Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/111

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City for Christendom. With him came Robert of Bellême; his share in the rebellion is his first act on English ground that we have to record. Himself the eldest son of Earl Roger of Shrewsbury, he had either brought with him two of his brothers, or else they had already embraced the cause of Odo in England. Three sons of Roger and Mabel were now within the walls of Rochester. The second was Hugh, who was for a moment to represent the line of Montgomery while Robert represented the line of Bellême, and who was to be as fierce a scourge to the Britons of the Northern border as Robert was to be to the valiant defenders of the land of Maine. And with them was the third brother, Roger of Poitou, the lord of the debateable land between Mersey and Ribble, carrying as it were to the furthest point of the earldom of Leofric the claim of his father to the proud title which the elder Roger bears at this stage of our story. It is as Earl of the Mercians that one teller of our tale bids us look for a moment on the lord of Montgomery and Shrewsbury. But the Earl of