d by serfs, and divided among the
overlords, and of these latter the richest were the abbots and the
bishops, round whose palaces and monasteries clustered the towns for
their defence. But their temporal power was soon destined to decay.
The empire of the mind they might regain; their leadership of France
was lost the instant that the Northmen's ships appeared upon the
Seine.

When the serfs of Neustria first heard the ivory horns of the Vikings
echoing along their river's banks, and saw the blood-red banner of the
North against the sky, few men realised that the invaders were to weld
them into the strongest Duchy of the West, and finally to make France
herself arise as an independent nation out of Europe. They fled, these
spiritless and defenceless villagers, to the nearest abbey's walls,
they hid before the altars which held the relics of their saints, but
neither relics nor sanctuary availed to save, as the monks of St.
Martin at Tours, of Saint Germain des Pres at Paris could testify.
These barbarians used the Christian rites merely to advance their own
base purposes. Ever since Harold had won a province for a baptism each
pirate chief in turn was the more eager to insist upon such lucrative
religion. When they could not make capital out of "conversions" they
took gold and provisions as the price of temporary peace. By degrees
they gave up going home in winter. The climate of these southern lands
was tempting. In various parts of France along the river-mouths, just
as they had taken the highway of the Humber into the heart of Britain,
they made their scattered settlements, even as far inland as Chartres.
But only one was destined to be permanent, and this was made by Rolf,
Rollo, or Rou, in Rouen, the kernel of the Northern province. In 841
Ogier the Dane had sailed up the "Route des Cygnes" to burn the
shrines of St. Wandrille and Jumieges, to pillage Rouen, even to
terrify Paris. After him came Bjorn Ironside and Ragnar Lodbrog. Twice
they reached Paris, knocking at the gates to pass through towards the
vineyards of Burgundy. In 861 they made a kind of camp upon an island
between Oissel and Pont de l'Arche. At last in 876 came Rolf the
Ganger, the King of the Sea, and made Rouen his headquarters.

There had been but little resistance to their advance. The fifty-three
great expeditions of Charlemagne had used up the fighting men and
scattered the bravest of the nobles over widely separated tracts of
conquered ter