“ It is a wild, lonely country, and must have been wilder and lonelier still eight hundred years ago, when from the neighboring Norway coast the black boats of the vikings, or North Sea rovers, used to come flocking into the quiet harbors of Moray and Cromarty Firths, like so many swift birds of prey swooping suddenly in from the gray horizon, snatching their plunder and flitting away on never-resting wings only to return in greater numbers and depart with richer booty. ”

“ The archers were the first to come to land, every one with his bow and his quiver and arrows by his side, all shaven and dressed in short tunics, ready for battle and of good courage; and they searched all the beach, but no armed man could they find. When they were issued forth, then came the knights in armor, with helmet laced and shield on neck, and together they came to the sand and mounted their war-horses; and they had their swords at their sides, and rode with lances raised. The barons had their standards and the knights their pennons. ”

“ It was a contact taking place under circumstances, it would seem, the most auspicious—the venerable old man and the beautiful Greek youth clasping hands, the ruthless followers of the conqueror baffled in their hopes of booty, the multitudes of Jerusalem, in their robes of peace, filling the air with acclamations, as Alexander rode from the place of prospect, upon the heights of Zion, into the solemn precincts of the Temple. ”

“ But cling as such men might to John, they clung to him rather as mediators than adherents. Their sympathies went with the demands of the barons when the delay which had been granted was over and the nobles again gathered in arms at Brackley in Northamptonshire to lay their claims before the king. Nothing marks more strongly the absolutely despotic idea of his sovereignty which John had formed than the passionate surprise which breaks out in his reply. "Why do they not ask for my kingdom?" he cried. "I will never grant such liberties as will make me a slave!" ”

“ And behold, there came to the gate a messenger from England; and he went straight to the duke and drew him aside, and told him secretly how King Edward's life had come to an end, and Harold had been made king in his stead. And when the duke had heard the tidings, and understood all that was come to pass, those that looked upon him perceived that he was greatly enraged, for he forsook the chase, and went in silence, speaking no word to any man, clasping and unclasping his cloak, neither dared any man speak to him ”

“ But Macbeth was not more happy after he had slain his friend and cousin Banquo. He knew that people began to suspect him of his evil deeds, and he was constantly afraid that some of his nobles would treat him as he treated King Duncan. In his perplexity he sought the three witches he had met before, to ask them what was to happen to him in the future. They answered him that he should not be conquered nor lose the crown of Scotland until a great forest, called Birnam Wood should come to attack him in his strong castle on Dunsinane hill. ”

“ The greatest difficulty to be overcome in this conference was the repugnance felt by the proud Northman to perform the customary act of homage before any living man, especially one whom he held so cheap as Charles the Simple. He consented, indeed, to swear allegiance, and declare himself the "king's man," with his hands clasped between those of Charles. The remaining part of the ceremony, the kneeling to kiss the foot of the liege lord, he absolutely refused, and was with difficulty persuaded to permit one of his followers to perform it in his name. ”

“ So Charlemagne became King of Italy and Emperor of the West—the successor of the Cæsars of Rome.
22. When Charles felt that his end was approaching, he summoned all his nobles to Aix into the church he had there erected. There, on the altar, lay a golden crown. Charles made his son Ludwig, or Louis, stand before him, and, in the audience of his great men, gave him his last exhortation: to fear God and to love his people as his own children, to do right and to execute justice, and to walk in integrity before God and man. ”

“ Then a burst of genuine cheering greeted him, which waxed louder still when he rejected it a second time. Old traditional feeling was too strong at Rome even for Cæsar's daring temper to brave it. The people would submit to the despotic rule of a dictator, but would not have a king. ”

“ He traced his descent from his father's side from Hercules, and by his mother's from Achilles, and throughout his boyhood he seems to have lived in a world of the old Greek poetry, sleeping with Homer's works under his pillow, and dreaming of deeds in which he should rival the fame of the victors of Troy. He was placed under the care of Aristotle, the great philosopher of Stagira, to whom, when Philip had written to announce Alexander's birth, he had said that he knew not whether most to rejoice at having a son, or that his son would have such a teacher as Aristotle. ”

“ In the spring of 896 the citizens of Rouen, scarcely yet recovered from the miseries inflicted upon them by the fierce Danish rover Hasting, were dismayed by the sight of a fleet of long, low vessels, with spreading sails, heads carved like that of a serpent, and sterns finished like the tail of a reptile, such as they well knew to be the keels of the dreaded Northmen, the harbingers of destruction and desolation. ”

“ That he had many great faults has already been shown, and, of course, by the rules of justice, his conquests were but reckless gratifications of his own ambition; but he was a high-minded, generous man, open of heart, free of hand, and for the most part acting up to his knowledge of right; and if unbridled power, talent of the highest order, and glory such as none before or since has ever attained, inflamed his passions, and elated him with pride, still it is not for us to judge severely of one who had such great temptations, and so little to guide him aright. ”

“ The Northmen also set up their camp, in expectation of a battle, and darkness had just closed in on them when a shout was heard on the opposite side of the river, and to their surprise a voice was heard speaking in their own language. "Brave warriors, why come ye hither, and what do ye seek?"
11. "We are Northmen, come hither to conquer France," replied Rollo. "But who art thou who speakest our tongue so well?" "Heard ye never of Hasting?" was the reply. "Yes," returned Rollo, "he began well, but ended badly." "Will ye not, then," continued the old pirate, "submit to my lord the king? ”

“ After the battle of Platæa, in which the army of the Persian king Xerxes was defeated and destroyed, the Greek states became the dominant power in the civilized world, and the Greek cities became centers of influence and art. Under Pericles, the successor of Themistocles, Athens, in richness and beauty of her palaces and temples, arrived at a point of excellence which far surpassed anything the world had before seen. ”

“ Alexander had indeed an open and affectionate heart, but he was fast becoming too much uplifted by his successes. On Darius's death, he took the state as well as the title of a king of Persia, wore the tiara and robes, and claimed from the Macedonians the same servile tokens of homage as were paid by the eastern nations, thus causing perpetual heart-burnings among them, since they could neither endure to see their king exalted so much further above them, nor to be placed on the same level with the barbarians whom they despised. ”

“ Cuthbert, they would overcome their enemies and win back their own land. And he bade them, as St. Cuthbert had taught him, to be pious toward God and righteous toward men. And he bade his son Edward, who was by him, to be faithful to God and St. Cuthbert, and so he should always have victory over his enemies. So they went forth to battle and smote their enemies and overcame them, and King Alfred took the kingdom of all Britain, and he ruled well and wisely over the just and the unjust for the rest of his days. ”

“ Stories of the Old Knights. XLI.—THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
1. Poor old Edward the Confessor, holy, weak, and sad, lay in his new choir of Westminster—where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. The crowned ascetic had left no heir behind. England seemed as a corpse, to which all the eagles might gather together; and the South-English, in their utter need, had chosen for their king the ablest, and it may be the justest, man in Britain—Earl Harold Godwinson: himself, like half the upper classes of England then, of all-dominant Norse blood; for his mother was a Danish princess. ”

“ He was broad awake now, and ready to saddle the two swiftest; but he had no weapon, except a small lance, so Leo boldly went back to his master's sleeping hut, and took down his sword and shield, but not without awakening him enough to ask who was moving. "It is I, Leo," was the answer; "I have been to call Attalus to take out the horses early. He sleeps as hard as a drunkard." The Frank went to sleep again, quite satisfied, and Leo, carrying out the weapons, soon made Attalus feel like a free man and a noble once more. ”

“ Rolf's lot had, however, fallen in what he doubtless considered as evil days. No such burnings and plunderings as had hitherto wasted England and enriched Norway, fell to his share; for Alfred had made the bravest Northman feel that his fleet and army were more than a match for theirs. Ireland was exhausted by the former depredations of the pirates, and, from a fertile and flourishing country had become a scene of desolation. Scotland and its isles were too barren to afford prey to the spoiler. ”

“ The smelting of iron in the north of Europe is believed to have commenced with the Finns or Laplanders, the original inhabitants of Scandinavia, who then occupied the localities where the best ores are still found. The diminutive stature of these people compared with that of their Gothic invaders, their skill in penetrating the bowels of the earth in search of ores, the smoke of their collieries, the flame and thunder of their furnaces and forges, and, above all, the excellent temper of the weapons wrought by them—all these conspired to render them objects of superstitious wonder to the Goths. ”

“ The Persians advanced in great state. First came a number of persons bearing silver altars, on which burned the sacred fire; then followed the Magi, and three hundred and sixty-five youths robed in scarlet, in honor of the days of the year. Next came the chariot and horses of the Sun, with their attendants, and afterward the army itself, the Immortal Band, with gold-handled lances, white robes, and jeweled corslets, and a host of others of less note, all far more fit for show than for battle. ”

“ As long as William lived, ruthless as he was to all rebels, he kept order and did justice with a strong and steady hand; for he brought with him from Normandy the instincts of a truly great statesman. And in his sons' time matters grew worse and worse. After that, in the troubles of Stephen's reign, anarchy let loose tyranny in its most fearful form, and things were done which recall the cruelties of the old Spanish conquistadores in America. Scott's charming romance of "Ivanhoe" must be taken, I fear, as a too true picture of English society in the time of Richard I.
Battle Abbey. ”

“ Then, adding a great deal about ghosts and witches, and, above all, breathing into these dry, long-dead mummies the quickening breath of genius, the immortal playwright recreated a Macbeth who seems a far more real and living character than many of our contemporaries. ”

“ As Anselm had withstood William the Red, as Theobald had withstood Stephen, so Langton prepared to withstand and rescue his country from the tyranny of John. He had already forced him to swear to observe the laws of Edward the Confessor, in other words the traditional liberties of the realm. When the baronage refused to sail for Poitou, saying that they owed service to him in England, but not in foreign lands, he compelled the king to deal with them not by arms, but by process of law. ”

“ As a general he had few superiors, as a statesman and politician no equal. That which stamps him as a man of true greatness, is the entire absence of vanity and self-conceit from his character. He paid, indeed, great attention to his personal appearance, even when his hard life and unremitting activity had brought on fits of an epileptic nature, and left him with that meager visage which is familiar to us from his coins. ”