the failure of health. 188 FAILURE OF ROBERT'S HEALTH. 1024-1035 courteous, as he thereby lessened the chance of quarrels between the Norman swash-bucklers and his citizens. It is said, that the Emperor prohibited the sale of fire-wood to the pilgrims, whereupon Robert and his folks warmed themselves before a crackling blaze of pistachios. Symptoms of 8 41. Robert journeyed onward, and we may discern the symptoms indicating that his overworked mind was failing: the decline of his bodily health was manifest, he became worse and worse, day by day. No longer able to walk or to ride, he hired a gang of Negro Palanquin bearers, and the novelty of this mode of conveyance amused him in his misery. Toustain officiated as his Chamberlain. The intermediate stages of Robert's progress are not detailed, but his friends at home were sufficiently supplied with intelligence. Resort of Norman Pilgrims to the Holy Land. 42. The Levant abounded with Latin travellers, pilgrims, or vagabonds passing for such : the majority from Normandy, but no bailliage or seigneurie supplied so large a proportionate number as the maritime Bessin, the Avranchin, and the Cotentin, then teeming with the sturdy unemployed, seeking for sustentation wherever it could be found, and who founded so many good families in England. Usurped Apulia constituted a station on the journey, greed and fraud attracting a never failing supply of devout Flibusteers; cadets of noble families, bearing the Cross of salvation embroidered on the gowns which concealed the murderous sword. ROBERT'S EXTRAVAGANT LIBERALITY. 189 The stricken Robert proceeded, and, with 1024-1035 mournful merriment, described himself as borne like a corpse on a bier. He encountered a Norman, and more than a Norman, a Normand et demi, a blade doubly sharpened, a Cotentin man, from the Bailliage of Pirou, a locality very notable, even now, by reason of the Castle near Coutances. Monseigneur, enquired the doleful Pilgrim, what shall I say concerning you when I shall have reached home? Robert replied with affected jocularity: but grim and doleful was the unseasonable joke." Say you saw the devils bearing me to Paradise." The Mahommedans luxuriated in the full pride of domination. Robert travelled incognito, according to the fashion which kings and princes adopt, when they wish to enjoy the ease of privacy, concurrently with the privileges of station, yet not suppressing the gratus risus ab angulo, which betrays them -ill content would they be were their dignity quite eclipsed! But Robert's concealment was incompatible with Robert's profusion. A pilgrim tax was levied at the gate of Jerusalem-one bezaunt per head -the same for the rich man as for the poor, and very numerous were those, who, destitute of the needful viaticum, congregated outside the walls. liberality between the Robert lightened his heavy purse by paying Contest of the toll for them all. The Saracen Admiral, or Emir of Emir, the governor of the city, would not be out- and Robert. Jerusalem Robert and Nicea. 1024-1035 done by the Magnifico; and, therefore, when Robert quitted Jerusalem, he restored all the poisoned at bounty his visitor had bestowed. But the Duke and his companion were sinking under the effects of the poison which had been administered to them; and, dying at Nicea, they were entombed in the Cathedral. Sun repaire fust tresk à Niche, Un Pautonier ke Dieu maldie. Judging by the name of the Pautonier, or Vagabond, the rascal who had envenomed the cup was a Frenchman or a Norman, not a Greek or a Saracen. At this period the Southern settlements founded by the Northmen were encreasing in magnitude and importance; and a suspicion floats before our mind, that either Tancred de Hauteville, or Guiscard, or some other of the adventurers, whose only virtue was their valour, dreading lest a Norman Duke might claim supremacy over them, thus delivered themselves from their apprehensions of Rollo's son. Toustain brought over to Normandy the relics Robert had collected for his abbey of Cerisy. The name, Toustain, is still common, both in Normandy and Brittany. This fortunate Adventurer bore the Conqueror's standard on the field of Hastings, and obtained a large endowment in England. CHAPTER IV. PART I. WILLIAM THE BASTARD, DUKE OF NORMANDY. 1035–1047. 1047-1066. upon death. § 1. CONTEMPLATED by any enquiring stranger, Troubles the Norman Ducal family would, at this era, have Robert's presented a singular example of regular irregularity. Every child, from Guillaume Longue-épée downwards, had been born out of lawful matrimony, and subsequently brought within the pale of legitimacy by a mantle marriage; or some traditional mode of wedding, plighting or pledging, equivalent to a marriage in the man mind some ceremony imparting a legal Normans. and moral sanction to these unblessed nuptials, and received as equivalent to the sacerdotal benediction, being, in fact, the law as now subsisting beyond the Tweed. other Irregularity, Elsewhere have I stated how the venerable Anglo-Saxon formula still subsists as the kernel of the solemnity, according to the Anglican ritual. Each mother, honoured or dishonoured in her turn by the Duke's affection or protection, appears primarily in the character of a concu pect of the. ceremony amongst the 1047-1066 192 YOUNG WILLIAM'S ENEMIES. 1035-1047 bine, whilst, each in her turn is accepted by the Northmen's progeny, and the child's disgrace condoned. From Rollo downwards, only one exception can be discovered in the Neustrian annals -the case of the Bastard par excellence, the most illustrious of them all. The curse imprecated by ferocious Talvas, as he bent over the sleeping babe, is ever ringing in our ears. Yet in Talvas himself was the Conqueror's adage exemplified-Curses, like chickens, come home to roost.-None more chastised than the cankered veteran, who sought to blast the cradled infant's fortunes. Summary. ? 2. So fruitful had been the stock of Rollo's sturdy race, that the individuals included therein constituted a ducal clan; each branch expanding over the genealogist's rolls. But William was repudiated and discarded. Guido the of Rollo. Pre-eminently formidable amongst the swarmlawful heir ing foes was Guido the Burgundian. It is somewhat remarkable, that when Robert sought to shield his child from future evil, Arletta had not been appointed or invited to join or concur in the guardianship of her son. Possibly Robert had seen enough in that light-hearted damsel to determine him, that, though, by the laws of nature, entitled to exercise the personal guardianship of her boy, she should be excluded from the regency. Be that as it may, the young Duke was placed in the strong border Castle of Vauof Vaudreuil. dreuil, in the Evrecin, under the personal charge The young Duke placed in the Castle |