“I am Richard Fitz-Eustace, thine elder brother!  Nay, put off that brow of discontent.  I claim not my birthright; the vows of Heaven are upon me, and to thee and thine will this good inheritance devolve.  One right only do I claim—­this prisoner is free.  Was he not my stay and sustenance when the fiat of Heaven guided me hither?  He sheltered me, and had pity on mine infirmity.  Moreover, he had some well-founded expectancy towards these domains, by reason of kindred to the Lacies, had they not been devised by will to the Fitz-Eustace.  His blood is noble as our own.  He thinks there is injustice in the deed, but not to him shall the atonement come.  Thou hast a daughter, and my prescience hath this consequence, that by her this rankling wound shall be healed.  If so be that he have found favour in her sight, let her and the son of this ambitious priest be joined together in the bonds of holy wedlock; for my word is gone forth—­his blood mingles with ours.”

The whole assembly were aghast with this thrilling discovery.  The baron would have embraced his brother; but the gloomy ascetic forbade.  He left the hall, returned to his cell, and but a short period elapsed ere the grave he had prepared with his own hands was closed over his corpse—­the period of his sojourn having been shortened, no doubt, by the austerities and mortifications he deemed himself called upon to endure.

Maud was shortly afterwards united to Geoffery de Whalley, unto whom her father granted the Villa de Tunley or Townley, and the manor of Coldcoats, with Snodworth, as a marriage portion.  From them is descended the present owner of Townley, nephew to that celebrated scholar and antiquary, Charles Townley, the twenty-ninth in descent from Spartlingus, the first Dean of Whalley upon record.  The latter was predecessor to Cutwulph, whose exploits in the days of Canute we have before noticed.

Soon afterwards died Robert de Whalley, his departure hastened, it is said, by grief and chagrin at the loss of these long-coveted possessions.

Roger de Lacy died 1st October A.D. 1211, after a long and active life, spent between his arduous wars and invasions of the Welsh, and his no less arduous journeyings to and fro between the castles of Clitheroe and Pontefract, where he spent the latter part of his days.  He was succeeded by John de Lacy, his eldest son, who, by marriage with Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of Robert, son of De Quincy, Earl of Winchester, became Earl of Lincoln by patent from Henry III., the monarch having re-granted this title to him and his heirs for ever.

FOOTNOTES: 

[49] Baines’s Lancashire.

[50] Whitaker’s History of Whalley.

[51] At the commencement of a list of “Senescalli de Blackburnshire,” occurs the name of “Adam de Dutton, temp.  Rog. et Joh. de Lacy.”  Dr Whitaker says:  “This Adam de Dutton is one of the witnesses to the foundation-charter of Stanlaw, A.D. 1178; and a Dominus Adam occurs as steward in the charters of John de Lacy, who succeeded Roger A.D. 1211; so that, if both these names design the same person, which I believe, he must have held the office of seneschal at least thirty-three years.”