part of France has been called Normandy; and the
descendants of these Northmen are living there to this day.

The pirate was made a duke; but his great grandson William of Normandy
wanted to become a king.

William's father had been a friend of King Edward of England, and when
he was a young man William came from Normandy to spend some weeks at
the Court of England. In after years William declared that during this
visit Edward had promised that he, and not Harold, should be the next
King of England.

If Edward really made this promise he must have known that he was
undertaking what he had no power to fulfil, for the English people had
the right of choosing their own king, and they did not wish to have a
proud Norman rule over them.

But William had made up his mind to be a king; and he was a man who
never let anything stand in the way of what he wanted.

One day Earl Harold went sailing in the English Channel, when a storm
arose and drove his vessel out of her course.

Night came down, thick and foggy, and the captain did not know where
they were. All remained on deck, keeping an anxious look-out; and in
the darkness the vessel suddenly struck.

Before them they could see some masses of rock; and the men had just
time to scramble out before the little ship filled with water and sank.

The unlucky pleasure-seekers found themselves clinging to a little
rocky islet which would scarcely afford them foothold; and all night
they remained there drenched with rain and spray.

At daybreak they were able to make out the coast of France, not very
far away from them. By the side of the reef lay their little vessel,
half in, half out of the water, with a large hole in her side. There
was nothing that they could do but wait until some one should see them
from the shore, and come off with a boat to rescue them.

In a little while Harold and his men saw a stir upon the coast. Men
were coming and going; looking towards the rock and then running to
fetch other men. After a while a party came down to the beach,
launched a boat and rowed towards the wreck.

How thankful were the hungry, shivering castaways to get into the boat
and be rowed ashore by these sturdy Norman-French fishermen!

They entered one of the cottages; and as they were warming themselves
before a blazing fire the door was suddenly burst open, and a man in a
shining coat of mail stood in the doorway. Behind him were grouped a
dozen or so of stout men