Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/286

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This was Gerard of Gournay, son of the warrior of Mortemer who had gone to end his days as a monk of Bec, son-in-law of the new Earl of Surrey, husband of perhaps the only woman on Norman ground who bore the name of English Eadgyth. His castle of Gournay, from which many men and more than one place in England have drawn their name, stood on the upper course of the Epte, close to the French border. The fortress itself has vanished; but the minster of Saint Hildebert, where the massive work of Gerard's day has been partly recast in the lighter style of the next century, still remains, with its mighty pillars, its varied and fantastic carvings, to make Gournay a place of artistic pilgrimage. Nor is it hard to trace the line of the ancient walls of the town, showing how the border stream of Epte was pressed into the service of the Norman engineers. The adhesion of the lord of Gournay seems to have been of the highest importance to the cause of Rufus. The influence of Gerard reached over a wide district north of his main dwelling. Along with Gournay, he placed at the King's disposal his fortress of La Ferté Saint Samson, crowning a height looking over the vale of Bray, and his other fortress of Gaillefontaine to the north-east, on another height by the wood of its own name, overlooking the early course of the Bethune or Dieppe, the stream which joins the eastern Varenne by the hill of Arques. Gerard too was not only ready in receiving the King's forces into his own castles, but zealous also in bringing over his neighbours to follow his example. Among