Fulfilment of the dreams.
Death of young Roger.
Such talk as this in the hall of Conches, in the presence
of its warlike lady, whether we deem it the record
of real dreams or a mere pious imagining after the fact,
seems like a fresh oasis in the dreary wilderness of unnatural
war. Each vision was of course fulfilled. The
nameless knight, wounded ere long in one of the combats
of the time, died without the sacraments. Baldwin of
Boulogne, afterwards son-in-law of Ralph and Isabel,[1]
was indeed called to bear the cross, but in a way which
men perhaps had not thought of six years before Pope
Urban preached at Clermont. Count of Edessa, King of
Jerusalem, the name of Baldwin lives in the annals of
crusading Europe; to Englishmen it perhaps comes home
most nearly as the name of a comrade of our own Robert
son of Godwine.[2] But a brighter crown than that of Baldwin's
kingdom was, long before Baldwin reigned, the reward
of the young Roger. A few months after the date
of the tale, he died peacefully in his bed, full of faith and
hope, and, amid the grief of many, his body was laid in
the minster of Saint Peter of his father's rearing.[3]
Later treaty between the two brothers.
1100.
Banishment and death of Count William. April 18, 1108.
There was thus peace between Conches and Evreux, a
peace which does not seem to have been again broken.
Ten years later, in a time of renewed licence, we find
the two brothers joining in a private war against Count
Robert of Meulan.[4] Eight years later again, when
Count William and his Countess were busy building a
monastery at Noyon, they fell under the displeasure of
King Henry, and died in banishment in the land of
Anjou.[5] Ralph of Toesny was succeeded by his son*
- ↑ He married their daughter Godehild, the former wife of Robert, son of Henry Earl of Warwick. See Ord. Vit. 576 C; Will. Gem. viii. 41. The strange story of his two later marriages does not concern us, and the way in which he became Count of Edessa was hardly becoming in a holy warrior.
- ↑ See N. C. vol. v. pp. 94, 819, and Appendix HH.
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 689 C.
- ↑ Ib. 784 B.
- ↑ Ib. 834 C. There is a singular contrast in the words with which
