h to take foreign kings and dukes into their
service; their own forces were in mere numbers such as Normandy could
not hope to strive against. They had abundance of tried soldiers, and
above all, they had a mighty fleet, with crews skilled beyond other
men in all that pertained to the warfare of the sea. How could a fleet
be raised, how could the sailors be gathered together, how could they
be taught, within a year's space, to cope with such an enemy? The
feeling of the Assembly was distinctly against so desperate an
enterprise as the invasion of England. It seemed as if the hopes and
schemes of William were about to be shattered in their beginning
through the opposition of his own subjects.

A daring though cunning attempt was now made by William Fitz-Osbern,
the duke's nearest personal friend, to cajole the Assembly into an
assent to his master's will. He appealed to their sense of feudal
honor; they owed the duke service for their fiefs: let them come
forward and do with a good heart all, and more than all, that their
tenure of their fiefs bound them to. Let not their sovereign be driven
to implore the services of his subjects. Let them rather forestall his
will; let them win his favor by ready offerings even beyond their
power to fulfill. He enlarged on the character of the lord with whom
they had to deal. William's jealous temper would not brook
disappointment at their hands. It would be the worse for them in the
end, if the duke should ever have to say that he had failed in his
enterprise because they had failed in readiness to support him.

The language of William Fitz-Osbern seems to have startled and
perplexed even the stout hearts with whom he had to deal. The barons
prayed him to be their spokesman with the duke. He knew their minds
and could speak for them all, and they would be bound by what he said.
But they gave him no direct commission to bind them to any consent to
the duke's demand. Their words indeed tended ominously the other way;
they feared the sea,--so changed was the race which had once manned
the ships of Rolf and Harold Blaatand,--and they were not bound to
serve beyond it.

A point seemed to have been gained, by the seeming license given by
the Assembly to the duke's most intimate friend to speak as he would
in the name of the whole baronage. William Fitz-Osbern now spoke to
the duke. He began with an exordium of almost cringing loyalty,
setting forth how great was the zeal and affection of