treated him ever
after with entire confidence and regard.

{1028.} In another voyage, which he made afterwards 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 towards 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 every thing
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 towards
him, and