the town of Chartres, and, removing all that belonged to
him, departed to go and resume, for all that appears, his old course of
life.

[Illustration: PARIS BESIEGED BY THE NORMANS----259]

On the 25th of November, 885, all the forces of the North-men formed a
junction before Paris; seven hundred huge barks covered two leagues of
the Seine, bringing, it is said, more than thirty thousand men. The
chieftains were astonished at sight of the new fortifications of the
city, a double wall of circumvallation, the bridges crowned with towers,
and in the environs the ramparts of the abbeys of St. Denis and St.
Germain solidly rebuilt. Siegfried hesitated to attack a town so well
defended. He demanded to enter alone and have an interview with the
bishop, Gozlin. "Take pity on thyself and thy flock," said he to him;
"let us but pass through this city; we will in no wise touch the town; we
will do our best to preserve for thee and Count Eudes, all your
possessions." "This city," replied the bishop, "hath been confided unto
us by the Emperor Charles, king and ruler, under God, of the powers of
the earth. He hath confided it unto us not that it should cause the ruin
but the salvation of the kingdom. If peradventure these walls had been
confided to thy keeping, as they have been to mine, wouldst thou do as
thou biddest me?" "If ever I do so," answered Siegfried, "may my head be
condemned to fall by the sword and serve as food to the dogs! But if
thou yield not to our prayers, so soon as the sun shall commence his
course, our armies will launch upon thee their poisoned arrows; and when
the sun shall end his course, they will give thee over to all the horrors
of famine; and this will they do from year to year." The bishop,
however, persisted, without further discussion; being as certain of Count
Eudes as he was of himself. Eudes, who was young and but recently made
count of Paris, was the eldest son of Robert the Strong, count of Anjou,
of the same line as Charlemagne, and but lately slain in battle against
the Northmen. Paris had for defenders two heroes, one of the Church and
the other of the Empire: the faith of the Christian and the fealty of the
vassal; the conscientiousness of the priest and the honor of the warrior.

[Illustration: The Barks of the Northmen before Paris----260]

The siege lasted thirteen months, whiles pushed vigorously forward with
eight several assaults, whiles maintained by close investment, an