Now hear M. le Duc farther: 

“The castles built between the tenth and twelfth centuries along the Loire, Gironde, and Seine, that is to say, along the lines of the Norman invasions, and in the neighbourhood of their possessions, have a peculiar and uniform character which one finds neither in central France, nor in Burgundy, nor can there be any need for us to throw light on (faire ressortir) the superiority of the warrior spirit of the Normans, during the later times of the Carlovingian epoch, over the spirit of the chiefs of Frank descent, established on the Gallo-Roman soil.”  There’s a bit of honesty in a Frenchman for you!

I have just said that they valued religion chiefly for its influence of order in the present world:  being in this, observe, as nearly as may be the exact reverse of modern believers, or persons who profess to be such,—­of whom it may be generally alleged, too truly, that they value religion with respect to their future bliss rather than their present duty; and are therefore continually careless of its direct commands, with easy excuse to themselves for disobedience to them.  Whereas the Norman, finding in his own heart an irresistible impulse to action, and perceiving himself to be set, with entirely strong body, brain, and will, in the midst of a weak and dissolute confusion of all things, takes from the Bible instantly into his conscience every exhortation to Do and to Govern; and becomes, with all his might and understanding, a blunt and rough servant, knecht, or knight of God, liable to much misapprehension, of course, as to the services immediately required of him, but supposing, since the whole make of him, outside and in, is a soldier’s, that God meant him for a soldier, and that he is to establish, by main force, the Christian faith and works all over the world so far as he comprehends them; not merely with the Mahometan indignation against spiritual error, but with a sound and honest soul’s dislike of material error, and resolution to extinguish that, even if perchance found in the spiritual persons to whom, in their office, he yet rendered total reverence.

Which force and faith in him I may best illustrate by merely putting together the broken paragraphs of Sismondi’s account of the founding of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily:  virtually contemporary with the conquest of England.

“The Normans surpassed all the races of the west in their ardour for pilgrimages.  They would not, to go into the Holy Land, submit to the monotony[17] of a long sea voyage—­the rather that they found not on the Mediterranean the storms or dangers they had rejoiced to encounter on their own sea.  They traversed by land the whole of France and Italy, trusting to their swords to procure the necessary subsistence,[18] if the charity of the faithful did not enough provide for it with alms.  The towns of Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, and Bari, held constant commerce with Syria; and frequent miracles, it was believed, illustrated the Monte Cassino (St. Benedict again!) on the road of Naples, and the Mount of Angels (Garganus) above Bari.” (Querceta Gargani—­verily, laborant; now, et orant.) “The pilgrims wished to visit during their journey the monasteries built on these two mountains, and therefore nearly always, either going or returning to the Holy Land, passed through Magna Graecia.