“We are Danes,” answered Rollo, proudly; “all of us equals, no man the lord of any other, but lords of all besides.  We are come to punish these people and take their lands.  And you, by what name are you called?”

“Have you not heard of a certain Hasting,” was the reply, “a sea-king who left your land with a multitude of ships, and turned into a desert a great part of this fair land of France?”

“We have heard of him,” said Rollo, curtly.  “He began well and ended badly.”

“Will you submit to King Charles?” asked the envoy, deeming it wise, perhaps, to change the subject.

“We will submit to no one, king or chieftain.  All that we gain by the sword we are masters and lords of.  This you may tell to the king who has sent you.  The lords of the sea know no masters on land.”

Hasting left with his message, and Rollo continued his advance to the Seine.  Not finding here the ships of the maritime division of the expedition, which he had expected to meet, he seized on the boats of the French fishermen and pursued his course.  Soon afterwards a French force was met and put to flight, its leader, Duke Ragnold, being killed.  This event, as we are told, gave rise to a new change in the career of the famous Hasting.  A certain Tetbold or Thibaud, of Northman birth, came to him and told him that he was suspected of treason, the defeat of the French having been ascribed to secret information furnished by him.  Whether this were true, or a mere stratagem on the part of his informant, it had the desired effect of alarming Hasting, who quickly determined to save himself from peril by joining his old countrymen and becoming again a viking chief.  He thereupon sold his countship to Tetbold, and hastened to join the army of Norsemen then besieging Paris.  As for the cunning trickster, he settled down into his cheaply bought countship, and became the founder of the subsequent house of the Counts of Chartres.

The siege of Paris ended in the usual manner of the Norseman invasions of France,—­that of ransom.  Charles marched to its relief with a strong army, but, instead of venturing to meet his foes in battle, he bought them off as so often before, paying them a large sum of money, granting them free navigation of the Seine and entrance to Paris, and confirming them in the possession of Friesland.  This occurred in 887.  A year afterwards he lost his crown, through the indignation of the nobles at his cowardice, and France and Germany again fell asunder.

The plundering incursions continued, and soon afterwards the new emperor, Arnulf, nephew of Charles the Fat, a man of far superior energy to his deposed uncle, attacked a powerful force of the piratical invaders near Louvain, where they had encamped after a victory over the Archbishop of Mayence.  In the heat of the battle that followed, the vigilant Arnulf perceived that the German cavalry fought at a disadvantage with their stalwart foes, whose dexterity as foot-soldiers