and half the other half wait to see which way the game shall go . They say Henry is overly English for their stomachs , because he hath married an English wife and she hath coaxed him to give back their old laws to our Saxons . -LRB- Better ride a horse on the bit he knows , I say ! -RRB- But that is only a cloak to their falsehood . '' He cracked his finger on the table , where the wine was spilt , and thus he spoke : -- ' `` William crammed us Norman barons full of good English acres after Santlache .
I had my share too , '' he said , and clapped Hugh on the shoulder ; `` but I warned him -- I warned him before Odo rebelled -- that he should have bidden the Barons give up their lands and lordships in Normandy if they would be XXXXX lords .
Crab Dan English Jehan Norman North Salisbury Saxons Shrewsbury Witta