ous spirit of the
time. Some became Crusaders for the love of change; some, in the hope of
plunder; some, because they had nothing to do at home; some, because they
did what the priests told them; some, because they liked to see foreign
countries; some, because they were fond of knocking men about, and would
as soon knock a Turk about as a Christian. Robert of Normandy may have
been influenced by all these motives; and by a kind desire, besides, to
save the Christian Pilgrims from bad treatment in future. He wanted to
raise a number of armed men, and to go to the Crusade. He could not do
so without money. He had no money; and he sold his dominions to his
brother, the Red King, for five years. With the large sum he thus
obtained, he fitted out his Crusaders gallantly, and went away to
Jerusalem in martial state. The Red King, who made money out of
everything, stayed at home, busily squeezing more money out of Normans
and English.

After three years of great hardship and suffering--from shipwreck at sea;
from travel in strange lands; from hunger, thirst, and fever, upon the
burning sands of the desert; and from the fury of the Turks--the valiant
Crusaders got possession of Our Saviour's tomb. The Turks were still
resisting and fighting bravely, but this success increased the general
desire in Europe to join the Crusade. Another great French Duke was
proposing to sell his dominions for a term to the rich Red King, when the
Red King's reign came to a sudden and violent end.

You have not forgotten the New Forest which the Conqueror made, and which
the miserable people whose homes he had laid waste, so hated. The
cruelty of the Forest Laws, and the torture and death they brought upon
the peasantry, increased this hatred. The poor persecuted country people
believed that the New Forest was enchanted. They said that in thunder-
storms, and on dark nights, demons appeared, moving beneath the branches
of the gloomy trees. They said that a terrible spectre had foretold to
Norman hunters that the Red King should be punished there. And now, in
the pleasant season of May, when the Red King had reigned almost thirteen
years; and a second Prince of the Conqueror's blood--another Richard, the
son of Duke Robert--was killed by an arrow in this dreaded Forest; the
people said that the second time was not the last, and that there was
another death to come.

It was a lonely forest, accursed in the people's hearts for the wic