himself down from a window in the night, and so got cleverly aboard ship
and away to Normandy.

Now Robert, when his brother Fine-Scholar came to the throne, was still
absent in the Holy Land. Henry pretended that Robert had been made
Sovereign of that country; and he had been away so long, that the
ignorant people believed it. But, behold, when Henry had been some time
King of England, Robert came home to Normandy; having leisurely returned
from Jerusalem through Italy, in which beautiful country he had enjoyed
himself very much, and had married a lady as beautiful as itself! In
Normandy, he found Firebrand waiting to urge him to assert his claim to
the English crown, and declare war against King Henry. This, after great
loss of time in feasting and dancing with his beautiful Italian wife
among his Norman friends, he at last did.

The English in general were on King Henry's side, though many of the
Normans were on Robert's. But the English sailors deserted the King, and
took a great part of the English fleet over to Normandy; so that Robert
came to invade this country in no foreign vessels, but in English ships.
The virtuous Anselm, however, whom Henry had invited back from abroad,
and made Archbishop of Canterbury, was steadfast in the King's cause; and
it was so well supported that the two armies, instead of fighting, made a
peace. Poor Robert, who trusted anybody and everybody, readily trusted
his brother, the King; and agreed to go home and receive a pension from
England, on condition that all his followers were fully pardoned. This
the King very faithfully promised, but Robert was no sooner gone than he
began to punish them.

Among them was the Earl of Shrewsbury, who, on being summoned by the King
to answer to five-and-forty accusations, rode away to one of his strong
castles, shut himself up therein, called around him his tenants and
vassals, and fought for his liberty, but was defeated and banished.
Robert, with all his faults, was so true to his word, that when he first
heard of this nobleman having risen against his brother, he laid waste
the Earl of Shrewsbury's estates in Normandy, to show the King that he
would favour no breach of their treaty. Finding, on better information,
afterwards, that the Earl's only crime was having been his friend, he
came over to England, in his old thoughtless, warm-hearted way, to
intercede with the King, and remind him of the solemn promise to pardon
all his follow