ge.--An
ambuscade.--William's bravery.--William's victory.--Applause of the
French army.--William firmly seated on his throne.--His new projects.

From the time of William's obtaining quiet possession of his realm to
his invasion of England, a long period intervened. There was a lapse of
more than twenty years. During this long interval, William governed his
duchy, suppressed insurrections, built castles and towns, carried on
wars, regulated civil institutions, and, in fact, exercised, in a very
energetic and successful manner, all the functions of government--his
life being diversified all the time by the usual incidents which mark
the career of a great military ruler of an independent realm in the
Middle Ages. We will give in this chapter a description of some of these
incidents.

On one occasion a conspiracy was formed to take his life by secret
assassination. A great chieftain, named Guy of Burgundy, William's
uncle, was the leader of it, and a half-witted man, named Galet, who
occupied the place of jester or fool in William's court, was the means
of discovering and exposing it. These jesters, of whom there was always
one or more in the retinue of every great prince in those days, were
either very eccentric or very foolish, or half-insane men, who were
dressed fantastically, in gaudy colors and with cap and bells, and were
kept to make amusement for the court. The name of William's jester was
Galet.

Guy of Burgundy and his fellow-conspirators occupied certain gloomy
castles, built in remote and lonely situations on the confines of
Normandy. Here they were accustomed to assemble for the purpose
of concocting their plans, and gathering their men and their
resources--doing every thing in the most cunning and secret manner.
Before their scheme was fully ripe for execution, it happened that
William made a hunting excursion into the neighborhood of their
territory with a small band of followers--such as would be naturally got
together on such a party of pleasure. Galet, the fool, was among them.

As soon as Guy and his fellow-conspirators learned that William was so
near, they determined to precipitate the execution of their plan, and
waylay and assassinate him on his return.

They accordingly left their secret and lonely rendezvous among the
mountains one by one, in order to avoid attracting observation, and
went to a town called Bayeux, through which they supposed that William
would have to pass on his return.