939-940 ship for Louis was uncoerced: he had bestowed 936-942 the greatest help in his power to Louis, who had cordially reciprocated. Yet, as we have seen, Guillaume in the very gaiety of his heart, joined the armed opposition headed by Hugh-le-Grand; and his defection to Otho closed the way which was opening for the prosperous maturation of the young King's fortunes. If our imagination be taxed to discover or to invent an excuse for Guillaume Longue-épée's breach of faith, we can find none, except that arguments sufficiently plausible to deaden the moral sense of the man by satisfying the conscience of the politician, may have been grounded upon the assumption that Louis had, in the first instance, when he discarded Hugh-le-Grand, violated his compact with the realm. Under this view, the revolt became a constitutional attempt to bring an erring monarch to reason: and, the admonition failing, he had vacated the throne.-Whether such a mode of dealing with the Sovereign was justifiable or not, Guillaume Longue-épée had become King Otho's Man, and had voluntarily bound himself to be so.-Whether the deed was righteous or not, still the deed was done. But, with Guillaume Longue-épée, and indeed with all his contemporaries, there was an enduring mental reservation, that neither oath nor promise held any longer than pleased the party who took the oath or gave the promise. Guillaume Longue 939 936-942 épée extended this convenient doctrine to all duties and relations; and, within a very short time afterwards, when Louis had conducted his experienced Bride to her Palatial home, Guillaume Longue-épée determined to desert his party, abandon the oath he had sworn to Otho, detach himself from the Confederacy, and reconnect himself with the French Monarchy. For Guillaume's sudden evolution, performed by him with such amazing rapidity, no reason is assigned by the historians, none can be discerned upon the surface. Fickle in love and fickle in religion, fickle in friendship and fickle in enmity, fickle in peace and fickle in war, we might content ourselves by ascribing this most unexpected mutation to mere instability: and yet, however nicely the weathercock may be poised, however smoothly the vane may whirl upon its axis, some breeze must breathe, however gently, to make the girouette spin round. We suspect that Guillaume was driven back to Louis by an anxiety which had been secretly disquieting him till he could no longer bear the gnawing. Although Guillaume Longue-épée was fully in possession of the Terra Normannorum, together with all the rights, members and appurtenances of the said Terra Normannorum, that is to say, Maritime Britanny, and the supremacy of Armorica, even unto the sea, yet that possession was not fully confirmed. The grant, made by the Burgundian 939 Guillaume épée to the Raoul, had not been re-issued by the Carlovingian 936-942 Louis in proper form, a process purposely delayed, may be, in the first instance, or neglected; and now, so long as Guillaume continued his hostility, unattainable. The Sovereign often found that it Title of was expedient to excuse the laches of a powerful LonguePrince who had omitted to apply for a "renova- Duchy of tion" of his "dignity." On their part, the French incomplete Potentates frequently dispensed with the ratifi- by Louis. cation conferred by the King, yet, as we have already observed, they were not satisfied without it. The King, in theory, was always the centre of the system. A complete legalization of beneficiary possession could not be obtained otherwise than through the King's direct sanction-and Normandy, during the earlier eras of her political existence, approximated more closely to the normal type of a “Fief,” -before such type was artistically developed by the Jurists, than any other domain of the like nature, save and except the Marquisate of Flanders. No fears are more distressing to the constitutionally timid than when any apprehensions of evil, having the smallest foundation in reason, are conjoined to the highest degree of improbability. How painfully does the fear of poverty flicker over the millionaire's troubled brain, and we may believe that Guillaume Longue-épée quailed before the phantoms which the contemplation of his own falsehood had raised. Upon legal princi Normandy till ratified 940 936-942 ples, Guillaume Longue-épée's title to his dominions was very questionable. Being in the king's allegiance, he had renounced that allegiance, and why should not Louis, availing himself of the prerogatives of the Crown, rarely exercised yet never renounced, declare him a Felon, proclaim him under the ban of the Empire, depose the rebel Duke, and then condemn the denuded "Commander of the Pirates" to death?-The motives urging Guillaume to seek the Sovereign are disclosed, as fully as unspoken sentiments can ever be disclosed, by the conduct which he pursued. Guillaume despatched a respectful legation to Louis, transmitting assurances of unshaken fidelity—an undaunted assertion, which must have required a marvellous power of face in the grave ambassadors by whom the same was propounded. The young King was at Laon, happy with his bride, at once new and mature, buxom Gerberga; and welcome indeed was this me ssage to him. Amiens was appointed as the place of meeting; and thither Guillaume Longue-épée repaired. Kneeling before the King, and receiving turns to his from the King a re-grant of the "Province"this is the term employed by those who recorded the transaction—“which the late King Charles had granted to the late Patrician of the Normans, Guillaume Longue-épée's father, Rollo," and commending himself to the King, placing his hands between the hands of the King, Guillaume be 940 Guillaume Longueépée re allegiance, and performs homage to Louis at came the Man of Louis in the most solemn and 936-942 authentic form. Yet, even the act of homage sufficed not to satisfy Guillaume's zeal and humility; the dry legal formula did not adequately express the intensity of his feelings. He declared he would sacrifice his life, were such a sacrifice needed, could he thereby replace his Sovereign in the plenitude of imperial power. He would do all that King Louis pleased: he would live or die for the sake of King Louis. § 16. Under any or all circumstances, the French hated and scorned the "Dux Piratarum." Must not their contemptuous sentiments have been immeasurably enhaunced by the conduct and bearing of the self-stigmatized recreant?When Guillaume Longue-épée presented himself as a true homager before Louis at Amiens, he branded the Guillaume Longue-épée who had knelt before Otho in Lotharingia, as a traitor. He had wantonly abandoned his lawful King, to him trebly lawful:-lawful by inheritance,-lawful by the nation's assent,-lawful by his own voluntary and uncoerced adherence. No censures passed upon Guillaume Longue-épée for his previous desertion of the King, could have been so bitter as those which he inflicted upon himself by his present professions of good service, and his outbursts of exuberant loyalty. The inveterate Luegenfeld perverseness of the age bestowed a popular 940 |