lliam was disposed to make his bride, was
found, by the genealogists, who took great interest in those days in
tracing such connections, to have descended in a direct line from the
great English king, Alfred himself.

This relationship, by making Matilda's birth the more illustrious,
operated strongly in favor of the match, as a great part of the motive
which William had in view, in his intended marriage, was to aggrandize
and strengthen his own position, by the connection which he was about to
form. There was, however, another consanguinity in the case which had a
contrary tendency. Matilda's father had been connected with the Norman
as well as with the English line, and Matilda and William were in some
remote sense cousins. This circumstance led, in the sequel, as will
presently be seen, to serious difficulty and trouble.

Matilda was seven years younger than William. She was brought up
in her father's court, and famed far and wide for her beauty and
accomplishments. The accomplishments in which ladies of high rank sought
to distinguish themselves in those days were two, music and embroidery.
The embroidery of tapestry was the great attainment, and in this art the
young Matilda acquired great skill. The tapestry which was made in the
Middle Ages was used to hang against the walls of some of the more
ornamented rooms in royal palaces and castles, to hide the naked surface
of the stones of which the building was constructed. The cloths thus
suspended were at first plain, afterward they began to be ornamented
with embroidered borders or other decorations, and at length ladies
learned to employ their own leisure hours, and beguile the tedium of the
long confinement which many of them had to endure within their castles,
in embroidering various devices and designs on the hangings intended for
their own chambers, or to execute such work as presents for their
friends. Matilda's industry and skill in this kind of work were
celebrated far and wide.

The accomplishments which ladies take great pains to acquire in their
early years are sometimes, it is said, laid almost entirely aside after
their marriage; not necessarily because they are then less desirous to
please, but sometimes from the abundance of domestic duty, which allows
them little time, and sometimes from the pressure of their burdens of
care or sorrow, which leave them no heart for the occupations of
amusement or gayety. It seems not to have been so in Matilda's ca