ETHELRED.

185

full of indignation at the order, and despising so cunwarlike a prince, caught Charles by the foot,and pretending to carry it to his mouth , that hemight kil's it, overthrew him before all his cour-tier-. The French , sensible of their presentweakness , found it prudent to overlook thisinsult :I .

Rollo , who was now in the decline of life,and was tired of wars and depredations, appliedhimself , with mature counsels, to the settlementof his new-acquired territory, which was thence-forth called Normandy ; and he parcelled it outamong his captains and followers. He followed inthis partition the customs of the feudal law ,which was then universally established in thesouthern countries of Europe, and which suitedthe peculiar circumstances of that age. He treatedthe French subjects who submitted to him, withmildness and justice; he reclaimed his ancientfollowers from their ferocious violence ; heestablished law and order throughout his state;and after a life spent in tumults and ravages , hedied peaceably in a good old age , and left hisdominions to his posterity : \

William I. who succeeded him, governed thedutchy twenty-five years ; and during thattime, the Normans were thoroughly intermingledwith the French , had acquired their language ,had imitated their manners, and had made such

” Gul. Gemet. lib. 2. cap. 17.

" Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 19, 20, 2i.

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HAP.

III.