6 THE FORESTS OP FfiANOE. 



' England was in a like manner ravaged by the Danes, 

 who, in the latter half of the ninth century, inundated 

 that country from one end to the other, perpetrating in 

 it the most terrible devastations. 



'In the commencement of the tenth century there 

 appeared in the midst of these bands of pirates a chief 

 who consolidated their power in France, and who put a 

 stop at the same time to the most terrible devastations, 

 by giving more of stability and permanence to their 

 influence in the country, and by embracing Christianity. 

 This was the Norwegian Rolf— called Rollo by the French 

 writers — son of the Norwegian jarl Ragnvald, from the 

 south part of Ramsdal. Rolf had been exiled by King 

 Harold of the fine locks, because that, on his return from 

 one of the expeditions he had made on the Norwegian 

 coast, what was called a strandling — that is to say, he had 

 carried off cattle for his ships without the consent of those 

 to whom they belonged. Rolf directed his way then 

 towards the west, where he put himself at the head of a 

 large troop of Scandinavian "Vikings, and seized the 

 devastated country around the embouchure of the Seine. 

 He established his residence there with Rouen as his 

 principal seat. ' There,' again to quote Martin,* ' the 

 Normans of the Seine had two very different modes of 

 acting with regard to the Neustrians. Outside the 

 settlement they continued their rapines and their 

 accustomed violence ; but within the country which they 

 had appropriated, and which they already called by their 

 name — Northmannie, or Normandy — they conducted 

 themselves as intelligent masters, and no more as blind 

 destroyers ; they made the slaves work for them instead 

 of killing them, and they imposed a regular tribute on the 

 traders and peasants who gave themselves to agriculture 

 and commerce. The few and scattered subjects of the 

 Normands were now less unfortunate than the poor 

 people of the other provinces, for the men of the north 



* Henri Martin, BietoTt de Frcmce, Ito edition, tome tl., p. 4S8i 



