d. Though the usual violence and tyranny of
the Norman barons afforded a plausible pretence for those
prosecutions, and it is probable that none of the sentences pronounced
against these noblemen was wholly iniquitous, men easily saw or
conjectured, that the chief part of their guilt was not the injustice
or illegality of their conduct. Robert, enraged at the fate of his
friends, imprudently ventured to come into England; and he
remonstrated with his brother, in severe terms, against this breach of
treaty; but met with so bad a reception, that he began to apprehend
danger to his own liberty, and was glad to purchase an escape by
resigning his pension.

The indiscretion of Robert soon exposed him to more fatal injuries.
This prince, whose bravery and candour procured him respect while at a
distance, had no sooner attained the possession of power and enjoyment
of peace, than all the vigour of his mind relaxed, and he fell into
contempt among those who approached his person, or were subjected to
his authority. Alternately abandoned to dissolute pleasures and to
womanish superstition, he was so remiss, both in the care of his
treasure and the exercise of his government, that his servants
pillaged his money with impunity, stole from him his very clothes, and
proceeded thence to practise every species of extortion on his
defenceless subjects. The barons, whom a severe administration alone
could have restrained, gave reins to their unbounded rapine upon their
vassals, and inveterate animosities against each other; and all
Normandy, during the reign of this benign prince, was become a scene
of violence and depredation. [MN 1103. Attack of Normandy.] The
Normans, at last, observing the regular government which Henry,
notwithstanding his usurped title, had been able to establish in
England, applied to him, that he might use his authority for the
suppression of these disorders, and they thereby afforded him a
pretence for interposing in the affairs of Normandy. Instead of
employing his mediation to render his brother's government
respectable, or to redress the grievances of the Normans, he was only
attentive to support his own partisans, and to increase their number
by every art of bribery, intrigue, and insinuation. Having found, in
a visit which he made to that duchy, that the nobility were more
disposed to pay submission to him than to their legal sovereign, he
collected, by arbitrary extortions on England, a great ar