HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

23 ' I

rendered no difficult conquest. Here they acquired the well known appella-tion of Normans, which was bestowed on them in allusion to the northerndistrict from whence they had burst forth. Of this people it will hereafter benecessary, as may naturally be supposed, to enter into a more enlarged detail ;and indeed, were it not on account of their natural relationship, as it were, tothe Danes, the mention of them in this place might have been deemed im-proper, and out of time. Bearing with them those habits in which ‘they hadbeen nurtured, and not merely content with the conquest and possession ofthat more fertile country, which they had made themselves masters of, inexchange for their own, they were scarcely settled in their new territory, erethey renewed their original occupation of maritime depredation. So successfulwere they, in the enterprises they undertook against the Franks, who wereunaccustomed to such modes of attack, that they not only rendered their veryname terrible to all those districts bordering on the sea coast, but, acquiringconfidence as well as strength from their success, caused the more distant pro-vinces to tremble with apprehension, and fear of an unprovoked attack.

To return, however, to the Danes, who, in the space of a very few years,considerably improved on their first attempt, Egbert quickly engaged their fleetof thirty-five ships near Charmouth, in Dorsetshire, but with what success chro-niclers are not agreed. It may be concluded, however, that he gained no ma-terial advantage, as the Danes maintained their ground on the neighbouring

would have rivalled the Caesars of Byzantium, and revenged the indignities of the Christian name.The enemies no longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer trust the application of a publicrevenue, the labours of trade and manufactures in the military service, the mutual aid of provincesand armies, and the naval squadrons which were regularly stationed from the mouth of the Elbe tothat of the Tiber. In the beginning of the tenth century, the family of Charlemagne had almost dis-appeared ; his monarchy was broken into many hostile and independant states ; the regal title wasassumed by the most ambitious chiefs ; their revolt was imitated in a long subordination of anarchyand discord; and the nobles of every province disobeyed their sovereign, oppressed their vassals, andexercised perpetual hostilities against their equals and neighbours. Their private wars, which over-turned the fabric of government, fomented the martial spirit of the nation. In the system of modernEurope, the power of the sword is possessed at least in fact by five or six mighty potentates; theiroperations are conducted on a distant frontier by an order of men who devote their lives to the studyand practice of the military art ; the rest of the country and community enjoys in the midst of warthe tranquillity of peace, and is only made sensible of the change by the aggravation or decrease of thepublic taxes. In the disorders of the tenth and eleventh centuries, every peasant was a soldier, andevery village a fortification; each, wood or valley was a scene of murder and rapine, and the lords ofeach castle were compelled to assume the character of princes and warriors.”

shore.