ned to cross the road which Lanfranc was slowly pursuing. "My
lord," said the monk, addressing him, "I am obeying your orders; I am
going away, but my horse is a sorry beast; if you will give me a better
one, I will go faster." William halted, entered into conversation with
Lanfranc, let him stay, and sent him back with a present to his abbey.
A little while afterwards Lanfranc was at Rome, and defended before Pope
Victor II. William's marriage with Matilda: he was successful, and the
pope took off the veto on the sole condition that the couple, in sign of
penitence, should each found a religious house. Matilda, accordingly,
founded at Caen, for women, the abbey of the Holy Trinity; and William,
for men, that of St. Stephen. Lanfranc was the first abbot of the
latter; and when William became king of England, Lanfranc was made
archbishop of Canterbury and primate of the Church of England, as well as
privy counsellor of his king. William excelled in the art, so essential
to government, of promptly recognizing the worth of men, and of
appropriating their influence to himself whilst exerting his own over
them.

About the same time he gave his contemporaries, princes and peoples, new
proofs of his ability and power. Henry I., king of France, growing more
and more disquieted at and jealous of the duke of Normandy's ascendency,
secretly excited against him opposition and even revolt in his dominions.
These dealings led to open war between the suzerain and the vassal, and
the war concluded with two battles won by William, one at Mortemer near
Neuchatel in Bray, the other at Varaville near Troarrh "After which,"
said William himself, "King Henry never passed a night tranquilly on my
ground." In 1059 peace was concluded between the two princes. Henry I.
died almost immediately afterwards, and on the 25th of August, 1060, his
son Philip I. succeeded him, under the regency of Baldwin, count of
Flanders, father of the Duchess Matilda. Duke William was present in
state at the coronation of the new king of France, lent him effectual
assistance against the revolts which took place in Gascony, reentered
Normandy for the purpose of holding at Caen, in 1061, the Estates of his
duchy, and at that time published the famous decree observed long after
him, under the name of the law of curfew, which ordered "that every
evening the bell should be rung in all parishes to warn every one to
prayer, and house-closing, and no more running ab