fully manned, and very massy. Louis invested 936-942 the Tower. The attack was commenced by artillery; bows and arrows made no impression: Louis 937-938 thereupon adopted another and more scientific mode of attack. He constructed a large testudo, strongly compacted of timber. From the minute description given of this machine, we may collect that such contrivances were objects of curiosity, new and strange in France. Propelled close up against the Castle, the well-framed roof resisted the stones cast down by the besieged. The walls were undermined and fell. The garrison surrendered at discretion, an exploit whereby Louis gained much renown. These operations, together with various skirmishes and military movements, so comminuted that it is difficult to take note of them, occupied more than a year. The utmost extent of territory traversed by the belligerent parties may have been some fifty leagues: yet, it is in appearance only, that these transactions can be denominated petty or inconsiderable, for, in them, the whole continuity of French history -Kingdom, Republic, or Empire-is involved. It is the magnitude of the ultimate stake which we have to consider, not the breadth of the board upon which the game is played. 938 Affairs of § 8. French historians do not afford any direct explanation of the motives inducing Arnoul to Flanders. labour so earnestly for the protection of Witsant. But the fortifications erected to guard that conve 936-942 nient Northern harbour, imply the dread of some maritime invader. The territory which included 937-938 Witsant, belonged nominally to the Abbey of Saint Bertin: but whilst the Monks performed the religious services in consideration whereof the grant had originally been made, the land itself was impropriated by Count Arnoul. The lay Abbot, however, did not enjoy his benefice quietly, being much disturbed in his possession by the Northmen. Siegfrid the Dane, Count of Siegfrid, the brother of some Danish king, had overspread the country: the great conflagration of Danish warfare had been renewed in England: and Siegfrid may have been, so to speak, a brand darted from the British Islands. The monks of Saint Bertin cared not to bear record of Siegfrid's achievements, and the negligence of the cotemporary Clergy in this respect, was lamented and censured by their successors, who, three centuries afterwards, sought to recover the scattered reminiscences of local history. The Guisnes annals commence with ugly incidents. Siegfrid, it is said, having abused Elstruda, a Princess of Flanders, hanged himself to escape her kinsmen's vengeance.-A Danish warrior, a Viking, or a Berserker, when insurmountable danger drove him to despair, would surely have fallen on his own sword, rather than condemn himself to a death so disreputable.-But the main facts relating to Siegfrid are well attested. He became the first Count of Guisnes: his son Ardolf 936-942 inherited the small, but distinguished domain, renowned for minstrelsy and chivalry. Ardres 938 was included in the County of Guisnes: and the Champ du Drap d'Or continued in Siegfrid's lineage till the thirteenth century, when the "Grand Fief" was transferred, by a series of transactions, austere, if not unjust, to the illustrious house of Brienne. the Danish Guisnes. It is possible that, during the conflicts which preceded, or were occasioned by the establishment of this dominion, Arnoul may have fringed the coast with his forces, seeking to prevent any further immigrations of Danes.-The Count of Results of Flanders, who held the ample Principality granted conquest of to his renowned grandfather Baudouin Bras-defer, upon the express condition of protecting the Carlovingian Empire against the Pirates, was bound to employ this vigilance. The conquest effected by Siegfrid must have been grievous to Arnoul, equally a detriment and a disgrace. Friendship, may at one period, have subsisted between Arnoul and Siegfrid; but political amity is in no wise inconsistent with much antecedent as well as subsequent hostility. It is, however, equally probable, and the general bearing of events rather corroborates this hypothesis, that the fortifications were intended for the defence of the country against Guillaume Longueépée. The husbands of the two Vermandois sisters were becoming bitter enemies. 936-942 938 Guillaume Longue § 9. Riulph was slain, but after the discomfiture of the Norman insurgents in the Pré de la Bataille, Arnoul had patronized his cause, not only by harbouring Balzo the Rebel's kinsman, but by advancing him to station and honour. Had the Count of Flanders laboured to excite the apprehensions and insult the feelings of his brother-in-law, he could not have devised a more stinging provocation. This was probably the originating cause of the quarrel, and Guillaume Longue-épée commenced hostilities against Flanders with the aid of Hugh-le-Grand, the latter having been angered by Count Arnoul's adhesion to the king. Guillaume Longue-épée's first attempts were épée at war directed to the sea-bord; and it is this circum with Count Arnoul. stance which suggests the supposition that the fortifications, projected at Witsand, were intended to prevent the landing of Rouen forces from Eu on the Brêle, or from Fécamp river. The Norman ravaged all around Boulogne, Terouenne, and Sithieu, or St. Omer's. Had Guillaume Longueépée still been a Pagan Dane, he could not have punished the country with greater severity. Herbert, on his part, continued the turmoil, more particularly for the purpose of annoying the King, devastating the territory of Rheims. Count Her bert was anathematized by the Bishops. Guillaume Longue-épée was involved in the same censures; but, whether because he had committed his outrages during some solemn season, so as to 938 occasion peculiar scandal, or whether, like his 936-942 father-in-law, he had plundered some ecclesiastical possessions, does not appear. Anyhow, the offenders took no heed of the excommunications, deriding bell, book, and candle. Louis, hitherto supported only by Arnoul, had now acquired the aid of Hugh-le-Noir, the coparcener Duke of Burgundy, whom he had ejected from Langres in favour of Hugh-le-Grand. The son of King Robert was their common enemy, and the peculiar despite entertained by Hugh-leNoir against Hugh-le-Grand, rendered him the more active in co-operating with Louis. Conjoining their forces, they marched against Hugh-le-Grand and Guillaume Longue-épée, and the attacks made upon Arnoul were checked. The Count of Flanders did not immediately retaliate upon the Duke of Normandy; but he adopted a course by which, whether designedly or not, the brothers-in-law were speedily brought into desperate collision. Helgaud, the Count of Ponthieu,—he who had been slain by the Danes, when they broke out of the wood and stormed the camp of King Raoul,— was now succeeded by his son Count Herlouin, under whose government Montreuil became very prosperous. The convenience of the sea-port Affairs of attracted a considerable trade; and the duties or Herlouin tolls, levied upon the vessels which entered the Count Helhaven and the goods landed there, produced to Herlouin a considerable revenue. Herlouin comes Ponthieu. son of gaud. |