s of William the Conqueror. So began the reign of KING
HENRY THE FIRST.

The people were attached to their new King, both because he had known
distresses, and because he was an Englishman by birth and not a Norman.
To strengthen this last hold upon them, the King wished to marry an
English lady; and could think of no other wife than MAUD THE GOOD, the
daughter of the King of Scotland. Although this good Princess did not
love the King, she was so affected by the representations the nobles made
to her of the great charity it would be in her to unite the Norman and
Saxon races, and prevent hatred and bloodshed between them for the
future, that she consented to become his wife. After some disputing
among the priests, who said that as she had been in a convent in her
youth, and had worn the veil of a nun, she could not lawfully be
married--against which the Princess stated that her aunt, with whom she
had lived in her youth, had indeed sometimes thrown a piece of black
stuff over her, but for no other reason than because the nun's veil was
the only dress the conquering Normans respected in girl or woman, and not
because she had taken the vows of a nun, which she never had--she was
declared free to marry, and was made King Henry's Queen. A good Queen
she was; beautiful, kind-hearted, and worthy of a better husband than the
King.

For he was a cunning and unscrupulous man, though firm and clever. He
cared very little for his word, and took any means to gain his ends. All
this is shown in his treatment of his brother Robert--Robert, who had
suffered him to be refreshed with water, and who had sent him the wine
from his own table, when he was shut up, with the crows flying below him,
parched with thirst, in the castle on the top of St. Michael's Mount,
where his Red brother would have let him die.

Before the King began to deal with Robert, he removed and disgraced all
the favourites of the late King; who were for the most part base
characters, much detested by the people. Flambard, or Firebrand, whom
the late King had made Bishop of Durham, of all things in the world,
Henry imprisoned in the Tower; but Firebrand was a great joker and a
jolly companion, and made himself so popular with his guards that they
pretended to know nothing about a long rope that was sent into his prison
at the bottom of a deep flagon of wine. The guards took the wine, and
Firebrand took the rope; with which, when they were fast asleep, he let