4o 4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chap. and if he possessed abilities, he lay so muchv. under the government of impetuous passions,

i-ieo. that he made little use of them in his administration;and he indulged, without reserve, that domineeringpolicy, which suited his temper, and which, ifsupported, as it was in him, with courage andvigor , proves often more successful in disor-derly times , than the deepest foresight and mostrefined artifice.

The monuments which remained of this princein England are the Tower, Westminster-hall,and London-bridge, which he built. The mostlaudable foreign enterprise which he undertook,was the sending of Edgar Atheling , three yearsbefore his death, into Scotland with a smallarmy, to restore prince Edgar the true heir ofthat kingdom , son of Malcolm , and of .Margaret,sister of Edgar Atheling; and the enterprise provedsuccessful. It was remarked in that age, thatRichard, an elder brother of William’s, perishedby an accident in the new sorest; Richard, hisnephew, natural son of duke Robert, lost hislife in the fame place, after the fame manner:And all men , upon the king’s fate , exclaimed,that, as the Conqueror had been guilty of extreme-violence , in expelling all the inhabitants of thatlarge district, to make room for his game, thejust vengeance of heaven was signalized, in thefame place , by the slaughter of his posterity.William was killed in the thirteenth year of hisreiffn, and about the fortieth of his age. As hewas never married, he left no legitimate issue.