e made afterward to Denmark, Canute attacked
Norway, and, expelling the just but unwarlike Olaus, kept possession of
his kingdom till the death of that prince. He had now by his conquests
and valor attained the utmost height of grandeur: having leisure from
wars and intrigues, he felt the unsatisfactory nature of all human
enjoyments; and equally weary of the glories and turmoils of this life,
he began to cast his view toward that future existence, which it is so
natural for the human mind, whether satiated by prosperity or disgusted
with adversity, to make the object of its attention. Unfortunately, the
spirit which prevailed in that age gave a wrong direction to his
devotion: instead of making compensation to those whom he had injured by
his former acts of violence, he employed himself entirely in those
exercises of piety which the monks represented as the most meritorious.
He built churches, he endowed monasteries, he enriched the
ecclesiastics, and he bestowed revenues for the support of chantries at
Assington and other places, where he appointed prayers to be said for
the souls of those who had there fallen in battle against him. He even
undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, where he resided a considerable time:
besides obtaining from the pope some privileges for the English school
erected there, he engaged all the princes through whose dominions he was
obliged to pass to desist from those heavy impositions and tolls which
they were accustomed to exact from the English pilgrims. By this spirit
of devotion, no less than by his equitable and politic administration,
he gained, in a good measure, the affections of his subjects.

Canute, the greatest and most powerful monarch of his time, sovereign of
Denmark and Norway, as well as of England, could not fail of meeting
with adulation from his courtiers; a tribute which is liberally paid
even to the meanest and weakest princes. Some of his flatterers,
breaking out one day in admiration of his grandeur, exclaimed that
everything was possible for him; upon which the monarch, it is said,
ordered his chair to be set on the sea-shore while the tide was rising;
and as the waters approached, he commanded them to retire, and to obey
the voice of him who was lord of the ocean. He feigned to sit some time
in expectation of their submission; but when the sea still advanced
toward him, and began to wash him with its billows, he turned to his
courtiers, and remarked to them that every creat