WALTER AND OSBERT. 23

when the English under King Henry fought against
such fearful odds, at the village of Saintonge. But
even now the Especs were not without representa-
tives; for, by his Anglo-Saxon spouse Algitha, the
Anglo-Norman warrior who fell in Gascony left
two sons, and of the two one was named Walter, the
other Osbert.

While Dame Algitha Espec lived, the young
specs scarcely felt the loss they had sustained in
the death of their father. Nothing, indeed, could
have been more exemplary than the care which the
Anglo-Saxon dame bestowed on her sons. In a con-
versation which Walter Espec held on the battle-
ments of the castle of Wark, with his brother-in-
arms Guy Muschamp, the heir of an Anglo-Norman -
baron of Northumberland, he lauded her excellence
as a woman, and her tenderness as a mother.

‘[ was in my tenth year,’ said Walter, ‘when my
father, atter having served King Henry as a knight
in Gascony, fell in battle; and, albeit my mother,
when she became a widow, was still fair and of fresh
ave, a widow she resolved to remain; and she adhered
firmly to her purpose. In truth, her mouth was so
accustomed to repeat the name of her dead hus-
band that it seemed as if his memory had _ pos-
session of her whole heart and soul; for whether
in praying or giving alms, and even in the most
ordinary acts of life, she continually pronounced his
name. |

‘My mother brought up my brother and myself
with the most tender care. Living at our castellated
house of Heckspeth, in the Wansbeck, and hard by