cessors, so as to provide for the very probable contingency of
their not living to return.

As soon, therefore, as Robert announced his plan of a pilgrimage, men's
minds were immediately turned to the question of the succession. Robert
had never been married, and he had consequently no son who was entitled
to succeed him. He had two brothers, and also a cousin, and some other
relatives, who had claims to the succession. These all began to maneuver
among the chieftains and nobles, each endeavoring to prepare the way for
having his own claims advanced, while Robert himself was secretly
determining that the little William should be his heir. He said nothing
about this, however, but he took care to magnify the importance of his
little son in every way, and to bring him as much as possible into
public notice. William, on his part, possessed so much personal beauty,
and so many juvenile accomplishments, that he became a great favorite
with all the nobles, and chieftains, and knights who saw him, sometimes
at his father's castle, and sometimes away from home, in their own
fortresses or towns, where his father took him, from time to time, in
his train.

At length, when affairs were ripe for their consummation, Duke Robert
called together a grand council of all the subordinate dukes, and earls,
and barons of his realm, to make known to them the plan of his
pilgrimage. They came together from all parts of Normandy, each in a
splendid cavalcade, and attended by an armed retinue of retainers. When
the assembly had been convened, and the preliminary forms and
ceremonies had been disposed of, Robert announced his grand design.

As soon as he had concluded, one of the nobles, whose name and title was
Guy, count of Burgundy, rose and addressed the duke in reply. He was
sorry, he said, to hear that the duke, his cousin, entertained such a
plan. He feared for the safety of the realm when the chief ruler should
be gone. All the estates of the realm, he said, the barons, the knights,
the chieftains and soldiers of every degree, would be all without a
head.

"Not so," said Robert: "I will leave you a master in my place." Then,
pointing to the beautiful boy by his side, he added, "I have a little
fellow here, who, though he is little now, I acknowledge, will grow
bigger by and by, with God's grace, and I have great hopes that he will
become a brave and gallant man. I present him to you, and from this time
forth I give him _seizin_[C] of