The energy which they had shown in winning their land from the Franks, in absorbing the French civilization and the French religion, was now showing itself in adventures on far-off shores, in crusades against the Moslem of Spain or the Arabs of Sicily.

It was this spirit of adventure that roused the Norman Duke Robert to sail against England in Cnut's day under pretext of setting AEthelred's children on its throne, but the wreck of his fleet in a storm put an end to a project which might have anticipated the work of his son.

It was that son, William the Great, as men of his own day styled him, William the Conqueror as he was to stamp himself by one event on English history, who was now Duke of Normandy.

The full grandeur of his indomitable will, his large and patient statesmanship, the loftiness of aim which lifts him out of the petty incidents of his age, were as yet only partly disclosed.

But there never had been a moment from his boyhood when he was not among the greatest of men.