22 THE BOY CRUSADERS.

Kirkham, and scorning the thought of danger, he
spurred his charger pond its strength, and, while
galloping towards Frithby, had a fall at the stone
cross, and was killed on the spot. Much afflicted at
his son’s death, Waiter Espec sent for his brother,
who was a priest ain] a ‘rectuc,

‘My son being, alas! eee: said he, ¢ . know not
who should be ray heir.

‘Brother mine,’ i the cient ‘your duty is
clear. Make Christ your heir.’

Now Walter Espec relished the advice, and prc-
ceeded to act on it forthwith. He founded three
religious houses, one at Warden, a second at Kirk-
ham, a third at Rievallé; and, having been a disciple
of Harding, and much attached to the Cistercian
order, he planted at each place a colony of monks, sent
him from beyond the sea by the great St. Bernard ;
and, having further signalised his piety by becoming
a monk in the abbey of Rievallé, he died, full of
years and honours, and was buried in that religious
house ; while his territorial possessions passed to the
Lord de Roos, as husband of his sister.

Nevertheless, the family of Espec was not yet
extinct. A branch still survived and flourished in
the north; and, as time passed over, a kinsman of
the great Walter won distinction in war, and, though
a knight of small estate, wedded a daughter of that
Anglo-Saxon race the Icinglas, once so great in Eng-
land, but of whom now almost everything is for-
cotten but the name. And this Espec, who had
lived as a soldicr, died a soldier’s death; falling
bravely with his feet to the foe, on that day in 1242