Robert disbands his army. repose of his palace. His army was disbanded; every man who followed the Duke's banner had the Duke's licence to go to his own home.[1]
Robert of Bellême still in prison.
Earl Roger prays for his son's release.
All this while, it will be remembered, Robert of Bellême
himself was actually in bonds in the keeping of Bishop
Odo. The war had been waged rather against his father
Earl Roger than against himself. But it was wholly on
Robert's account that it had been waged. Whatever we
may think of the right or wrong of his imprisonment
at the moment when it took place, there can be no
doubt that it was for the general good of the Norman
duchy that Robert of Bellême should be hindered from
doing mischief. He was the arch-rebel against his sovereign,
the arch-plunderer of his neighbours, the man who,
in that fierce age, was branded by common consent as the
cruellest of the cruel. It was to break his power, to win
back the castles which he had seized, that the hosts of
Normandy and Maine had been brought together; it was
for the crime of maintaining his cause that Robert Carrel
and his comrades had undergone their cruel punishment.
But the fates of the chief and of his subaltern were
widely different. Duke Robert, weary of warfare, was
even more than ever disposed to mercy, that is more
than ever disposed to gratify the biddings of a weak
good-nature. Earl Roger marked the favourable moment,
when the host was disbanded, and when the Duke had
gone back to the idle pleasures of Rouen. He sent eloquent
messengers, charged with many promises in his
name—promises doubtless of good behaviour on the part
of his son—and prayed for the release of the prisoner.[2]
- ↑ See note 1, last page.
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 675 A. "Per dicaces legatos a duce pacem filiique sui absolutionem postulans, multa falso pollicitus est." Robert, he adds, "qui improvidus erat et instabilis, ad lapsum facilis, ad tenendum justitiæ rigorem mollis, ex insperato frivolis pactionibus infidorum adquievit." It is now that Orderic gives us his full picture of Robert of Bellême and his doings.
