STILL further to strengthen his possession of England, William, towards the end of the year 1068, laid the foundation of the Tower of London, which rose rapidly under the direction of an able priest, Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester. The fortress was intended to overawe the citizens of London, who, on several occasions, had manifested their dislike of foreign rule by attacks upon the Normans. As a further precaution, he either built or garrisoned strong forts, till he had formed a line of posts from one end of the country to the other a proceeding which naturally excited the jealousy of the Saxons, who saw themselves caged, as it were, on their native soil. The powerful earls, Edwin and Morcar, withdrew from court; a treaty was entered into with the kings of Scotland and Denmark for assistance; the Prince of Wales, the nephew of the two Saxon nobles, promised to aid the enterprise; and it was finally resolved that an effort should be made by the allies to drive the invaders from the island.

But the attempt failed, from the energetic precautions of the new sovereign. The unsettled state of the country, owing to the repeated attempts of the Saxons to throw off the yoke of their foreign masters, and the great discontent caused in Normandy by the absence of the sovereign and his court, induced William, as a precaution for the safety both of his queen and continental dominions, to send Matilda back to his native country, as regent. She was much beloved in Normandy, where her government had been firm and enlightened.

Her eldest son, Robert, was associated with her in the regency.

The departure of Matilda and her court served to increase the discontent amongst the lower classes in England, who depended chiefly on trade. Vast numbers of citizens were starving.

It was about this time that William the Conqueror established the curfew, or couvre feu-literally, cover fire-in order to prevent the oppressed Saxons from meeting at night to discuss their grievances, and conspire against their oppressors. At eight o'clock every evening, on the tolling of a bell, the inhabitants were obliged to extinguish both fire and light, under a severe penalty.

It is an error to suppose that England was either the first or only country in which such a law existed. William had previously established the same custom in Normandy, in order to secure the observance of his ordinances for the suppression of brawls and duels; which ordinances were known by the name of "God's Peace." The curfew, or, as it is called by the Normans, la retraite is still sounded in some parts of the country.

Immediately after the departure of the queen, her husband took the field and directed his march towards the north, provoked by the repeated insurrections of his new subjects. The Conqueror had taken one of those fearful resolutions, which are so characteristic of the barbarous age in which he lived. He had sworn by the splendor of God-his usual oath-that he would not leave a living soul in Northumberland! He did his best to keep his word-for no sooner had he entered the borders of Yorkshire, than he began to lay waste the country with fire and sword: the affrighted inhabitants were hunted, like wild beasts, by his troops; whole villages, with their churches, reduced to ashes; neither age nor sex were spared. The first check he received in his progress of blood and desolation was from the strongly fortified city of York, which was held by a noble Saxon chief, named Waltheof, and defended by a strong body of Danes.

It is possible that the oppressed Saxons might have made a successful stand against their invader but for the treachery of the leader of the Danish army, who accepted a large sum of gold as

the price of his retreat to his vessels-and the love or ambition of Waltheof.

As the price of his surrender of the city to his troops, William bestowed the hand of his niece, Judith, upon him in marriage. This ill-starred union was celebrated amid the ruins of York.

The Saxon clergy had hitherto been the most unbending opponents of the Conqueror, and it was determined that they, in turn, should feel the weight of his resentment.

The churches and monasteries throughout the kingdom were plundered of the consecrated vessels of gold and silver, the rich shrines and reliquaries which the piety or superstition of the nation had dedicated to religious purposes; but perhaps the deepest injury inflicted upon the church, was the depriving it of the use of the Saxon version of the Scriptures-the gift of the immortal Alfred—instituting the Latin vulgate in its place.

As for the rich benefices and dignities of the church, it was quite useless for any English-born priest to expect them--they were jealously excluded from all preferment.

The

The next great act of injustice was the arbitrary substitution of the Norman language for the Saxon tongue, in all the schools, colleges, and courts of law in the kingdom. William wished, if possible, to proscribe the language of the people he had conquered, and compel them to acquire that of their masters. attempt, however, was a failure--a country is more easily subjugated than a language suppressed: all that could be effected was the amalgamation of the two. The Saxon borrowed from the Norman such expressions as his own tongue was deficient in, and the Norman adopted from the Saxon language words and idioms which gave a more virile and expressive character to his

own.

It is to this combination that we owe the noble language in which Shakspeare and Milton wrote, and which bids fair to become the prevailing language of nations just verging into being.

Although William was a most affectionate husband, he was not altogether free from the licentious manners of the age. The

niece of Merlewin—a noble of Kent-caught his attention soon after the departure of Matilda; and there is little doubt that he either seduced her, or effected his purpose by still more reprehensible means. The fate of the unfortunate victim of the Conqueror's passion was a sad one. News of the intrigue was speedily conveyed to the ears of the absent queen, either by the agency of Githa, the mother of Harold-who, not unnaturally, perhaps, found a pleasure in circulating a report likely to affect the domestic happiness of the successor of her slaughtered son —or by the wife of Hugh Grantmesnil, who had caused great misery amongst the Norman ladies, by the scandalous reports she circulated of the conduct of their absent lords.

Matilda, in her conduct to Brihtric Meaw, had given terrible proof that she was not a person to be wounded in her affections with impunity. William, as her husband, sovereign, and the father of her children, she would not assail-but her hatred fell only the more heavily upon the helpless and unfortunate object of her jealousy. She instantly dispatched confidential agents to England, who seized the person of the Saxon girl.

According to Rapin, she was put to death by being hamstrung. Henderson asserts that Matilda caused her jaws to be slit, for which act of cruelty there is a tradition that her husband gave her a beating with his bridle-the second occasion on which she had proved the strength of William's arm, and certainly, if true, much more merited than on the first.

CHAPTER XVI.

Ave Maria! raise high the strain !
Heaven from earth a bride will gain!
Scatter the incense round!
Raise, sisters, raise the choral swell!
Our life's pure, calm contentment tell,
To the organ's pealing sound!

FROM THE ITALIAN.

DESPITE the ability which Matilda displayed in the government of the duchy of Normandy, and the attachment of the inhabitants to her person, the country was too much weakened by the absence of the nobles and troops in England, not to excite the cupidity and hopes of William's rivals and enemies.

Maine revolted; and the King of France, together with the young and warlike Duke of Bretagne, seized the occasion of the Conqueror's embarrassments in England to attack his continental dominions. Under these circumstances, the regent applied to her husband for succor. William sent the son of his faithful captain, Fitz-Osborne, to her assistance, promising to cross over himself as soon as he had concluded a peace with the King of Scotland, who supported the Saxon insurgents in their attempts to recover their liberty. Fortune, as usual, smiled upon his efforts; and he was shortly after enabled to perform his promise of passing over to Normandy, to the succor of his queen.

Almost immediately after his arrival, peace was restored in the continental dominions of the Conqueror. Maine was reduced; and the King of France made a hasty retreat before the veteran troops of his powerful vassal.

The Christmas of the year 1075 was kept by Matilda and her husband at Fescamp.

The Princess Cicely, the eldest daughter of the Conqueror and his queen, had from her infancy been dedicated to the church.