In one place he is a martial bishop or a valiant abbot in another a converted pagan, a retired bandit, a prosperous adventurer, a rude huntsman, who long supported himself by the chase and on wild fruits.[1109] The ancestors of Robert the Strong are unknown, and later the story runs that the Capets are descended from a Parisian butcher.

In any event the noble of that epoch is the brave, the powerful man, expert in the use of arms, who, at the head of a troop, instead of flying or paying ransom, offers his breast, stands firm, and protects a patch of the soil with his sword.

To perform this service he has no need of ancestors; all that he requires is courage, for he is himself an ancestor; security for the present, which he insures, is too acceptable to permit any quibbling about his title.-Finally, after so many centuries, we find each district possessing its armed men, a settled body of troops capable of resisting nomadic invasion; the community is no longer a prey to strangers.

At the end of a century this Europe, which had been sacked by the Vikings, is to throw 200,000 armed men into Asia.

Henceforth, both north and south, in the face of Moslems and of pagans, instead of being conquered it is to conquer.