EARLY HISTORY OF FORESTS. 7 



did not carry on with them a system of universal pillage, 

 and the land rested tranquil behind them when they 

 were absent on business. 



' The King of France, Charles the Simple, hoping to put 

 end to the incursions of the Normands, whom he had 

 [ot strength to drive away, resolved to gain them over, and 

 fered to Rolf the hand of his daughter Ghisele, with the 

 jssion of the country lying between the ocean, the rivers 

 " Epte, Eure, and Aure, and the frontiers of Maine and 

 Irittany, on condition that he would submit to baptism, 

 'and become a vassal of the king. In the course of the 

 negotiations Rolf required that Brittany should be ceded 

 to him, to which Charles consented with great readiness; 

 but this country not belonging to him he only ceded to 

 Rolf the right to conquer Brittany, if he was sufficiently 

 powerful to do so. On these conditions was concluded, 

 in 912, the peace which made Rolf the forefather of the 

 powerful Normand dukes. Rolf received baptism from th e 

 Archbishop of Rouen, and took there the name of Robert. 

 ' This epo?h marked the termination of the piratical 

 expeditions of the North-men against the coasts of France. 

 Normandy became organised under the powerful hand of 

 Rolf, and became the richest and most populous of all the 

 provinces of Western France. Following the example of 

 Rolf, the greater part of the men embraced Christianity. 

 According to Martin, in his Histoire de France* the gospel 

 conquered the Scandinavians, and' scarcely had they 

 become Christians when they, with all their energy, 

 placed themselves at the head of the Christianity of young 

 France, and of the renewed civilisation; they took the 

 initiative in everything and everywhere ; they renounced 

 their language, as they had done their gods, to take up 

 the Romance language, and to make it the vehicle of a new 

 poetry, arts, letters, monuments all of these had been 

 destroyed by them : they contributed now powerfully to 

 restore them all, and thenceforward they gave themselves 



p. 198. 



