372 Le Roman dc Rose. 



walk severally along, and no one suspecteth the treachery. So the bishop, the 

 governor, his barons, and of others a multitude, hastened to the church ; in 

 short, every one was there, as if a saint were to be buried. Wherefore, the 

 church received the body : better had it remained without ! and woeful it 

 was that they suspected not the trick ! The master-clerk singeth the office : 

 a great pity was that ! better had all been confessed, their own death being 

 so near ! The bishop singeth the mass. Of pagans present stand a multitude. 

 When the bier was to be raised, that the body might be put into the grave, 

 behold ! suddenly up started Hastings, and, with a loud cry, drew his sword ! 

 The first blow he struck was at the bishop : he cleft the head of his godfather 

 as if it were that of a brute beast ! Therewith all the pagans threw off their 

 cloaks, drew their swords, and closed the doors, that no one might escape. 

 Such a slaughter followeth as is made by a wolf, when it can enter the fold 

 unknown to the shepherd : it worrieth lambs and sheep, and spareth not great 

 or little. In like manner did the misbeliever with the poor Christian flock : he 

 slew the bishop, the governor, and others without number. Afterwards, the 

 men spread throughout the city, from one house to another." 



After this notable exploit, Hastings returned to France, leaving Biorn, 

 with the command of a considerable portion of the fleet, to prosecute 

 other enterprises. His arrival threw the whole nation into alarm : the 

 French king had already a sufficient number of Scandinavians on his 

 hands, without the addition of one so justly dreaded, and whose bands 

 had laid in ashes the most flourishing towns in the western provinces. 

 A consultation of Gallic nobles and prelates was held ; and the result 

 was a resolution to offer conditions of peace to the formidable pirate. 

 They were accepted by him ; and we do not hear that, during the 

 remainder of his life, he resumed his ruthless habits. 



Of Rollo, the immediate successor of Hastings, and the principal sub- 

 ject of the metrical chronicle before us, enough has been said on another 

 occasion. He led his resistless bands into France about A.D. 870 ; and, 

 in the course of thirty years' war on the feeble descendants of Charle- 

 magne, he founded a powerful dynasty in Normandy, in the possession 

 of which he was solemnly confirmed by the celebrated treaty at St. 

 Clair-sur-Epte, A.D. 912. Having evinced consummate prudence in 

 the establishment of the dukedom, and proved himself as great a legis- 

 lator as a warrior, he resigned the government to his son, William Long- 

 Sword, and at length died, universally regretted by his subjects, about 

 931. 



The administration of William offers nothing interesting to the Eng- 

 lish reader. His assassination, in 943, left his son, Richard I., a minor, 

 to struggle against both the turbulent Norman nobility, and Lothaire, 

 king of France. The address of the young duke enabled him to elude 

 the means laid for his destruction by his great enemy ; and his valour to 

 triumph over his rebellious vassals. This is the prince who struck the 

 devil at midnight in the cathedral ; and to whom his infernal majesty 

 and the angel, on a subsequent occasion, referred the fate of the poor 

 amorous monk, drowned in the Robee. Both these legends are before 

 the public ; but two other strange stories one relating to himself, the 

 other to his hunter will not fail to interest the reader. The former of 

 these is not so remarkable for the adventure, as for the mystery attending 

 the knight and the lady : 



" There is a country called Corcers, near the Forest of Lions, the which 

 containeth a valley, neither very long nor very wide. Now, after August had 



