The king's savage humor broke out again.
"Face him with your own page, Sir Ordgar," he said, with a grim
laugh. "Boy against boy would be a fitting wager for a young
maid's life." But the Saxon knight was in no mood for sport.
"Nay, beausire; this is no child's play," he said. "I care naught
for this girl. I stand as champion for the king against yon
traitor Atheling, and if the maiden's cause is his, why then
against her too. This is a man's quarrel."
Young Robert would have spoken yet again as his face flushed hot
with anger at the knight's contemptuous words. But a firm hand
was laid upon his shoulder, and a strong voice said:
"Then is it mine, Sir Ordgar. If between man and man, then will
I, with the gracious permission of our lord the king, stand as
champion for this maiden here and for my good lord, the noble
Atheling, whose liegeman and whose man am I, next to you, lord
king." And, taking the mate to the glove which the Princess Edith
had flung down in defiance, he thrust it into the guard of his
cappe. line, or iron skull-cap, in token that he, Godwine of
Winchester, the father of the boy Robert, was the young girl's
champion.
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