which was to have a
platform erected in the marshes surrounding the island; the hag was to
repeat thrice her charm, when he and his followers would be destroyed.
Accordingly, when the platform was erected and the besiegers drew as
near as they could, expectantly awaiting Hereward's destruction, he
and his companions, under the cover of the brush, crept close to the
platform and, taking advantage of the favorable direction of the wind,
set fire to the reeds. The witch, who was about to repeat her charm
for the third time, leaped from the platform in terror, and was
killed, while in the panic many of the soldiers lost their lives
by fire or by water. The scene here depicted bears a remarkable
similarity to the weird rites of the ancient British Druidesses, and
doubtless represents a continuance of the mysteries of that order,
which came down in forms of magic and witchcraft through many
centuries.

This glimpse of the witchcraft that was to become more prominent, or
at least with which we become more familiar at a later period, will
suffice to show that the plane of general intelligence was not yet
high. Education was limited to subjects that have no special interest
for us to-day. Such as it was, it was accessible to the lower classes
as well as to the upper. There were schools connected with the
churches and the monasteries. Apparently, there was no distinction
in the subjects pursued by the sexes, excepting in the case of the
nobility, whose sons were trained for the positions they were to
occupy. It would appear that some priests were so zealous for the
prosperity of their schools that they sought to entice scholars from
other schools to their own. A law to correct the practice provided
"that no priest receive another's scholar without leave of him whom he
had previously followed." Latin was in the list of the studies pursued
by the ladies, but few could read in the vernacular.

At that day there was the same tendency that is familiar to-day,--to
cast alleged feminine inconsistencies into the form of adages. One
of these proverbs is found in the instructions of a baron who was
counselling his son on his going out from the paternal roof: "If
you should know anything that you would wish to conceal," says this
generalizer from a personal experience, "tell it by no means to your
wife, if you have one; for if you let her know it, you will repent of
it the first time you displease her."

The amusements that were popular