-Chateaux.--Peasantry.--Public
roads.--Rouen.--Its situation.--The port of Rouen.--Its name of Le Havre
de Grace.--Intermingling of races.--Superiority of the Norman stock.

One of those great events in English history, which occur at distant
intervals, and form, respectively, a sort of bound or landmark, to which
all other events, preceding or following them for centuries, are
referred, is what is called the Norman Conquest. The Norman Conquest
was, in fact, the accession of William, duke of Normandy, to the English
throne. This accession was not altogether a matter of military force,
for William claimed a _right_ to the throne, which, if not altogether
perfect, was, as he maintained, at any rate superior to that of the
prince against whom he contended. The rightfulness of his claim was,
however, a matter of little consequence, except so far as the moral
influence of it aided him in gaining possession. The right to rule was,
in those days, rather more openly and nakedly, though not much more
really, than it is now, the right of the strongest.

Normandy, William's native land, is a very rich and beautiful province
in the north of France. The following map shows its situation:

[Illustration: MAP OF ENGLAND AND PART OF FRANCE, SHOWING THE SITUATION
OF NORMANDY.]

It lies, as will be seen upon the map, on the coast of France, adjoining
the English Channel. The Channel is here irregular in form, but may be,
perhaps, on the average, one hundred miles wide. The line of coast on
the southern side of the Channel, which forms, of course, the northern
border of Normandy, is a range of cliffs, which are almost perpendicular
toward the sea, and which frown forbiddingly upon every ship that sails
along the shore. Here and there, it is true, a river opens a passage for
itself among these cliffs from the interior, and these river mouths
would form harbors into which ships might enter from the offing, were it
not that the northwestern winds prevail so generally, and drive such a
continual swell of rolling surges in upon the shore, that they choke up
all these estuary openings, as well as every natural indentation of the
land, with shoals and bars of sand and shingle. The reverse is the case
with the northern, or English shore of this famous channel. There the
harbors formed by the mouths of the rivers, or by the sinuosities of the
shore, are open and accessible, and at the same time sheltered from the
winds and the sea. Thus, whi