"The words of the King are good," replied Rollo, gravely, "but the land he offers is insufficient. It is uncultivated and impoverished. My people would not derive from it the means of living in peace."

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'What say you to Flanders?" suggested the Archbishop.

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Flanders," answered Rollo, "is a poor country, muddy, and full of swamps."

"Then," said the Archbishop, "King Charles must give you Brittany in conjunction with Neustria." "That will suffice," said Rollo, smiling grimly. Affairs having reached this stage, preparations were made for ratifying the treaty in the most solemn manner. St. Clair, a green village on the Epte, was selected as a fitting place for the ceremony; and on a summer day, Rollo and the Norman chiefs pitched their tents on one side of the river, and Charles the Simple, with the French lords, on the other. At the hour appointed, Rollo, crossing the Epte, approached Charles, and standing in front of the chair of state, placed his hands between those of the King, and pronounced the formula.

"Henceforth," said the son of Rognvald, addressing the heir of Charlemagne, "I am your vassal and your man; and I swear faithfully to protect your life, your limbs, and your royal honour."

After Rollo had taken the oath of fealty, Charles the Simple gave him the title of count; and the Norman concluded that the ceremony was at an end. Indeed, Rollo was about to retire, when the French lords informed him, that there was one custom too important to be neglected on such an occasion.

"It is fitting," said they, "that he who receives

such a gift of territory should kneel before the King and kiss his foot."

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"Never," exclaimed Rollo, with undisguised contempt. Never will I bend the knee before a mortal: never will I kiss the foot of any man."

"It is a remnant of the etiquette formerly used in the court of the French emperors," urged the lords.

Finding himself thus pressed, Rollo, with an affectation of simplicity, made a sign to one of his comrades. to kiss the King's foot; and the Norman obeyed. Ridiculous was the result. Instead of kneeling, the Norman stooped without bending his knee, and attempted to raise the King's foot to his mouth. But, ere that could be accomplished, the heir of Charlemagne fell on his back, and lay sprawling on the ground, while the French raised their hands in horror, and the Normans burst into shouts of laughter.

For a few moments every one was in confusion; but fortunately the ludicrous incident produced no serious quarrel. Order having been restored, arrangements were made that Rollo's conversion and Rollo's wedding should take place at Rouen; and thither many French lords formally escorted the royal bride. Everything went smoothly; and Rollo, having received baptism and the hand of the Princess from the Archbishop, commenced life anew as a Christian and a count.

While in process of conversion, Rollo stened to the Archbishop of Rouen with the utmost docility; and no sooner was he baptized, than he manifested a laudable zeal for Christianity. On leaving the baptismal font, he earnestly inquired the names of the most celebrated churches, and the most revered saints in the country; and the Archbishop repeated the names of seven

churches, and three saints-St. Mary, St. Michael, and St. Peter.

"And who," asked Rollo, "is the most powerful protector?"

"St. Denis," answered the Archbishop.

"Well," said Rollo, " before dividing my land among my companions, I will give a part of it to God, to St. Mary, and to the other saints you have named.”

The old Sea King was as good as his word. During the week in which he wore the white habit of the neophyte, he delighted the Archbishop by the eagerness he displayed to keep his promise. Each day, while applying himself to religious duties, he bestowed an estate on one of the seven churches that had been indicated as most worthy of his gifts.

On the eighth day after his baptism, Rollo laid aside the white habit, and, resuming his ordinary dress, devoted his attention to secular affairs, and to the partition of Neustria among the companions of his exile from Norway. Everything was done in the most systematic manner. The country was, according to the Scandinavian mode of mensuration, divided out by the cord; and all the lands, having been taken possession of without regard to the feelings of the natives, were shared among the Normans. Important, indeed, were the consequences of this settlement. Becoming seigneurs of towns and rural districts, the comrades of Rollo, having changed the name of the province to Normandy, polished their manners, refined their language, and, as time passed on, became, from a band of grizly adventurers, the foremost, most religious, and most chivalrous race in Christendom.

Rollo the sea king, metamorphosed into Rollo a

count of France, proved himself eminently qualified for the position he had won. His administration of affairs in Normandy was characterised by wisdom and vigour; and, tempted by the security felt in the districts subject to his sway, artizans and labourers flocked from other parts of France, and established themselves under his government. His name gradually acquired a wide celebrity, and became famous all over Europe as that of the most energetic and successful justiciary of the century.

At length, in 927, when fourscore years of age, Rollo, worn out, and incapable of governing, resigned Normandy to his son, and disappeared from the public eye. After surviving his abdication for five years, the aged hero gave up his soul to God; and his mortal remains were laid in the Church of Nôtre Dame, in Rouen.

HASTING.

ABOUT the time when Rollo the Norman was leaving his country and his kindred, to find a new home in a land of strangers, a body of grim adventurers, manning a fleet of corsair vessels, made their way up the Seine, plundering and ravaging as they proceeded, and doing their work so thoroughly, that where they had passed, hardly even a dog remained to bark at the solitude. At the head of this piratical expedition was a man of dauntless courage and extraordinary energy. His name was Hasting; and he had long been renowned as the sea king who caused most terror throughout Christendom.

Hasting, however, was not by birth a Scandinavian. Indeed he is said to have been the son of a peaceful peasant near Troyes, and to have been tempted from his home by the Danes, during one of their incursions. No sooner, however, had he set his foot on the pine plank, than he began to take kindly to Northern customs; and gradually learning to regard piratical enterprise as the chief end of existence, he outdid his masters in all they had to teach, ate horseflesh, sacrificed to Thor, and at length became one of the most formidable of sea kings. Adopting, as the southern poets expressed it, the ocean for his home, Hasting passed his life in