he would be no longer the Conqueror but the victorious captain; they would need some very special oppression at home to make them revolt against the chief whose laurels they had helped to win.  As our own gleeman tells the tale, they did little beyond harrying the helpless land; but in continental writers we can trace a regular campaign, in which we hear of no battles, but of many sieges.  William, as before, subdued the land piecemeal, keeping the city for the last.  When he drew near to Le Mans, its defenders surrendered at his summons, to escape fire and slaughter by speedy submission.  The new commune was abolished, but the Conqueror swore to observe all the ancient rights of the city.

All this time we have heard nothing of Count Fulk.  Presently we find him warring against nobles of Maine who had taken William’s part, and leaguing with the Bretons against William himself.  The King set forth with his whole force, Norman and English; but peace was made by the mediation of an unnamed Roman cardinal, abetted, we are told, by the chief Norman nobles.  Success against confederated Anjou and Britanny might be doubtful, with Maine and England wavering in their allegiance, and France, Scotland, and Flanders, possible enemies in the distance.  The rights of the Count of Anjou over Maine were formally acknowledged, and William’s eldest son Robert did homage to Fulk for the county.  Each prince stipulated for the safety and favour of all subjects of the other who had taken his side.  Between Normandy and Anjou there was peace during the rest of the days of William; in Maine we shall see yet another revolt, though only a partial one.

William went back to England in 1073.  In 1074 he went to the continent for a longer absence.  As the time just after the first completion of the Conquest is spoken of as a time when Normans and English were beginning to sit down side by side in peace, so the years which followed the submission of Ely are spoken of as a time of special oppression.  This fact is not unconnected with the King’s frequent absences from England.  Whatever we say of William’s own position, he was a check on smaller oppressors.  Things were always worse when the eye of the great master was no longer watching.  William’s one weakness was that of putting overmuch trust in his immediate kinsfolk and friends.  Of the two special oppressors, William Fitz-Osbern had thrown away his life in Flanders; but Bishop Ode was still at work, till several years later his king and brother struck him down with a truly righteous blow.

The year 1074, not a year of fighting, was pro-eminently a year of intrigue.  William’s enemies on the continent strove to turn the representative of the West-Saxon kings to help their ends.  Edgar flits to and fro between Scotland and Flanders, and the King of the French tempts him with the offer of a convenient settlement on the march of France, Normandy, and Flanders.  Edgar sets forth from Scotland,