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CHAPTER UL
THE HEIRS OF THE ESPECS.

N the days when the Norman kings reigned in
England, the Especs were of high account
among the Anglo-Norman barons. Many were the
brave and pious men who bore the name; but the
bravest and most pious of them all was that Walter
Espec, a great noble of the north, who maintained
high feudal state at the castles of Wark, Helmsley,
and Kirkham, and who figured so conspicuously as
chief of the English at the battle of the Standard,
and harangued the soldiers before the battle from the
chariot from which the standard was displayed.

But not only as a warrior was Walter Espec known
to fame. As a benefactor to religion, his name was
held in honour and his memory regarded with venc-
ration. |

It seems that Walter Espec had, by his wife
Adeline, an only son, who was a youth of great pro-
mise, and much beloved by his parents. Nothing,
however, pleased him more than a swift horse; and
he was so bold a rider that he would not have feared
to mount Bucephalus, in spite of heels and horns.
Leaping into the saddJe one day, at the eastle of

B