cursions of the Danes. Even
in Charlemagne's time the black-sailed ships of the Northmen had been seen
hovering along the coast near the mouth of the Seine, and it has been said
that the great Emperor wept at the sight of some of these awe-inspiring
pirates.

In the year 841 the Northmen had sailed up the Seine as far as Rouen, but
they found little to plunder, for during the reign of the Merovingian
kings, the town had been reduced to a mere shadow of its former prosperity.
There had been a great fire and a great plague, and its ruin had been
rendered complete during the civil strife that succeeded the death of
Charlemagne. Wave after wave came the northern invasions led by such men as
Bjorn Ironside, and Ragnar Lodbrog. Charles the Bald, fearing to meet these
dreaded warriors, bribed them away from the walls of Paris in the year 875.
But they came again twelve years afterwards in search of more of the
Frenchmen's gold. When Charles the Fat, the German Emperor, became also
King of France, he had to suffer for his treacherous murder of a Danish
chief, for soon afterwards came the great Rollo with a large fleet of
galleys, and Paris was besieged once more. Odo, Count of Paris, held out
successfully, but when the king came from Germany with his army, instead of
attacking the Danes, he induced them to retire by offering them a bribe of
800 lbs. of silver. Before long Odo became King of France, but after ten
years of constant fighting, he died and was succeeded by Charles the
Simple. This title does an injustice to his character, for he certainly did
more for France than most of his predecessors. Finding the Northmen too
firmly established in Neustria to have any hope of successfully driving
them out of the country, he made a statesmanlike arrangement with Rollo.
The Dane was to do homage to the French king, to abandon his gods Thor,
Odin and the rest for Christianity, and in return was to be made ruler of
the country between the River Epte and the sea, and westwards as far as the
borders of Brittany Rollo was also to be given the hand of the Princess
Gisela in marriage. Rouen became the capital of the new Duchy of Normandy,
and the old name of Neustria disappeared.

The Northmen were not at this time numerous, but they continued to come
over in considerable numbers establishing centres such as that of Bayeux,
where only Danish was spoken. As in England, this warrior people showed the
most astonishing adaptability to the hi