hey had, in some way or other, been run upon the rocks and lost. There
was a certain astrologer, who had made a great parade, before the
expedition left Normandy, of predicting its result. He had found, by
consulting the stars, that William would be successful, and would meet
with no opposition from Harold. This astrologer had been on board one of
the missing ships, and was drowned. William remarked, on receiving this
information, "What an idiot a man must be, to think that he can predict,
by means of the stars, the future fate of others, when it is so plain
that he can not foresee his own!"

It is said that William's dinner on this occasion was served on a large
stone instead of a table. The stone still remains on the spot, and is
called "the Conqueror's Stone" to this day.

The next day after the landing, the army was put in motion, and advanced
along the coast toward the eastward. There was no armed enemy to contend
against them there or to oppose their march; the people of the country,
through which the army moved, far from attempting to resist them, were
filled with terror and dismay. This terror was heightened, in fact, by
some excesses of which some parties of the soldiers were guilty. The
inhabitants of the hamlets and villages, overwhelmed with consternation
at the sudden descent upon their shores of such a vast horde of wild and
desperate foreigners, fled in all directions. Some made their escape
into the interior; others, taking with them the helpless members of
their households, and such valuables as they could carry, sought refuge
in monasteries and churches, supposing that such sanctuaries as those,
not even soldiers, unless they were pagans, would dare to violate.
Others, still, attempted to conceal themselves in thickets and fens till
the vast throng which was sweeping onward like a tornado should have
passed. Though William afterward always evinced a decided disposition to
protect the peaceful inhabitants of the country from all aggressions on
the part of his troops, he had no time to attend to that subject now. He
was intent on pressing forward to a place of safety.

William reached at length a position which seemed to him suitable for a
permanent encampment. It was an elevated land, near the sea. To the
westward of it was a valley formed by a sort of recess opened in the
range of chalky cliffs which here form the shore of England. In the
bottom of this valley, down upon the beach, was a small town, t